Nomads yet to offer him job
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has fired its technical development officer (TDO) Charles Manda for insubordination and abscondment.
FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda confirmed the move yesterday, saying the decision to fire Manda was reached after going through the necessary process.
“Mr. Manda was relieved of his duties for abscondment and gross insubordination and we gave him the letter to that effect, almost two weeks ago.
“He went on leave without approval and even when he was given three days to explain his position by the (FAM) executive committee, he did not respond and went on to coach [Mighty] Wanderers. We were left with no choice but to terminate his services,” said Nyirenda.
He said despite Manda’s claims that he applied for leave of absence, the leave was not approved by both his immediate boss—technical director (TD) John Kaputa and Nyirenda himself.
“Elsewhere, the first to decide on leave application is supposed to be the immediate boss before it is approved by other authorities because there are a number of administrative and technical issues that are considered. In his case, it did not happen. Actually, the TD expressed ignorance on the issue,” said Nyirenda
He said in the absence of a TDO, the technical director John Kaputa has been covering all technical development areas.
“His absence is being greatly felt as the TD is now forced to cover all developmental areas, including grass roots football. His [Manda’s] departure is a loss because he is one of the few qualified instructors, but then we had no choice as it seemed his heart was more on coaching.
“In the meantime, our liaison officer, James Sangala, will be acting in that [TDO] role as his tasks also include the area of development programmes until the executive committee meets to map the way forward later this month,” he said.
Manda, who is assistant coach for Mighty Wanderers on temporary basis, could not be reached for comment whereas Wanderers team manager Kannock Munde said Manda has not been reporting for duties for the past couple of days.
“I have also been trying to get hold of him. Unfortunately, we cannot get him on the [phone] numbers that he gave us. I only learnt from the head coach, Gerald Phiri, that he communicated with him that he was not feeling well,” said Munde.
However, last month, Manda told The Nation that he had applied for a month’s leave to assist Wanderers. He then admitted that the TD did not see his leave application because he was away and, instead, it was approved by referees technical development officer Maxwell Mtonga.
Mtonga said signed the leave forms because the TD was not readily available.
“I did not have the authority to approve, I signed on the assumption that Charles [Manda] had already communicated with the TD about the leave application,” he said.
Nomads general secretary Mike Butao on Wednesday said while he was not aware of Manda’s dismissal, they would sit down as an executive committee to see if we can offer Manda a contract.
