While everything appears rosy in Nyasa Big Bullets FC camp, behind the scenes there are leadership wrangles which some quarters fear could affect the K500 million (about $763 345) partnership deal with Nyasa Manufacturing Company (NMC).
The Nation has established that there is a fallout within the club’s executive committee with one camp loyal to chairperson Samuel Chilunga and the other to first vice-chairperson Sadiki Malinga.
The club’s second vice-chairperson Austin Kasito—who claims to be neutral— and main supporters committee chairperson Stone Mwamadi confirmed on Tuesday that the executive committee is not pulling in the same direction.
Said Kasito: “There are indeed two camps within the executive and they work separately. For instance, the chairperson prefers working with the vice-general secretary [Kelvin Moyo] while general secretary Titha Mandiza is loyal to Malinga.
“It is no secret that the working relationship is not good as some decisions are made without involving some members of the executive.
“Of course, operations of the team are being carried out, but there is a problem of communication and lack of team work. It is not a healthy situation at all.”
He said the genesis of the fallout could be the manner in which others came into the executive committee.
“You may recall that some were elected while others were appointed by the supporters and I assume this could be the cause of all this.”
He also said the only possible solution to the fallout will be for the sponsors to dictate the setup at Bullets.
“The way I see it, the problem cannot be sorted out within the executive. The only way forward is to take it up with the sponsors,” said Kasito.
On his part, Mwamadi blamed Malinga and Mandiza for the situation.
“There are indeed divisions in the executive committee, but I blame Malinga and the GS [Mandiza] for all this because they do not want to work with others,” said Mwamadi.
He, however, said efforts are being made to call for a meeting in an attempt to bring the two factions together because this could affect the hard-earned sponsorship.
“We need to pull in the same direction if we are to win the sponsor’s confidence and trust.”
However, Bullets board of trustees chairperson James Busile claimed that the differences that were there between the chairperson and his first vice were sorted out.
“Unless you are telling me that there is a fresh fallout, otherwise we called the two gentlemen and their differences were ironed out,” he said.
Chilunga and Moyo refused to comment on the matter yesterday while Malinga said he would comment on the issue today. Mandiza could not be reached yesterday.
An inside source confided in The Nation that there are also plans to remove Chilunga within the Bullets camp on the basis that he was not elected.
“But the challenge is that Chilunga negotiated for the sponsorship with Nyasa and there is fear that kicking him out unceremoniously would affect the deal,” said the source. n
