By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
SPORTS Council of Zambia (SCZ) chairperson Mwamba Kalenga has called on sports bodies in the country to be innovative in raising funds to finance their various programmes.
Kalenga’s sentiments come in the wake of Sports Minister Vincent Mwale’s announcement at the weekend that his ministry could be the worst affected by the recent change in the mineral royalty tax regime.
Government reduced the mineral royalty tax from 20 per cent to nine per cent with the corporate tax that was scrapped off currently standing at 30 per cent.
Kalenga said that sports associations needed to be innovative by coming up with fundraising ventures that would boost their financial standing as opposed to waiting on the Government for support.
“I think the failure by associations to be self sustaining has been compounded by leadership problems but with fundraising venture in place, they can manage to secure funding for their programs because Government alone cannot manage,” Kalenga said.
Meanwhile, Zambia Body Building and Fitness Federation (ZBBFF) vice-president, Brown Ng’ambi said the possible reduction in sports funding would not affect the growth of the sport in the country.
“As a federation, we have always relied on the goodwill from the corporate entities that continue to show unwavering support to our programs and therefore, we feel any changes in terms of funding the ministry of sport will not affect bodybuilding,” Ng’ambi said.
Badminton Zambia (BZ) general secretary, Kingsley Mulenga also assured that badminton would not go into extinction because of the reduced funding as it had faced tougher times in the past to send teams for international tournaments.
Handball Association of Zambia (HAZ) communications manager, Josab Changa said the development would be a blow to handball as the sport depends on handouts from the Government and other well-wishers.
Changa, however, appealed the government to come up with a deliberate policy that will compel the multi-national firms to adopt the sponsorship of minor sports.
“We have struggled to meet the financial requirements for various outings and most of the times we have failed travel and even if we come up with fundraising ventures, it is not easy to attract the desired sponsorship,” Changa said.