Councillors Reject Bid For Kalu’s 3rd Term

SEVERAL delegates to FAZ’s annual general meeting yesterday murmured when Nchanga Rangers vice-chairman Blackwell Siwale openly campaigned for Kalusha Bwalya to run for a third term next year.

In a vote of thanks after the opening of the annual general meeting, Siwale said the delegates had pledged to give Kalusha another mandate as president. But his statement attracted murmurs from the delegates as a sign of disapproval.

“As this is the last non-elective AGM, we pledge to give you (Kalusha) another
mandate next year,” said Siwale amid murmurs from the delegates.
Kalusha, who was elected FAZ president in 2008, is currently serving his second term which ends next year.

And sports deputy minister Ronald Chitotela, who officiated at the event, has tasked FAZ to find the root cause of the falling football standards in the country.

He said the performance of national teams at all levels was not encouraging.
Chitotela said if there was need to find people who could help with team management, FAZ should quickly do so to save the sport.

But Kalusha said it was easy for people to point at the poor performance of the national teams without appreciating how they managed to qualify to the tournaments.
“2014 was a record year because never before had we seen national teams at different levels qualify to their tournaments. At all levels, we were among the best 16 teams in Africa,” he said.

Kalusha also said the association was ahead of deadlines in the implementation of the club licensing as directed by FIFA.

FAZ also conferred Whiteson Chiti, a former Roan United chairman, and Joel Kaliba, a former Lusaka Amateur league secretary, with life membership to the association.

And Nkana Football Club says proposals by Nchanga Rangers and Afrisports to have the FAZ constitution amended ahead of the elective annual general meeting next year is aimed at advancing interests of a small clique of people. The two clubs’ proposal is that only people that have served as executive committee members should aspire for the presidency of FAZ. Nkana media and public relations officer Cephas Sinyangwe stated in a press release yesterday that the proposal was an attempt by a small clique to hijack the running of football and it was retrogressive.

“We reject attempts by some individuals to hijack the running of football in Zambia by proposing retrogressive amendments to the constitution that are aimed at advancing the interests of a small clique of people,” Sinyangwe stated. “This [proposed nomination fees] is a big joke that must be rejected by all sober-minded and football-loving fans and administrators,” he stated.”

He appealed to Kalusha to reject this motion and not to be misled by some selfish people surrounding him. And when the contentious proposal from Nchanga Rangers and Afrisport came up, the representatives of the clubs presented their case amid interruptions from councillors.

It took Kalusha’s intervention to allow Siwale from Nchanga and Gabriel Kaunda to explain their proposal.

But when Kalusha asked for a secondment, the councilors overwhelmingly rejected it and asked the executive not to subject it to a vote.

In response, Kalusha said FAZ was run democratically and would not force delegates to debate a matter they felt was not good for the sport.

“We won’t put it to a vote because you the councillors feel it is premature. We are democratic and if you feel the current constitution is okay, this executive has no option but not debate the matter and we won’t take it to the vote,” Kalusha said. He, however, cautioned councillors not to point fingers at delegates who come up with proposals as any affiliate had the right to propose.

Nchanga and Afrisport proposed that councillors wishing to stand as FAZ president had to have served in the association as executive members. Nchanga also proposed that presidential candidates should pay K25,000 nomination fee while the vice- president should pay K20,000 and the treasurer K15,000 with the executive members’ nomination fee pegged at K10,000.

Posted by Editor on March 29, 2015. Filed under SPORTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry