By Tione Andsen
Lilongwe, September 17, Mana: Ministry of Youth and Sports has taken a new direction to revamp various sporting disciplines in the country by calling for sports indaba.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Richard Chimwendo Banda disclosed on Friday at Bingu National Stadium in Area 48 in Lilongwe that his Ministry in conjunction with the Malawi National Council of Sports (MNSC) would organize Sports Indaba and Sports gala dinner to be held in Lilongwe on September 22 and 23, 2022 respectively.
He said for many years the country has not been performing well in various sporting disciplines because over the years they have not paid enough attention to the sporting disciplines.
“In fact, one may say the standards we used in the old days have been slowly dwindling over time. Therefore, the purpose of the Indaba is for all stakeholders to brainstorm on how sports can be rejuvenated in the country,” Banda said.
The Minister added that the Sports Awards gala was aimed at recognizing and encouraging outstanding performing sports persons as one way of motivating them to improve their performance further.
He pointed out that the two events would happen after taking the initiative to physically engage captains in the business industry so that they should be part and parcel of the event.
Banda informed sports fans that various stakeholders such as sports association’s leaders, athletes, government officials, business Industry captains and all sports development partners would attend the event.
“We recognize that this will be the first-ever event to take place in the country and that it is an event that will yield the results that we want in our quest to develop sports in the country.
“We have put in place a special committee, led by Gladson Kuyeri, board member from the Sports Council, so that we should efficiently organize the event with assistance from various stakeholders who may be required depending on their areas of specialization and expertise,” the Minister explained.
He said the Indaba would be attended by sport association presidents, general secretaries and treasurers and chairpersons, chief executives and treasurers of some sports clubs, organizations and teams.
“The Indaba aims at brainstorming to identify achievements challenges in the sports sector in order to come up with suggestions for improving sports standards and performance in the country,” Banda said.
The Minister noted that this would help to build capacity of sports leaders through training in organization management and marketing principles related to sports by experienced business and academic captains.
He said the indaba would provide an opportunity to corporate partners to be briefed about sports programmes that the sports sector plans to implement in the next financial year in partnership with them.
MNSC Board Chair, Sunduzwayo Madise thanked the Ministry for showing interest to improvement the performance of most sporting disciplines in the country.
He said the Indaba would accord them an opportunity to develop a proper road map to enhance s[ports development in the country.
