By GWEN CHIPASULA –

THE Handball Association of Zambia (HAZ) is racing against time to raise K315,000 needed to host the Congo Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games (AAG) qualifiers in April.
Failure by Zambia to host the AAG qualifiers will attract a fine of € 40,000 (about K320,000) from the Confederation of African Handball (CAHB).
With five countries having already confirmed their participation for the April qualifiers, HAZ communications manager Josab Changa said the association has no choice but to scout for K315, 000 to stage the qualifiers after the CAHB refused to defer the dates.
Changa said HAZ had requested for a change of dates for the AAG qualifiers to enable the association more time to scout for money but that the request was turned down by the continental body.
“We tried to ask for a month extension but unfortunately the continental body refused because it has a calendar of events already fixed and as a result cannot reschedule this event because other programmes would suffer,” he said.
Zambia will compete for two qualifying slots against South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland in the men and women categories respectively.
So far South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola and Malawi are among the five countries that have confirmed participation out of eight members while confirmation from Lesotho and Swaziland is still been awaited.
Changa remained hopeful that HAZ will meet the budget and called on the corporate world to come on board and help stage the qualifiers.
He said efforts to solicit for sponsorship from the Ministry of Sports failed to materialise. Changa said the Ministry of Sport only promised to help with transport leaving HAZ in a dilemma.