By FELIX MALUNGA –

THE Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) says it has not thrown into the wilderness three sports associations banned for failing to pay affiliation fees.

SCZ board vice-chairperson, Emmanuel Katebe said the associations, instead, disaffiliated themselves by not paying up their subscriptions as per regulations.

Katebe said in an interview in Ndola that SCZ wanted to work with all affiliate member-sports bodies but would not tolerate antagonism when executing duties.

“We want to embrace everybody but no antagonism will be tolerated. We’ve not thrown them (associations) into the wilderness. It’s self disaffiliation,” Katebe said.

He said if the three disaffiliated associations comply with the demands of SCZ, they would be welcomed back into the fold.

Katebe, who chaired the SCZ legal and disciplinary sub-committee that slapped sanctions on the trio, also reminded the affected organisations that they had 14 days to appeal against the bans.

The SCZ legal and disciplinary sub-committee that sat in Lusaka last weekend disaffiliated the Cycling Association of Zambia (CAZ), the Zambia Weightlifing Federation (ZWF) and the Baseball and Softball Association of Zambia (BSAZ) for non-payment of mandatory annual fees.

ZWF general secretary, Dominic Mutale pleaded with SCZ to show a parental ‘heart’ by not deregistering them.

Mutale said deregistering them was not a solution to their plight because the federation does not receive any funding from anywhere but survived from the pockets of the officials.

By being disaffiliated from SCZ, he said, ZWF’s preparations for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games would be affected.

ZWF owes SCZ K4,000 in unpaid affiliation fees.

CAZ president, Peter Chintu said despite the association struggling to raise funds, it had managed to mop up K2,500 towards the K7,500 bill owed to SCZ.

He said since their major sponsors pulled out, CAZ had been struggling to get resources for its programmes.

Chintu said CAZ only had four surviving affiliate clubs which were equally struggling to pay K500 annually to the national body.

He named the clubs as Munali Coffee, Nakambala, Monze and Kansanshi while Finish Line pulled out.

Chintu pleaded for leniency from SCZ and allow CAZ to pay the K5,000 balance in instalments.

“We’ve raised a bit of money and hope to pay the rest in instalments,” Chintu said.

He said cycling was an expensive sport to run but that CAZ wanted to have a good working relationship with SCZ.

Chintu, however, pledged not to allow cycling as a sport in Zambia die.

SCZ had given the three associations, including the Zambia Amateur Boxing Federation (ZABF), up to December 15 last year to clear their arrears.

ZABF managed to beat the deadline while the other three failed, thus facing SCZ’s wrath.