THE past week has been regrettably awash with news of Zambia’s star ath­letes Muzala Samukonga and Rachael Kundan­anji expressing their disap­pointment over govern­ment’s failure to pay them outstanding allowances.
Government on the other hand remains adamant it has cleared the athletes and desperately made attempts to make public a payment schedule, which in my view, was wrong and posed a danger to the athletes.
I think we now have a problem in our sports. Both parties don’t want to reason and one camp seems to be enjoying the cocaine of talking.
Dialogue is the way to go in resolving this matter, unlike the back-and-forth the country has been subjected to over this matter which has become an embarrassment and needs to be concluded as in yesterday.
The fact of the matter is that promises were made but unfortunately, it seems nothing has been fulfilled. It will be important for the Sports Minister to get to the root of this issue because I feel there is no way athletes could be lying over such a matter or un­less as suggested they are been used to fight a battle they are unaware of.
The minister through his Permanent Secretary should investigate this matter and ensure monies were paid to these athletes because merely pub­licly displaying a payment schedule is not enough but should ensure they engage the athletes and provide them with proof of pay­ments.
We shall need these athletes for future competi­tions but it will be difficult to see them motivated due to what has been happen­ing lately where they have had to rely on promises.
In as much as no athlete is bigger than Zambia, the fact remains that these ath­letes were promised some perks if they win medals or win matches in reference to the Copper Queens.
Failure to honour these pledges might hurt the athletes delivering to the expectations of the nation.
Additionally, everyone knows that the country is battling with the effects of drought and most resources are being channeled toward mitigating these effects.
With that said, it is very important to stop over-promising these athletes.
I am sure the govern­ment coffers get drained owing to the numerous priorities and thus dialogue is key in making our athletes understand what is happening.
The ministry should stop over-promising and mak­ing pledges that cannot be met, and one even wonders if government managed to honour the pledge to buy boxer Mbachi Kaonga a vehicle after his win some years ago.
It is high time the Min­istry became realistic when making these promises to the athletes despite their duty to motivate them.
But most importantly, the Minister should ensure his officers fulfill the instructions he gives them, especially on this issue of payment-let him be given proof of payments so that he, mostly his permanent secretary, can confer with the athletes and sort out the issues before government gets embarrassed with this endless display of dirty laundry in public.
But these athletes equally need to watch their steps on how they are being used by people with old underlying agendas and tread very wisely.
Government, especially our minister, should just keep quiet for now, pay the athletes quietly and not engage in any further public discourse regardless because it will just fuel people’s egos.

THE Chipolopolo begin their Morocco 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers tonight with fans expecting a good start contrary to the shambles witnessed in the FIFA 2026 World Cup campaign where the team is as good as eliminated.
However, the team faces a tough match away in Bouake against the reign­ing African champions who have proved difficult to beat when playing at home.
But Avram Grant has no choice but to grind the needed results off Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone in the two uninterrupted fixtures and restore the missing confidence among the fans after the disastrous start in the World Cup race.
This qualifying race should be a serious bench­mark to gauge where the former Ghana and Chelsea boss should be rewarded with a new contract in December.
By then, Zambia would have played all six games with its eagerly-anticipated AFCON qualification status known.
All the best to Chipo­lopolo and let’s support the team via our television sets with a plea to Zesco to spare us from the load-shedding to witness this big national assignment.
For comments let’s interact via email on eli­aschipepo@gmail.com