Council tears into athletics body
Malawi National Council of Sports board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise says he is surprised that the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) executive committee is still clingng to power when its mandate expired last year.
He was reacting to AAM’s stand that it will not abide by Sports Council’s decision to dissolve its executive committee and usher in a caretaker committee for its failure to finalise amendments to the constitution and hold elections.
Said Madise: “Their stand is baffling. One wonders where they are getting their mandate because it expired last year and they were still in office because of us.
“This is not a dynasty, so we expect them to comply with the order and pave the way for the caretaker committee.
“In any case, they can still contest and be re-elected if they still have the confidence of the affiliates. In as far as we are concerned, a decision was made and that’s how we’ll proceed.”
Part of the statement from the council signed by Madise earlier in the week, reads: “The mandate of the executive committee expired last year, but council gave them [AAM] a three-month extension period to finalise processes for the amendment of the constitution and the holding of elections.
“This development has led the association to have rival camps, thereby rendering the association dysfunctional which is detrimental to the sport, the athlete, sports in general and to the nation.”
In the face of the dissolution, Sports Council has appointed a five-member caretaker committee to be led by Supreme Court of Appeal judge Sylvester Kalembera.
The other members are Oscar Kanjala, Thokozile Kuwali, Chifundo Tenthani and King Rudi.
Reads the statement further: “The caretaker committee will oversee the finalisation of the processes that have remained uncompleted, including elections for the new committee.
However, this did not go down well with the current AAM executive committee, which through its general secretary Frank Chitembeya, said they would not comply with the order.
He said: “We are buying none of that and we are ready to tussle with them even if it means going to court because if anything, it is them [council] who have delayed the process.
“We gave them our roadmap, including the proposed date for the elections which is December 17 and they never responded because they had their own interests.” The association was initially supposed to hold elections last November, but they were postponed after Sports Council demanded that they should only conduct the polls after amending their constitution as demanded by their affiliates
