By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
THE Midlands Boxing Association (MABA) yesterday launched a scathing attack against the Zambia Boxing Federation (ZBF) branding the executive committee as ‘corrupt’.
MABA acting president Christian Kalima has since called on the Thomas Chileshe-led executive committee to immediately resign to save the sport’s integrity.
Kalima also questioned the holding of the strategic planning meeting set for Kabwe next month, saying it was going against what was agreed during the consultative meeting held two weeks ago.
But Chileshe said while democracy was a norm in ZBF, it was important that MABA respected authority and stop behaving like they were more powerful than the mother body.
Chileshe said in an interview that MABA requested for elections which will be given to them in less than two months time and that the Kabwe meeting was not just about MABA but all the five associate affiliates.
However, Kalima, during a briefing yesterday held at Southern Sun in Lusaka, said ZBF had lost its way and should avoid any manoeuvres ahead of the February 2016 elections.
He said ZBF had engaged in corrupt activities where some executive members collected money from boxers for unjustified reasons at the 2015 All-Africa Games (AGG) held in Congo Brazzaville.
“The seven boxers and three officials were asked to contribute K400 each to recover money spent to send the team to an international friendly tournament in Lubumbashi. This we found unacceptable as it is sheer corruption.
“The national assistant coach Wisdom Mudenda and experienced judge/referee Darius Kabwe have since resigned in protest. We have since reported this to the Sports Council of Zambia and we are waiting for their action,” he said.
Both Mudenda and Kabwe are servicemen with the former under the Zambia Army, the latter with the Zambia National Service (ZNS).
Mudenda, who was at the briefing together with Kabwe and the rest of the MABA executive said he had quit because so many things were going wrong.
He said he did not want to be party to the many ills, adding that he has tried to complain about it to the executive as Kabwe advised the ZBF president to step down and clear his name.
Kalima added that the two officials, who resigned included this matter in their report and were more than ready to testify, adding that the ZBF president accepted the accusations when he addressed MABA over the petition earlier this month.
He added that it was resolved that the next meeting that would be held will be the annual general meeting (AGM) which would be elective and not the strategic planning meeting.
Kalima wondered why another meeting was being called as none of the MABA clubs will attend the proposed strategic meeting and it will further not recognise any of the decisions to be passed in Kabwe.
“On moral grounds, Chileshe should step down and save the sport. In Congo Brazzaville, the boys performed badly because they were de-motivated after they were asked to part away with K400,” Kalima said.