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| Sports |
| Massa to head Ocgam |
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by
Oris Chimenya, 23 April 2006
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07:58:56
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Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Ocgam) interim president Floriano Massa on Saturday found himself in full scale celebration when the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) elected him to head the association for the next four years.
Held at Mount Soche’s in Blantyre, the elections were attended by all the 23 affiliates of Ocgam, a body which dissolved its former committee in July last year due to maladministration and abuse of funds.
In the heated elections, Massa, who is also president for Table Tennis Association of Malawi beat his counterpart in the Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi, Duncan Gumbi, who was also a committee member in the body’s interim committee. Massa received 28 votes while Gumbi got 23.
The position of vice president went to Basketball Association of Malawi president Oscar Kanjala, who gathered 31 votes to outclass Football Association of Malawi president, Walter Nyamilandu, who managed 20 ballots.
Helen Mpinganjira, who survived the last July’s sacking during the Lilongwe Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) grabbed the key position of secretary general on which he has been acting since July. She beat Hockey Association of Malawi secretary general Krishna Achuthan by 29 votes to 22.
Former Ocgam secretary general Matthews Kambale lost on the position of vice general secretary after getting 13 votes. He was beaten by Athletics Association of Malawi secretary general Haxson Chapasa who amassed 27 ballots. Another contestant for the same position was Tertiary Sports Association of Malawi (Tessam) secretary general Martin Matululu who got 11 votes while Netball Association of Malawi boss Tressa Walamwa withdrew at the eleventh hour.
From now until 2010, Ocgam finances will be managed and controlled by Jappie Mhango, who was acting Ocgam treasurer. The Volleyball Association of Malawi treasurer harvested 27 votes, thoroughly beating Darts Association of Malawi top official Majid Panjwani (19 votes) and Cycling Association of Malawi boss Andrew Nkwezalamba (5 votes). Squash Malawi treasurer Alex Makhwatha withdrew from the race.
The position of committee member went to Malawi Defence Force sports club vice president Captain Kakhuta Banda who registered a 13-vote tally with Malawi Disabled Sports Association president Jimmy Kadewere during a first cast. In the second cast, he beat Kadewere with 29 votes to 19.
Other contestants on the same position were Elias Chizimba, Chimwemwe Festino, Edward Mponda, James Sangala, Flora Mwandira, Lawrence Arthur and Dave Zolowere. Three candidates namely John Kaputa, Bashir Shariff and Godffrey Phiri withdrew for various reasons.
In his acceptance speech, Massa congratulated all the association’s new office bearers and thanked all the ‘people’ for their votes.
“Elections are there for people to contest, so they should not be personalised,” he said, adding “we will continue working together”.
Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca) 4th vice president, Agness Tjongrero who came to grace the elections urged the new Ocgam board to honour the call by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to incorporate a woman into the committee, saying Malawi has defied the call since 2004. Tjongrero is Namibian National Olympic Committee president.
Retired Chief Justice Richard Banda also warned the new office bearers that they have a big task before them. “Therefore the success of the sports development strategy the Sports Council is producing, depends on you,” he said.
Massa will be in charge of Malawi’s participation in the 2008 Beijing, China Olympic Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in India. The next Ocgam elections which will be held after the India games in 2010.
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