…Chiumia orders NAM officials to either resign or stop politics…
The day was meant to honor best performers in the 2018/19 Presidential Netball cup but it turned out to be a battlefield between Minister of Sports, Labor and Manpower Development and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) officials.
The government function turned ugly when Minister responsible, Grace Chiumia blasted NAM President Khungikire Matiya and her entire executive committee for mistreating Malawi’s netball star Mwai Kumwenda, after the organizers excluded the Australian based netballer from the list of those who were asked to speak during the event.
It has been reported that the minister wanted Kumwenda to speak at the event despite coming late.
When Chiumia was told to speak, she lashed out on Matiya’s led executive committee for politicizing NAM saying the body hates top performers for personal reasons.
“When I left the ministry a year ago, there was politics at NAM by the officials and I am surprised that the politics is still there. Top officials at NAM hates best players for personal reasons and this isn’t good for the game.”
“Mwayi Kumwenda is our star player and she deserved to speak to the fellow netballers as one way of encouraging the young ones but these officials refused to grant her the platform to do that. I am tired with these politics and they should either resign or stop politicizing the game,” she told journalists.
On her part, Matiya said as far as she was concerned, there is no politics at NAM.
“We have done well and as far as we are concerned, there is no politics. Mwayi Kumwenda is our daughter and we love her just the way we love all the national team players,” she said.
For the past years, Chiumia and NAM have been at loggerheads after the former was forced to intervene when reports of a rift between administrators and Kumwenda was made public.
