Newly appointed Youth and Sports Minister Enock Chakufwa Chihana says team work will be his guiding principle in sports development and dismissed talk that he is a stranger to the game.
“There is nothing that one man can achieve, so I believe in team-work. I will just be a member of a big team. I will look at the challenges in sports and see how we can address them as a team. I am available for sports 24 hours,” the Alliance for Democracy (Aford) president said Friday.
The Rumphi Central legislator, who was among surprise appointees in President Joyce Banda’s first ‘inclusive’ Cabinet announced on Thursday, admitted that he has a soft spot for football.
“I will emphasise on sports academies so that we can tap talent from there. There is need for resources on talent identification,” he said.
The son to the late freedom fighter Tom Chakufwa Chihana, replaces Symon Vuwa-Kaunda.
Until his appointment, the new Sports Minister, who is a Barcelona fan, had no name in the domestic sports circles.
“I have basic knowledge of sports, especially football. I played football at St John Bosco [Secondary School] and we reached the final of the Northern Region Cup. I was a good number 2, an overlapping defender, but I lacked focus in sports,” he insisted.
He enters sports at a time when there is an acute shortage of sports facilities, shrinking club and cup sponsorship and lamentable youth sports structures.
Ensuring decent funding to crowd-pullers such as the Flames and the Malawi Queens could be surely one of his biggest challenges.
