Judge Mwaungulu made AAM honorary life president

Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) has made Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal judge Dunstan Mwaungulu their honorary life president.

During a ceremony at the Sports Council in Blantyre on Saturday, AAM president Godfrey Phiri said the decision has been made following the major role Mwaungulu played in transforming the structures of the sport when he was president in the early 2000s.

Among other achievements, Mwaungulu is credited with the setting up of AAM’s physical address, employment of a permanent office secretary to run day-to-day affairs of the body and the opening of doors for athletics to the corporate world in terms of sponsorship for contests such as the Ching’ombe Championships and the now defunct Nico Marathon.

“The good things he did to athletics convincingly left our executive with no choice but to honour the judge in accordance with article 11, sub-section 11 of the AAM constitution, which allows us to co-opt and or appoint him as honorary life president,” Phiri said.

The president, who was accompanied by AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya and acting treasurer Ireen Luka at the ceremony, said the appointment is with effect from June 1 2015.

When asked what role Mwaungulu will be playing in the body, Phiri said: “He will be more of an adviser as is the case with a board chairperson of a company while I will be acting as a chief executive officer.”

On his part, the learned judge said it is a great honour to be given such a responsibility and he said he will try his best to help athletics grow in the country.

“However, my coming into the sport will require us to work together as a team. We need to sit down and organise prearranged plans and budget and attract more youths into the sports. We will also sit down with the corporate world to enlighten them on the benefits of supporting athletics,” Mwaungulu said.