The Malawi National Council of Sports has postponed the Athletics Malawi (AM) elective assembly scheduled for tomorrow at Sunbird Livingstonia in Salima.

Sports Council board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise said in a statement that the development follows advice from Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire after a communication the ministry received from World Athletics.

“The council convened an emergency meeting this evening [Wednesday] and has, on the advice of the minister, postponed the elections sine die. Council sincerely regrets any inconvenience caused by this postponement,” he stated.

The World Athletics sought government’s intervention in a rift between the AM leadership and Sports Council through a letter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports Principal Secretary Isaac Katopola.

Kalembera: The
review was done

The world athletics governing body also told the ministry that any elective general assembly organised by the caretaker committee, which was appointed by the Sports Council will not be recognised.

The embattled AM president Godfrey Phiri yesterday said they were grateful to the minister for  the call to postpone the elections as this will help a lot in “coming up with a proper way of sorting our problems within the athletics family”.

He said: “No one can sort out athletics issues apart from the athletics family itself. We know ourselves where the problem is and soon we will be meeting as a family. What we don’t want is the creation of camps. We will ask the Sports Council to fund us and we will give them a report from our meeting. God will help us resolve these issues.”

Before the latest development, all was set for the polls with Kondwani Chamwala expected to assume the presidential seat unopposed after estranged AM general secretary Frank Chitembeya withdrew his candidature following the World Athletics’ stand.

Sports Council dissolved the AM exco about seven months ago for failure to conclusively finalise amendments to the constitution and hold elections within schedule. The Council also appointed a care-taker committee led by Justice of Appeal Sylvester Kalembera to oversee the amendment and election process.

Meanwhile, the caretaker committee chairpeson, Justice of Appeal Sylvester Kalembera, resigned yesterday.

In a press statement released yesterday, Sports Council said: “He is tendering his resignation as chairperson of the committee that was set up to oversee the formulation of new constitution for the Athletics Malawi as well as oversee the election of new office holders. At the time of his resignation, the committee was finalising its task.”

Kalembera in an interview, confirmed resigning, but declined to state his reasons.

“It’s true that I have resigned. The resignation is reason enough.. The constitution review was done. We were on the right track,” he said.n—Additional reporting Patrick Lunda

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