Approved constitution worries presidential aspirants

A minimum of a higher diploma and a sports administration certificate were  required for executive members in the drafted netball constitution, which became the center of attention as netball prepared for its first Extra Ordinary General Assembly.

The assembly, held on Saturday at the MTN Arena in Lugogo, focused mainly on the same issue until it was compromised that the higher diploma is a constant, but the sports administration certificate will only apply to presidential candidates.

This occurred 10 months after the netball certificate was revoked due to financial and leadership issues.

The AGM was attended by invited clubs that had taken the initiative to register with the normalization committee, as well as Joan Smith, a representative from World Netball. 

Members were allowed to deliberate freely on the constitution and vote before conclusion. However, some participants felt that new clubs were ignorant and, given their overwhelming numbers, voted and contributed to the adoption of a constitution with some unfair clauses.

"Most of what transpired is okay; we had removal of the age limit, which we liked. But one critical challenge is that one should be educated fairly, and to our netball administrators in Uganda, most people are not fairly educated. However, they have the passion, decorum, qualities of leadership, and some level of integrity that can be at least counted on by the netball stakeholders in Uganda," said Ronald Nakabaale from Makindye Weyonje Netball Club.

"The consultation meeting was kind of stage-managed; it was organized in a way that members were there to go through and raise their hands in support of this and that. It was like a one-man show in favor of the normalization committee," he added.

Byekwaso ousted by constitution

Meanwhile, former netball vice president Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso, who has been fronted as a potential presidential candidate of Netball Uganda in the elections due October 26, is also contesting the academic qualification clause.

Byekwaso, who did not attend the meeting, was spotted outside the arena with over 40 district delegates who claimed they had come for the meeting but were unfortunately locked out.

The embattled Byekwaso admitted she was interested in the netball presidency but does not have the sports administration certificate. However, she is determined to continue opposing the clause.

"I don't know whether the other candidates have the certificate, but personally, I don't have it. For my supporters, I can say this is not the end of the road; we have options, and we can again petition World Netball because we know it's a democratic body; it can listen to us," Byekwaso said.

"We can also petition parliament because we know this law is in total contradiction with Uganda's national laws, which stipulate an A-level certificate for any leadership position. If all fails, then we shall go attain the certificate," Byakwaso said.

Mwase admits

The chairperson of the netball normalization committee, Moses Mwase, admits that there was anxiety among members, especially regarding the minimum qualification for executive positions, until the meeting reached a compromise.

"There has been a lot of debate on that, and the compromise the members took was that the diploma should be maintained. They also agreed that, in the case of a sports administration qualification, this should apply only to the president for starters," Mwase told Daily Monitor.

Regarding district delegates being locked out of the meeting room, Mwase admitted they were not invited.

"This meeting was strictly for invited people or observers. We do not have any district delegates elected anywhere, so we couldn't allow people to participate, as we feared they would be a source of commotion. We only wanted to deal with people specifically invited, but also, the idea was to start with the core group, which were the clubs," Mwase clarified.

The meeting also agreed that there is no more Uganda Netball Federation but Netball Uganda, as the former is now a tarnished brand, and they look forward to a better netball future.

Once  a new executive is in place, the constitution  will be  presented to World Netball and the National Council of Sports for verification and signing hence a road map to the October 26 elections will soon be revealed.