LAST week’s piece, titled ‘When will ZBF squabbles end?’, has triggered two reactions.
To recap, the article looked at the war of attrition between the Thomas Chileshe led Zambia Boxing Federation (ZBF) and some of its affiliates who, through a petition to the mother body, the Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ), want Chileshe’s immediate ouster.
In a joint effort the Midlands Amateur Boxing Association (MABA), Southern Province Amateur Boxing Association (SPABA) and Copperbelt Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) feel Chilshe is a serious liability to the running of the sport, labelling him, not without evidence, corrupt.
It was against this backdrop that former national coach Kennedy Kanyanta, his former assistant Wisdom Mudenda and ring official Darius Kabwe stepped aside.
The first reaction came from Bright Chomba, who first phoned me to encourage me to continue highlighting the ills in boxing (such as the troubles in ZBF) adding, “Through your work, you are contributing to the development of the sport.” I thank Chomba for his kind words.
And in an e-mail, Chomba advised the administrators to do the “honourable thing” by quickly resolving all the matters between the ZBF executive and MABA/SPABA/CABA.
“The period we are in is very crucial because there are two important tournaments coming soon for the Olympic qualifiers. We are doing more damage to the boxers who were mandated to (be) groomed as well as doing a disservice to our country, which is known to be a power house in boxing circles. My humble appeal to all boxing lovers is to be level- headed and do what is in the interest of the sport.”
The other response came from ZBF general secretary, Caesar Musuku, who dispelled what he termed “deceitful announcements made by the three from the technical bench as hypocritical resignations; we have no records of  formal resignation letters submitted  to the ZBF secretariat from our (so-)called boxing coaches Kanyanta, Mudenda, and formerly John Chibuta.”
Musuku said it was “unprofessional for a big office like ZBF secretariat to act on a verbal press statement which most people distinguished” (sic).
He said the nation should be informed that they (coaches) were “so insincere to make deceitful resignations to the public.”
“Constitutionally, we still regard them as members because we are still waiting for (their) letters, but we cannot force them again to submit; it should come from their hearts, we caution them to avoid issuing press statements before deciding,” Musuku said.
“We are requesting all the three coaches to “prove their stamina” by conclusively handing over their resignation letters to the ZBF secretariat for us to validate their opinion and this should not exceed seven working days from 16th January 2016,” he added.
Musuku said the resignation announcement was “just a sham, it was all meant to lessen external pressure from known individuals from the professional boxing stables.”
He admitted that an executive member Kennedy Katongo resigned on personal grounds and the federation had filed his resignation letter.
Musuku further explained that the ZBF revised Constitution of 2012 clearly stipulates that under Chapter 4 – Termination of Membership: membership to the Federation shall terminate if a member – (a) resigns/retires (b) is expelled etc … and if a member wants to come back he or she should make an application for re-admission after a period of two years.
He said the officials (who resigned verbally) understood this clause in the Constitution and they knew the consequences.
Should their resignation letters be filed at the ZBF Secretariat “they will automatically cease to be members until after two years, that is if they intend to come back to active sports,” Musuku said.
Their remarks were merely done for such a purpose to dupe the two professional boxing guys with ill intentions to bring division in the ZBF administration.
Musuku concluded his emailed statement by saying ZBF would soon announce the date for the election forthcoming February elections.
Comments: mwale,simon@yahoo.co.uk or 0966755574/0953744074