‘Government ignorant of queens woes’

In a twist of events, Ministry of Labour, Sports, Youth and Manpower Development says it is not aware that the Malawi national netball team is on the verge of pulling out of the Fast5 World Netball Series to be held in Australia due to insufficient funding.

With just one week-day before the team’s expected departure for Australia, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) still has K18 million deficit on the K35 million budget, but director of sports in the ministry, Jameson Ndalama, has blamed Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) for not alerting it on the problem.

Ironically, the Queens have received support from Airtel Malawi (K14.4 million), Illovo Sugar Company (K2 million), Unicaf (K700 000) and Old Mutual (K500 000).

NAM officials have for the past month pleaded with well-wishers and government for financial support.

NAM was allocated K35 million in the 2016/2017 National Budget which they already exhausted at the Africa Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers in Gaborone, Botswana and MNCS executive secretary George Jana said government stopped entertaining extra budgets.

But when we tried to find out why sports minister Henry Mussa is going back on his recent promise that he would ensure national teams get funding for international competitions,  Ndalama yesterday expressed ignorance on the K18 million deficit.

“Let me consult the council [MNCS] first because it is them that can declare that there is a problem we need to solve. We will take it from there to see the way forward,” Ndalama said.

When we went back to enquire from Jana on the recent development, he said he was in a meeting with NAM officials.

“We are still in discussions,” he said.

When asked when the discussions would be concluded, Jana simply said: “I will let you know.”.

But NAM president Rosy Chinunda yesterday said the Queens’ trip will be on with or without government support.

She said: “Fast5 organisers have already provided them with return air-tickets, accommodation and food. Nevertheless, the problem is that the players will go to Australia and return without buying little things of their choice because the deficit will impact their game bonuses, training allowances and paraphernalia.”

Yesterday, the Queens  were taking on men’s netball team Akabawi at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) as a way of tuning up.

Coach Griffin Saenda  will name the final 10-player squad today. n