council jolts sleepy affiliates
Malawi National Council of Sports says it is concerned with the growing number of dormant associations and is engaging them to appreciate their challenges.
Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa, in an interview on Thursday, said there are about eight inactive associations registered with the sports governing body.
He also said out of its 31 registered affiliates “very few have strategic plans and a number of them do not hold annual general meetings [AGMs]”.
The inactive associations include angling, bowling, canoeing, korfball, kendo, parachute, wrestling and wushu.
Said Ntulumbwa: “There are also others such as triathlon and squash which are on and off. Now our concern is that athletes that fall under these disciplines are being denied an opportunity to participate in their respective codes.
“They might be deemed as minority sports, but there are athletes out there that have passion for these codes.
“Some of them have been inactive for over five years and when we engage them, they give us an assurance that they are on a revival drive when there is very little happening.”
He said they cannot intervene directly as that would be viewed as government interference.
“So, we are doing it in a way that we are helping them by appreciating their challenges so that we see how we can help,” said Ntulumbwa.
On strategic plans, he said less than 10, including Football Association of Malawi, Malawi Cricket Union, Chess Association of Malawi, Volleyball Association of Malawi and Basketball Association of Malawi, have blueprints.
Ntulumbwa also said there are some associations that do not hold AGMs or take time to hold the general assemblies, citing Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi, Malawi Boxing Association (Maba) and Netball Association of Malawi.
He said: “That is why we want them to follow the guidelines that we introduced, complete with conditions for funding.
“They need to submit plans and technical and financial reports so that we can track their activities.”
Canoeing Association of Malawi president Patterson Majonanga and Bowling Association of Malawi confirmed in separate interviews yesterday not being active.
Majonanga attributed their inactivity to lack of resources.
He said: “Our biggest challenge has been resource mobilisation. Of course,we a national championship in 2022 or 2023 which was funded by MOC [Malawi Olympic Committee] and individuals like myself.
“We also lack equipment boats and kayaks as the ones we have are not in good condition, having been acquired in 2012 and most of them are down. Our administrators and coaches also lack training.
“We have also not been successful in sourcing assistance from international bodies. Otherwise, we intend to reach out to potential sponsors and develop the sport through schools.”
On his part, Bowling Association committee member Laurie Arthur said: “We were indeed quiet, but we now have a new committee in place headed by Bashir Shariff which is trying to get things going.
“The bowling alley at Blantyre Sports Club is also renovated and soon we should be up and running.”
Maba general secretary Daud Shaibu confirmed that they have not held AGMs lately due to lack of resources.
He said: “Funding is our biggest challenge because the allocation we get from Sports Council is only enough for just one activity and if we use it for AGM that means we cannot hold competitions.
“When we ask affiliates to use own resourses, they say they cannot afford, but whatever the case, we will ensure that we hold an elective AGM this year.”
Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi general secretary Regina Dembo had not responded to our questionnaire on the issue of AGM by press time at 4pm yesterday.
