By GWEN CHIPASULA
and ADRIAN MWANZA –
FORMER national boxing assistant coach Wisdom Mudenda has said he does not align himself with illegalities and that his resignation is final despite the Zambia Boxing Federation (ZBF) yesterday stating that none of the three coaches had quit.
Mudenda said yesterday that he was a soldier and his reasons for resigning still stood.
He said he would not return to coaching the national team despite the ZBF statement.
ZBF secretary Caesar Musuku announced that the federation was still intact and that all the three coaches, namely Kennedy Kanyanta, Mudenda, and John Chibuta were still in charge.
“I complained about a number of illegalities the ZBF president Thomas Chileshe is engaged in and as long as he is at the helm, it is difficult for me, I am a soldier and do not support illegality,” Mudenda said.
However, head coach Kanyanta seemed to make another u-turn about his position and yesterday said he was not a national coach anymore.
Kanyanta said in an interview that he stepped down because of the ongoing mudslinging in the association.
Kanyanta, who claimed no one had fired him, said people were spreading falsehoods about him in a bid to tarnish his name, and that this is what prompted him to step aside as national head coach.
He said he would continue coaching and producing young and talented boxers even if he was being persecuted by some people in the boxing family.
“I will continue with my coaching career even if I am not national boxing team coach,” he said.
Kanyanta said the Congo Brazzaville All-Africa Games (AAG) trip had raised a lot of dust, and that people had accused him of forcing boxers to give money to the ZBF president.
“Most people have trivialised the Congo trip, but I stated my position and the truth will come out soon,” he said.
When quizzed about the wrangles in ZBF, he said people were just jostling for positions in the forthcoming elections.
However, Musuku said as far as he was concerned, all the three coaches were still in charge because none of them had handed in a resignation letter.
“The named coaches are being insincere by announcing deceitful resignations to the public without letting us know.
“That’s unprofessional and we still regard them as coaches until we receive their letters,” he said.
He challenged the three to take their resignations to the secretariat in order for the federation to validate the move, and that this should be done within seven days.
Musuku further said ZBF would announce the date for the elections as the federation still had issues that needed to be put in place.