By ADRIAN MWANZA –
THE Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) has told the Zambia Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) to put an end to the ongoing in-fighting and focus on regional games to be staged in Botswana later this week.
SCZ acting General Secretary Raphael Mulenga in an interview said that he had since summoned members of the ZTTA executive over funding to travel for the games in Botswana following their request for K66,000.
He said SCZ was willing to help the association but that there were too many divisions which made it hard for them to chip-in.
“SCZ is more than ready to help these guys but there are factions in ZTTA. So first, we need to iron out the problems and then see how we can help them,” he said.
The two ‘warring’ parties in the ZTTA are set to appear before the SCZ today to find a way forward.
“I have called both the Wisdom Kaunda and Charles Chenda factions today because our hands are tied and we can only help when everything is put in place but. We are aware the event is important because it is a Commonwealth Games qualifier,” he said.
But ZTTA General Secretary Boyd Kabinga said hopes were slowly fading as the dates for the games were getting closer days.
The tournament starts on Thursday, January 25.
Kabinda said he was hoping that Government would come to their aid as the team was training hard.
“We have less than three days to departure date. We just hope this meeting will have tangible results because chances of us taking part in the Commonwealth Games will be gone,” he said.
The Zambian team has in the men section Kennedy Katungu, Choolwe Hamalambo, Emmanuel Munga, Charles Silungwe and Martin Chewe while the women team has Mubanga Kunda, Latifa Nalavwe, Janet Mwelwa, Harriet Chali and Vienna Hamuchenje