Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire has intervened in the protracted wrangle between Malawi National Counci l of Sports and Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) leadership to avert a potential ban from the World Athletics.

For months, the two bodies have been at loggerheads following Sports Council’s move to dissolve the athletics body last year for fai l ing t o conclusively finalise amendments to the constitution and hold elections.

Mkandawire: We can’t go on like this

Last week, Sports Council banned the association’s president Godfrey Phiri and secretary general Frank Chitembeya from taking part in any athletics activities.

In an interview on Thursday, the newly-appointed minister said: “We can’t go on like this. I am scheduled to meet Sports Council in the coming days and I am sure we will find an amicable solution to the matter.”

In an interview, Phiri said they were ready for dialogue and made efforts to resolve the issue amicably by requesting for a meeting with Sports Council, “but they remained defiant”.

He said: “We wrote them a letter, but they did not want to do anything with us. So, who has a problem here?”

The letter, dated January 17 2022, reads in part: “We have noted that the continued and prolonged wrangles regarding the governance issues of the Athletics Association of Malawi are due to lack of contact and dialogue.

“This impasse is affecting the preparations and execution of both local and international competitions. It is also adversely affecting athletes at grass roots level.

“In this regard, we request to hold a meeting with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Sports Council board and the Malawi Olympic Committee with a view to engage and streamline the unresolved issues and come up with a practical solution for the good of the sport.

“To this end, we propose that all plans by Sports Council and AAM regarding the issues highlighted, be suspended to accommodate an engagement forum.”

Phiri said it was after Sports Council snubbed their request that they went ahead to hold an annual general meeting in Lilongwe where an amended constitution was adopted.

He said:“And immediately after the meeting, Sports Council banned the GS and myself.

“For the record, AAM was not founded by a department of government or a branch of government, but an American Peace Corps volunteer Harold Salmon in 1968. It is him who registered the association and athletes to the International Athletics Federation known today as World Athletics.

“This means it is only World Athletics that has power over all national federations to ban a country and we risk being banned for government interference.”

In contrast Sports Council has taken an unyielding stand, brushing off the possibility of having a dialogue with the AAM leadership, saying the sports governing body does not negotiate with individuals.

Said council’s spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa in an interview on Thursday: “Sports Council does not deal with committees which do not have the mandate to run sports affairs in the country.

“We only deal with committees which have the mandate. We do not deal with individuals, we deal with associations through executive members.”

Following the dissolution of AAM executive committee about five months ago, Sports Council appointed a caretaker committee chaired by Sylvester Kalembera, a justice of appeal.

Sports Council was established by an Act of Parliament, Act No 10, of 1974, to provide oversight to the development of all sporting disciplines in Malawi.

The mandate of council Act has, however, extended and specified the mandate of the sporting body corporate, among others on matters of women and sport, professional sport, sport for people with disabilities, recreational sport as well as anti-doping within the sport.

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