Peace sues NAM over Queens’ job
Immediate-past Malawi Queens coach Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa has taken the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) to the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) over her recent removal as the Malawi National Netball Team coach.
NAM fired Chawinga-Kaluwa barely a month before the Netball World Cup and appointed the association’s technical director Samuel Kanyenda as a stand-in coach.
But in a statement of claim dated July 14 2023 made through her lawyers Makiyi, Kanyenda and Associates, the coach wants the IRC to declare that NAM unlawfully terminated her contract, constructively dismissed her and discriminated against her.
She also feels the association is liable to defamation and procedural and substantive unfairness.
The matter has been registered as IRC case number 666/2023.
The statement reads in part: “The applicant [Chawinga-Kaluwa] through her legal practitioners lodged a formal complaint and grievances about her unlawful treatment.
“However, the complaints were not addressed and were not taken seriously in so much as the respondent [NAM] refused to reinstate the applicant and instead engaged Samuel Kanyenda to perform the duties of the applicant.
“The unreasonable and unconscionable conduct amounts to constructive dismissal under Section 60 of the Employment Act.”
The statement also claims that Chawinga-Kaluwa decided to seek the court’s intervention because the Malawi National Council of Sports is dilly-dallying to address the situation after it recently called NAM and Chawinga-Kaluwa to a roundtable discussion on the matter.
“The respondent dismissed the applicant without any notice either in writing or verbally. After being called by the council, we were assured to be called back for the solutions but over 30 days have passed without hearing from them,” it further reads.
However, Sports Council executive secretary Shephord Boma said their intervention was not specifically meant to resolve the matter, “but iron out a number of issues relating to netball”.
He said: “As Sports Council, we do not employ Queens coach, but NAM. Therefore, if Chawinga-Kaluwa has issues with NAM, they have to agree on how to resolve their differences.”
NAM general secretary Isaac Chimwala could not be reached for comment yesterday.
