Issues at hand at netball Assembly

This Saturday, netball enthusiasts will be grounded in Lugogo Indoor Arena to forge a way forward for their sport.

In November last year, World Netball, following National Council of Sports’ decision to withdraw the certificate of recognition of Uganda Netball Federation (UNF), requested the immediate resignation of UNF’s executive committee, at the time, without compensation and the establishment of a Normalisation Committee (NC) to guide the sport.

The NC, headed by vice chairperson of the Commonwealth Games Association Uganda (CGAU) and president of Uganda Swimming Federation Moses Mwase, was given six months to restore order. But the Committee – which includes Leticiah Namutebi, a member of the CGAU athletes’ commission, Cecilia Anyakoit from the NCS board, and Peace Proscovia, a netball player and national team captain – say part of that period was eaten into by preparations for Olympics, where Mwase was Uganda’s Chef de Mission.

The NC also insists that they found a bigger administration malaise than they anticipated. The back and forth meetings with sections of the netball community – most of them reportedly not well attended – also ate into the time.

They have therefore had extensions into their work and now plan to wind up on October 26, when they hope to have an election for new office bearers.

What is in a name?

In summoning stakeholders for the Extraordinary General Assembly, the NC stated in their letter that; Notice is hereby given to all Provisional Member Clubs of ‘Netball Uganda’ (Provisional)…                                                           

The stakeholders who were headed by Rosette Namuli Kaala Mutyaba, a former chief umpire, Dynamite Netball Club manager Flavia Nakanwagi, and current She Cranes Manager, Mugerwa Fred Tabale held a press conference last Monday where they said “we are particularly concerned by Mwase’s attempts to alter the identity of UNF by changing its name to Netball Uganda and introducing a new logo. The UNF has represented the country for over 40 years and its legacy cannot be summarily erased by a committee whose mandate was never to make such changes.”

Mwase, in another press conference on the same day, also shared that “UNF brand has been damaged (by the events that led to cancellation of their recognition by NCS) and we are proposing a name change. In fact all the liabilities of UNF will come to bite the new leadership if we continue with that name.”

“But we understand that people hang onto things. When writing a constitution you have to propose a name but the decision to adopt the name or not will be down to the members,” Mwase explained.

Provisional members

If the mistrust about the name is not well pronounced, then you need to hear about who will have voices in the Assembly. By press time, the NC had registered about 75 provisional members at a fee of Shs200,000. In fact, the deadline for that registration was last Friday, September 13. Mwase also said they also had about 30 district associations on board.

Remember that the new Sports Act 2023, will recognize sports bodies as federations if they are in 75 percent of the districts in Uganda. Also, when NCS Statutory Instrument 2014 No.38 was introduced, it was explained that when NCS ceases to recognize a body, it would inform the promoters of the sport to register a new body.

This is likely what informed the NC’s decision to move on. NC seeks to have Netball Uganda registered as a federation but that will take some convincing at NCS level.

But the aforementioned stakeholders call this an “imposition of an unjustified financial burden on stakeholders” – a decision that has alienated others and cast doubts on the motives of the NC.

It is likely that the sides that fail to get into the Assembly could try to frustrate the process through legal processes. But that could also be quashed by the fact that the NC’s work is largely blessed by World Netball and quietly by NCS, who have representation through board member Anyakoit.

Eligibility to serve on the Executive

Most of the proposed aspects of the new draft constitution should be well received but article 14.3.2 on the requirements for one to serve on the executive has already got tongues wagging.

Part (j) of that provision says that one must have the minimum education requirements of a higher diploma from a recognized tertiary institution in Uganda, and a recognized qualification in sports administration, in the case of the president, vice president and honorary secretary.

Even this has been seen as a discriminatory clause but as far as arguments of good governance in sport have gone over the years, most federations have tried to bring in leaders that have knowledge about sports management or incorporate capacity building programmes to realize the same. Others have seen to it that their leaders and members at least attend the management and administration courses offered by the Uganda Olympic Committee.

In fact at the NC’s press conference, one journalist asked if the requirement was added because UOC (same as CGAU), where Mwase serves as vice president, offers the courses.

“The netball community is one full of suspicion. People fear, even, their own shadows,” Mwase said.

The league

Away from the political aspects, the discontented stakeholders see the NC’s decision to run the league as a way the latter are trying to entrench themselves.

However, the same group also questions why there are no activities for the players like the league and other competitions.

There is a fear that some players have since moved on because there is no activity. The NC acknowledges the gap but insist they have been frustrated by bad press in attempting to run the league.

“If we told you how much we need to run the league, you would lose your mind. We even got some sponsors on board but they later shied away because of the negative publicity about the league,” Mwase said.

Remember the NC tried to establish a company that can run the league with the help of the sponsors but the stakeholders also wanted to run the same – a move the former rejected because there is no structure recognizing the said stakeholders.

With the two in deadlock, the NC has decided to run the league and later hand it over to the committee that will be voted into office next month.

Conclusion

Overall, it is a big day for the netball enthusiasts but the NC and stakeholders need to find common ground if the proposed date for the elections – October 26 – is to be observed.