As part of promoting sports activities in his constituency, Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje Central Constituency Kondwani Nankhumwa who is also Leader of Opposition in the Malawi National Assembly on Saturday launched the K10 Million Primary Schools Football and Netball trophy.
The launch took place at Chisitu Primary School Ground in Mulanje.
Speaking at the event, Nankhumwa said he is a leader who believes in promoting sports activities at grassroot level hence launching the trophy.
“I am very glad today that I am here to preside over the launch of this trophy here at Chisitu. The main aim of this trophy is to promote sports among primary school going learners. We want to them to have the chance to participate in sports activities for them to grow well and heathier in the communities. I observed that young children love sports very much they lack chance and this is why I decided to bring to them this trophy worth K10 Million where they will enjoy sports,” said Nankhumwa.
He added that the trophy was planned to be launched last year but due to COVID-19 restrictions where sports activities were banned, the launch was then put on hold.
“Our plan was to launch this trophy last year but due to COVID-19 restrictions, we failed as the sports a activities were banned. Now the government has ordered that sports activities can resume following the decrease in number of registered cases, we have find it very important to launch the trophy which is expected to end in March 2022,” he said.
Nankhumwa also disclosed that he will soon introduce secondary school bonanza for Secondary school students to compete.
” This trophy is strictly for primary school students only but I plan are already in pipeline to introduce secondary school bonanza so as to leave no one behind,” he disclosed.
In his remarks, Chairperson for the Mulanje central primary schools league Jonathan Billy Gama said the league is important as it will promote football and netball at grassroot level and encourage children to attend school.
“This league is important as it will help promoting football and netball at grassroot level. This will also help the learners to work hard in schools as it will reduce absent rate among the students and that is why we encouraging only learners to participate,” said Gama.
The event was was preceded by a preparatory tournament for both football and netball where eight teams, four from each discipline, received each prizes ranging from K30,000 to K100,000 and those came first also received trophies.
Thirteen primary Schools in the Constituency are expected to compete in the tournament and the prizes are to be announced in a due course.
In attendance during the trophy launch was renowned football guru of Ntopwa football club Jomo Osman, Senior Chief Chikumbu of Mulanje, councillors from the Constituency, District sports officials and teachers.
