Chilima shines in basketball as ‘MVP’: Malawi veep calls for spirit of self reliance
State Vice President of Malawi, Dr Saulos Chilma, after taking part in one day Central Zone Basketball League (Cezobal) basketball bonanza meant to raise funds for the construction of a new basketball court at Civo stadium premise, encouraged Malawians to embrace the spirit of self reliance and independence.
He made the call on Saturday evening. On the day, Chilima captained the Civo Bucks Team which narrowly beat the Diplomats by 66 baskets to 65.
He said Cezobal has embarked on an ambitious project which must at all costs be done as he said failure is never an option.
The project further entails into building an indoor facility.
The Vice President said there may never be enough donors to come in to provide a helping hand, as such, self help initiatives like these are always appreciated especially coming at a time when President Peter Mutharika is promoting the life of self reliance and independence.
“Before engaging organizations, stakeholders and other individuals, the basketball fraternity must follow and take the first step of self reliance if it is to have decent facilities and also be able participate in international games and competitions.
“With more resources, others have achieved less. With less, others have achieved more. We have slightly more but we need to work hard if we are to achieve much more. This is very commendable and I look forward to coming here to witness the ground breaking of your indoor facility and eventually play on the new basketball court,” said Chilima.
General Secretary for Cezobal, Peter Gomani, in his remarks said he was excited with the outcome of the tournament which targeted to raise K25 million.
“I am very excited because what we expected is what we have seen today. We are also very happy that the vice president, all the VIPs and organizations we invited are all here. We are also happy that all the games have successfully been played,” said Gomani.
However, he said the actual date of starting the ground work is still in the draft book.
“We have managed to raise some money and many more companies are still coming in to help. However, I cannot say the actual date the ground work will begin because we are still in the planning stages. We also need to see how much we still need for the project but we will start very soon,” he said.
Some of the teams that took part in the tournament include Tnm, Airtel, CDH, Top City Blantyre Select, Zodiak and the Malawi Defense Force.
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