I WOULD like to join the sports fraternity in welcoming Vincent Mwale to the Ministry of Sports, taking over from Chishimba Kambwili following the ‘tactical’ changes made by President Edgar Lungu yesterday.
The tactical change, if I may call the appointment that, brings into the ministry a vibrant youthful minister whom I have confidence will be up to the task of taking sports to a higher level.
Job well done to Kambwili, a pragmatic man, who I feel he did his best to ensure that sports associations got a ‘fair’ share of the national cake and excelled at international stage.
Kambwili made sure money was sourced for athletes to compete at various competitions as well as hosting various tournaments and he also had a way of motivating athletes, at times using his personal money.
But it was not smooth-sailing as some associations have been left still embroiled in wrangles at the expense of development of sports while others have continued to excel setting good precedence.
However, Mwale is no stranger to sports for he is an ardent sportsman who has been taking keen interest in the development of sports as evidenced by the way he used to grill officials from the Ministry of Sport when they appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a committee he chaired.
Many would remember how he quizzed the officials from the Ministry of Sports and Works and Supply over expenditure used during the hosting of the Zone Six Youth Games in 2012.
It is expected that he will take his action orientated approach to the ministry in a bid to help uplift the standards of sports in the country.
Soccer fans will be eager to see how he handles the issue of the appointment of the new Chipolopolo coach especially that Honour Janza has been working without a contract.
With Government being the ones who pay the salary for the coach, it will be interesting to see what stand Mwale will take on this issue but as he said after his swearing-in ceremony yesterday, he hopes to work with an open door policy.
Of course we have associations that are doing well and those that have opted to be embroiled in wrangles at the expense of sports development-and it is hoped these matters will be put to rest.
Among the trouble makers are the Zambia Martial Arts Federation (ZaMAF), National Paralympics Committee and not forgetting the Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) whose case is in court.
It is said sports has the power to unite the nation but let responsible people with the heart of the sport be entrusted to run these associations.
Lastly, let me end with an email I received concerning last week’s column titled ‘referees training vital’.
The author, who happens to be a referee, opted to remain anonymous and he writes: “Nice column on the referees but I feel you just touched on the surface and did not cover a lot of issues affecting us the referees.
What former Referees Association of Zambia (RAZ) president Welly Chikuka said was right and I am sure he said that because he has seen how the refereeing standards have dropped.
It is sad that the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has failed to uplift the welfare of us referees since they disbanded RAZ and placed us under referee manager Katongo Kabungo.
Imagine, FAZ failed to hold examinations for beginners because there was no money, meaning there is a vacuum been created.
And also some referees have been upgraded while others have remained at the same level-and you wonder what mechanism is used to promote some referees while some of us remain stagnant.
Let me suggest that money FAZ awards referee of year at the awards ceremony be channelled to helping some of the challenges we meet in our course of duty. There is a lot of wrongs going on which I cannot put at once in this email but hope our plea will be heard.”
Thanks for the email and wishing you all a wonderful sporting weekend, continue writing to eliaschipepo@gmail.com