•ZAMBIA Tennis Association vice-president South Chrispin Moyo with players Mwaza Ngulube and Penelope Mulima, and Cavmont Bank chief executive officer Charles Carey before the Under-25 tournament got under way in Lusaka yesterday. Picture by GWEN CHIPASULA

By GWEN CHIPASULA –

SPORTS Deputy Minister Ronald Chitotela has urged the Zambia Tennis Association (ZTA) to quickly find money and honour their obligations to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Confederation of African Tennis (CAT).
Earlier this week, CAT wrote off the US$6,000 that was owed to it by ZTA for 2011 and 2012 leaving the association with the task of clearing unpaid affiliation fees for 2013, 14 and 15 seasons.
The ZTA in June this year resolved to forego hosting of the 2015 Zambia Open Championship in a bid to overhaul the $12,000 debt it owes the ITF in affiliation fees.
Chitotela, in a speech read for him by chief sports development officer Gibson Muyuule during the official opening of the Cavmont Bank Under-235 tennis tournament at Lusaka Club yesterday said there was need to clear the outstanding debt.
He said the ZTA needed to settle its bills with CAT and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for Zambia to start participating and benefiting from many developmental programmes.
Chitotela commended Cavmont Bank for coming to the aid of the ZTA by sponsoring the tournament.
“I am aware that ZTA has been struggling to organise tennis activities due to resources and I urge other corporate entities to help sports associations like tennis so that it may become popular also,” he said.
Chitotela said his ministry had constructed ultra–modern state-of-the-art and all-weather tennis courts at the National Sports Development Centre (NASDEC) in order to accelerate the sport and help attract hosting of international tournaments.
Cavmont Bank has assured that it will sponsor the tournament for the next three years.
Bank chief executive officer Charles Carey said Cavmont Bank was excited to be part of this tournament.
Carey, who was present during the preliminary round of the tournament and even took part in some warm-up games, said his bank was keen to help out in the development of sports in whichever way it could.
ZTA vice-president (South), Crispin Moyo advised the players to put in their best as they battled for honours in the local tournament.
Moyo said taking part in such competitions would help expose the players to high level competitions.
Meanwhile, the players were by Press time yesterday playing in the preliminary round which ends tomorrow.