NCS, netball federation may be losing key thing
Sarah Babirye Kityo and her executive committeee have had their license to run netball revoked. PHOTO/COURTSEY
What you need to know:
- The issue: Net ball
- Our view: The She Cranes’ success at the global stage over the past decade is supposed to be the building block upon which netball is spread to communities across the country.
How many national netball team players do you know? During the pause, also ponder how much you know about the game in general.
Ugandan sports needs this kind of conversation routinely in order to steer the subsector into a territory where we expect success and not live on shocks.
Wouldn’t we all want a debate about who the better goal shooter is between Peace Proscovia and Mary Nuba? That would be engrossing.
However, every opportunity to build our sports in this direction is often eroded by faces that do not necessarily inspire the masses to succeed in sports.
Last week presented yet another platform for us to lose sight of the crystal ball as the National Council of Sports (NCS) and Uganda Netball Federation (UNF).
Among the key issues stated by the NCS include failure to abide by the constitutional provisions of the UNF (2012) for election of the executive committee and failure to follow the correct procedure to amend the constitution.
Another reason is the failure to resolve the governance and leadership challenges within the UNF contrary to section 15(1) (f) of the National Sports Act 2023.
UNF also reportedly failed to disclose sources of funding to NCS – contrary to section 22 of the National Sports Act 2023 and regulation 16 (2) of the NCS –statutory instrument 38 of 2014.
They also reportedly failed to inform NCS of the several bank accounts that the netball federation resolved to open without following procedures and their use of forged and unauthorised documents to open these accounts.
In turn, Ms Sarah Babirye Kityo, the outgoing UNF president, accuses the NCS general secretary, Mr Bernard Patrick Ogwel, of asking for kickbacks. She further claims that she was given Shs186m and asked to account for Shs425m in addition to NCS interfering in internal federation matters.
Clearly, the relationship between the regulator and one of its 51 member associations has gone sour over a long time.
Nonetheless, to focus on the fight between personalities that will never step on court to inspire anyone to play the sport is losing sight of the important things
Today, the decision taken by NCS will almost certainly silence the 50 other member associations. The room for debate and divergent views is closed, for now. Both parties are currently wasting a grand opportunity to build on the small and big strides taken by the sport through the performances of the national team – the She Cranes.
That team’s success at the global stage over the past decade is supposed to be the building block upon which netball is spread to communities across the country.
The faces of Ms Babirye and Mr Ogwel will never do that. The faces of Ms Proscovia and Ms Nuba can do this for us.
