NCS to run boxing body

Mar 24, 2009

NATIONAL Council of Sports (NCS) will take over management of the Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation until a new executive comes into place. NCS will receive the association files when the normalisation committee hands in their report to sports minister Cha

By Norman Katende and Samson Opus

NATIONAL Council of Sports (NCS) will take over management of the Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation until a new executive comes into place. NCS will receive the association files when the normalisation committee hands in their report to sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi today.

“All the action will be taken after I receive the report. I have been out of office for sometime and I need to first look through the report,” Bakkabulindi said in response to the NCS decision.

NCS’s intervention follows the resignation of association president Roger Ddungu, citing a heavy workload at the Uganda Olympic Committee where he was recently elected president.

“NCS has always managed the day-to-day activities of associations when there is a leadership vacuum. We are only waiting for instructions and advice from the ministry,” said NCS general secretary Jasper Aligawesa yesterday.

Ddungu’s plan to increase clubs’ subscription fees, have professional management at clubs and powers to appoint his executive were thwarted by stakeholders recently. He was not happy the clubs voted to pay an annual fee of sh30,000, down from $300 (sh600,000).

Already one of the major sponsors Sam Lukanga has quit, until problems in boxing are solved.

In another stakeholders forum at Centenary Park on Saturday, former professional boxer Godfrey Nyakana called on government to hand management of the sport to people who love it.

The meeting was called by the Uganda Amateur Boxing Clubs Association (UABCA) – a pressure group that incited the resignation of Ddungu.

The forum that drew 50 coaches, judges and boxers resolved to form a front to revive boxing.

They also demanded that the sports minister sets a date for electing a new UABF executive and sanctions on boxing activities be lifted.

Nyakana also dismissed as shallow attempts by sports commissioner Dan Tamwesigire to ban boxing in schools.

“That commissioner is lacking something to do. His pronouncements are isolated because they are against basic human rights,” Nyakana said.

“His latest pronouncement to stop children footballers from heading the ball shows that he is not in touch with reality.”

Nyakana was reacting to a demand from East Coast boxing club secretary Hellen Erikodi for a position on the directive by the ministry of education and sports on boxing in schools.

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