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| Sports |
| Olympics, Commonwealth games association suspends general secretary |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 23 December 2004
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09:49:13
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Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association of Malawi (Ocgam) on Wednesday announced that it has suspended its general secretary James Gwaza for the next three months to pave way for investigations on allegations that seven extra people were booked on the association’s contingent to the 2004 Olympic Games.
But Gwaza brushed aside the suspension claims in a separate interview insisting that he had voluntarily recused himself to allow an independent body to probe the allegations.
Blowing the issue wide open during a press conference held in Blantyre, which was attended by the association’s entire board except for Gwaza himself, Ocgam’s president Jerome Waluza said the decision to suspend the general secretary was arrived at following a meeting with Sports Council on Tuesday.
“For the next 90 days Mr Gwaza will not be working in that capacity as general secretary of Ocgam to pave way for an inquiry into the allegations levelled against him. I should also say the decision is a mutual agreement with Mr Gwaza himself,” said the Ocgam boss.
His vice John Zingale then chipped in to say: “There have been newspaper reports to the effect that Ocgam took 20 people to Athens and that only 13 came back while others dropped off in United Kingdom as the Olympic team proceeded to London. So we would like some clarification from the general secretary, we want to find out whether the reports are true or not.
“We discussed the matter with him and told him our views and as a gentleman he accepted to relieve himself from his duties to pave way for the investigations.”
The Ocgam vice president added: “We also want to find out from the general secretary as to why our travel agents are demanding more money than the actual amount that we were supposed to pay and at the end of the day we will tell the nation as to what exactly happened because this issue has been written in the press for about three times.”
Quizzed on why it has taken the association so long to probe the issue, Zingale said: “There are procedures that we have to follow. We cannot just act on newspaper reports. We needed to sit down and see how we could go about it.”
Grilled further on whether the entire Ocgam executive is distancing itself from the allegations, Waluza admitted that there could be possibilities that others within the board were also involved.
“Are you saying you are clean...the five of you, are you saying that?” a journalist asked and in response Waluza said: “Not necessarilly, we are not saying that we are clean, that is why the suspension is not indefinite, probably some of us are involved and therefore the report will show.”
On his part Gwaza, sounding very cool and composed said: “First and foremost let me clarify the impression that is being created that I have been suspended. I have not been suspended, actually I voluntarily recused myself to allow the investigations to take place for the good of Ocgam.
“Let there be an independent inquiry to investigate the issue and we shall see who will have the last laugh. It seems there is some funny games being played in this issue but my conscience is clear,” added Gwaza.
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