ON THE NAM VS MWAWI KUMWENDA SAGA.
For the past 6 or 7 years netball has been the only sport that has brought smiles to sports loving Malawians, until recently when the country’s Netball Association Vs shooter Mwawi Kumwenda saga has diverted the focus to the off field mother vs daughter wrangle. To say the truth, the Malawi queens look a shadow of themselves without the New Zealand based shooter. The team has fared poorly in international tournaments as evidenced in June when the Queens lost twice to their perennial rivals- South Africa’s Spar Proteas.
An old saying tells us that “when two elephants tussle, it is the grass that suffers” and no wonder once the wrangle erupted the Queens’ performances have nosedived. This is a true reflection of the case that the mother body’s wrangle vs Mwawi is depriving the Queens of one it’s most outstanding players.
Without Mwawi Kumwenda, who plies her trade in New Zealand with Tactix, the Queens lack the finishing touch to their mesmerizing netball.
The wrangle started in mid 2014 when the Tactix goal shooter made herself unavailable for the Queens’ fast five engagements in England. She claimed that she wanted to see a dentist but later it transpired that she had already visited the doctor when she made the excuse. This angered the netball mother body, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM), who sought a disciplinary hearing but Mwawi declined. The team went to two tournaments without her and it struggled to produce results. This prompted Nam’s president, Rose Chinunda to suggest that the country must gloom another player who can replace her. This as well did not go well with the shooter and she took to facebook and hit back with claims that she cared dearly for the Queens. She added that the netball mother body’s official were busy fattening their wallets or let us say pulses while they delayed the player’s allowances. This was not good music to the mother body’s ears and these claims fuelled the grueling stand-off.
Nam recently issued a warning letter to Mwawi, requesting that she start making herself available for national team. The shooter was included in the squad which went into camp to start preparing for the 2015 netball World cup in Australia.
The shooter who is in the country on holiday has said that she is not going into the Queens camp until her family advises her to do so. Her manager, Hlupikire Chilamba, said the Kumwenda family will not release their daughter for the queens camping unless Nam retracts the warning letter they issued to her. The Tactix shooter is yet to join the Queens camp and it looks the team will leave for Australia without Malawi’s sole netball export. This has prompted the writer to express his views on the saga.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL ABOUT SPORTS IN MALAWI
The Nam- Mwawi Kumwenda stand-off has lifted a few issues about sports in general in the country;
1. The role of Malawi sports council needs to be redefined. The council should have acted as an arbitrator in this saga because Nam cannot be the jury in its own case. The sports council has treated the matter with some indifference and there is an urgent need to revise its role or if the law is already there- should we say the authorities at Sports council are sleeping. Then they should be awaken from the slumber.
2.The lack of sports structures to provide avenues for conflict resolution. There is a need for a mother body- court of arbitration sought of- to discipline both Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and NAM.
3.Sportsmen or women in all sporting disciplines must adhere to a set code of conduct whenever they have been selected to represent the country at any level. To be selected into the national team is a life time achievement and our sportsmen/women should treat such an opportunity with pride, dignity and commitment. Many Malawians are arguing that the obdurate Mwawi is behaving arrogant because she earns a lot when playing for her club in New Zealand than the Queens and that she must know that it’s the same queens who gave her the platform to be seen by her current employers. But others are of the view that NAM is also to blame for failing to discipline the tall shooter in a mother- daughter way and have also backed her that she is free to decide if she wants to play for the queens or not.
What both NAM and the Mwawi Kumwenda camp should understand is that the stand-off is holding the Queen’s performances and its position on the International Federation of Netball Association (IFNA) ranking’s at ransom hence the need for a quick and amicable resolution to abate it.
All this debate will continue and arguments will be auctioned just to find who is at fault. But this writer advises both parties, (both Nam and the Mwawi Kumwenda camp) to swallow their pride and solve this saga once and for all for the betterment of Malawi’s netball and sports in general.
By Tana Mwalwimba
