KENNETH KAUNDA INTERVIEW IN 1963 AT CHILENJE HOUSE NO. 394

THOUGHTS FROM TELALINI

STATE OF MOST FOOTBALL PITCHES WORRYING

It is not a secret that of late, Zambian club football has been getting international attention. In fact, Zambia’s club football has always received international attention but lately, a new dimension to it has arisen as more foreign players want to play in the Zambian Super League. This is a clear indication of the increased competitiveness of the league.  This feat appears sweeping but the fact is that never at any point has the Zambian league attracted quality players from countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.  With all these foreign quality players trekking into the Zambian Super League, I can only assume that the league is not only competitive but also well remunerating. However, remuneration and the leagues attractiveness is not the crux of this article. While the league is attracting quality players, the state of the football pitches leave much to be desired. Most of the pitches I have watched club football from do not only have bumpy surfaces but in most cases have over grown grass. Indeed, they are not bumpy or overgrown greens, they are patchy with brown grass. These are football grounds that host big clubs like Zanaco, Nkana, Zesco and Power Dynamos, Green Buffalos.

The question in my ruminations that begs an answer is that why are most clubs investing in branding their team buses and signing international quality players without doing anything about their rickety pitches? Where is FAZ in all this? Are these pitches inspected before the seasons commence? Why should a team of Zanaco, or Nkana’s pedigree play in a football pitch that resembles a grazing land?   Look at the state of the Woodlands, Nchanga, Konkola, Sunset, Shinde, Godfrey Ucar Chitalu, Edwin Imboela, Nkana, and Arthur Davies playing turfs. They are in a very poor state for one to enjoy watching the flare that comes with Zambian club football. The only stadium with a semblance of a good pitch is Nkoloma Stadium, home of Red Arrows FC. It lately looks rundown though. In fact, watching Zambian football on these poor turfs is boring no matter how good teams playing are. Which player can fully express their skill in such pitches? Mind you, the Zambian Super League games are televised across the African continent on Supersport Channels. Watching the Zambian Super League on Supersport sometimes is very embarrassing because skilled players and very excellent team formations are made to look like school boys playing in some isolated neighbourhood. I have every reason to believe that some of these career threatening injuries suffered by many players are exacerbated by the very perilous playing surfaces. 

If the Zambian super League games are transmitted across Africa, how then can we attract quality players and also showcase our beautiful game with such poor pitches? I am agitated and very worried that if this situation goes unabated, the league may lose its attractiveness. If you compared the quality of the pitches across the Zambezi in Zimbabwe, one would wonder if those pitches are in country faced with economic malaise and yet are able to maintain them. The situation is same with the Kenyan Premier League whose packaging of their league has become attractive by not only improving the branding around the stadia but most importantly improving the state of their playing turfs.  

The owners of these pitches should take keen interest and focus on building capacity in their groundsmen to ensure that football as a product is well packaged starting with a good playing turf. Perhaps, these teams should consider tapping Golf clubs such as Lusaka Golf and Chainama Golf Clubs to learn how they manage to maintain their golf courses.  Yes, Zambia has quality and exciting players but the state of the playing surfaces leaves much to be desired. It high time these big clubs who appear ready to part away with millions of Kwachas to brand their teams, sign foreign players and pay them well refocus their strategy by improving the quality of playing surfaces. There is no substitute to good football, it can only come when teams improve their turfs and the rest will follow.  

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza Must Respect the Constitution and The Will Of The People!

This week, Burundi has hit headlines on account of their President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a bid to run for a third term in office for the next presidential election to be held on 26th June 2015. The bid has seen three people, including two police officers, being killed due to the political unrest in that country. With the launch of the third term bid, it is clear that he do everything in his powers to retain power. I assume even at the price of having unfortunate deaths such as the three people including two police officers. Already, reports are suggesting that at least seven people had been killed and 66 others wounded in a week of clashes between police and protesters in the capital. This, without a doubt recipe for lawlessness and impending divisions in a country that has had a very rickety political past. 

Being a keen follower and commentator on International,  African and local affairs,  I must admit that President Nkurunziza is one President I least expected to attempt to chew the constitution and push  for a third term bid especially taking into account the difficult circumstances under which he became President of Burundi.

It’s a pity that his grovelers are justifying the third term bid on account of discounting first five year term her served. This is the man who was seen as a rising star in the contemporary African Renaissance to the extent that in September 2010, the India–based Unity International Foundation honored him with the "Rising Star of Africa Award” because he was viewed as a role model in peace consolidation and development for the whole of Africa.

It is not a secret that Burundi has had a difficult political past right from the first President Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza who was ousted in a coup by President Major Pierre Buyoya, all the way to President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and Cyprien Ntaryamira who was President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until the plane he was aboard together with Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down on 6 April 1994. The events that followed after the death of the two leaders were catastrophic as the world witnessed thousands of people being killed in the civil war along ethnic lines between the Hutu majority and minority Tutsis.

The world and African bodies such the African Union (AU), Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region which Zambia is a member should impress upon the Burundi Government to respect the wishes of the majority and the constitutional provisions that limit the Presidential tenure to only two. 

Zambia and Burundi share boarders through the great Lake Tanganyika which consequently there have been trade relations taking place between the two countries. Just in 2013, Zambia is reported to have exported a total of 40,000 metric tonnes of maize to Burundi as clear indication of the trade potential.  For more trade relations to proliferate and fortified, Zambia should play an active role to ensure that Burundi remains politically stable. 

In an event that the Burundi Constitutional Court rules that President Pierre Nkurunziza is eligible to run for a third term, the African Union and the International Community should impose sanctions Burundi to ensure that the will of the great majority is respected. The situation in Burundi is serious and African and the World at large cannot afford to be inconspicuous about it.  It is very simple; President Pierre Nkurunziza must respect the constitution and the will of the people.