Minister outlines meeting agenda

Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Henry Mussa has outlined key issues he will raise when he meets sports associations and institutions later this week.

“The actual date has not been finalised yet, but it definitely should be later in the week.

“It will be more of an interactive session because I would like to appreciate their challenges, but some of the key issues I will tackle shall include poor incentives for our players/athletes, lack of planning, inadequate funding, lack of creative minds and conflicts with government,” he said.

He also said suspension from participating in international competitions in some of the disciplines will also feature highly.

“Short of it; we need a complete overhaul of the entire sporting constituency, even suspending our participation in international competitions for two to three years to allow us time to do soul-searching on how best to be winners than perpetual losers which has been the case and shame to the nation for so many years,” said the minister.

On his part, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu said they will take advantage of the meeting to discuss grassroots football and infrastructure development, in particular Kamuzu Stadium, which faces closure.

This follows the minister’s recent statement that the facility needs to be shut down as it is in dilapidated state and poses danger to the lives of people.

“Resource mobilisation and commercialisation, for example, e-ticketing, will also be tackled. The vacant position of national coach on whether to go for an expatriate or local, will also be tabled,” he said.

Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) president Godfrey Phiri and his Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) counterpart Rosy Chinunda said they will raise the issue of inadequate funding.

Said Phiri: “We will ask the minister to lobby for more funding for sports because that is the main reason we are struggling in international competitions.

“We will also lobby for hiring of permanent national coaches, especially in other key disciplines such as athletics, netball and boxing so that they can be tasked with talent identification and development and that district sports officers should fall under Malawi National Council of Sports [MNCS],” he said. n