Council meets Peace, NAM on contract row
Malawi National Council of Sports says it has met embattled Malawi Queens coach Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) officials in a bid to get to the bottom of their contractual differences.
In an interview yesterday, Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said a special committee set up to look into the issue first met NAM president Abigail Shariff and general secretary (GS) Isaac Chimwala before meeting the coach.
He said: “This is a fact-finding mission and after the process, the committee will make recommendations on the way forward.”
Chawinga-Kaluwa’s lawyer David Kanyenda confirmed in an interview yesterday that his client appeared before the committee on Saturday.
On what transpired, he said: “I wouldn’t really know because I did not attend the meeting.
“When I walked into the meeting room my client and the two councillors who were present, Susan Namangale and Chigomezgo Gondwe, asked me to leave, saying the meeting was an internal interface and they were not ready to welcome third parties.
“I decided to comply with their request to avoid prejudicing the interests of my client. We will know the outcome after the fact-finding mission.
“But they told me they had already met the [NAM] president and GS a few days earlier and they were scheduled to meet the former vice-president Chimwemwe Bakali.”
Sports Council’s intervention followed NAM’s announcement last week that it had fired Chawinga-Kaluwa and that they would advertise the job. On the other hand, the Queens’ legend claims she has a running contact which expires in 2025.
NAM proceeded to release the Queens’ squad which the association’s technical director (TD) Sam Kanyenda called to start camping yesterday in Lilongwe to step up preparations for the 2023 Netball World Cup which throws off next month in Cape Town, South Africa.
Last week, Kanyenda described SAports Council’s move as a welcome development while Chimwala claimed they were yet to get the official call from the Council.
Kanyenda said they were about to take NAM to court over Chawinga-Kaluwa’s contractual issue, but they believed the intervention will help to sort out the matter.
