Despite Parliament allocating K1.5 billion in the 2026-2027 National Budget for the Griffin Saenda Indoor Sports Complex in Lilongwe, works have still stalled due to a huge debt owed to the contractor.
Weekend Nation this week established that there was no activity and the facility wore a dilapidated face.
Since hosting the Africa Netball Championship last year, the sports complex has been lying idle with no activity after the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture said works would continue.
Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture spokesperson MacMillan Mwale confirmed that the works at the facility had stalled once again.
He said: “Indeed Parliament allocated K1.5 billion in the 2026/2027 budget National Budget, it is now enough not enough as we owe the contractor about K4.6 billion on work already done.
“Currently, we are waiting for more funding to pay the arrears and also finish the remaining works.”
Efforts to get a comment from Treasury on the matter proved futile.
The initial cost of the project grew from K7.7 billion to K15.7 billion due to inflation and changes in the scope of work.
In an earlier interview, Limbani Matola, who was the chairperson of the local organising committee of the 2025 Africa Netball Cup appealed to government to continue hosting games at the facility.
“Though the competition has ended my appeal to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture Culture is to keep the facility open and host both domestic and international games. In that way, government will be able to earn revenue and help maintenance. But keeping it closed would lead to the complex getting into ruins,” he said.
But Mwale’s response then was that the facility has not yet been handed over to government and remains a construction site as such it cannot be operational until work is completed.
In an interview, Bravehearts Basketball Club said completion of the complex would help them host international games and reduce expenses incurred hiring private facilities.
The club’s owner Griffin Kalua said: “Last time we wanted to host the Africa Club Championship, we wrote the Basketball Association of Malawi and a team from Fiba came to inspect facilities in the country.
“They inspected African Bible College [ABC] Gym, it did not qualify. Then they went to Griffin Saenda Sports Complex in its current state, they were impressed. They said if the facility is completed it can host even the Basketball Africa League finals.”
Bravehearts Basketball Club hosts international tournaments annually and they either hire ABC Gym or travel to Botswana to host major regional competitions.
“At ABC they charge us K500 000. We believe the completion of Griffin Saenda Complex would also help us cut on expenses. It could also be a source of revenue.”
