Kuyeri flanked by fellow Board member Helene Mpinganjira-Tasosa and Sports Council director, Limbani Matola
* Members of the public are the ones who appreciate how the sportsmen and women have entertained them
* The Awards Gala night venue has also been shifted from the traditional Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe
* To Sunbird Nkopola in lakeshore district of Mangochi to be held on February 28, 2025
By Duncan Mlanjira
The system of voting for this year’s Malawi Sport Awards in honouring the sports personalities who have excelled in different disciplines, will involving members of the public, taking cognizance that they are the ones who appreciate how the sportsmen and women have entertained them.
This was announced by Malawi National Council of Sports Board member, Gladson Kuyera at a press in Blantyre today, adding that the Awards Gala night venue has also been shifted from the traditional Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe to Sunbird Nkopola in Mangochi to be held on February 28, 2025.
“This will be an improved version from the system we were using in the past six editions,” said Kuyeri, who is chairperson of Sports Council marketing & research committee. “We were using technical people for selection but leaving out an important constituency, the public themselves.
“We thought it wise to include them because they understand how the sportsmen and women have entertained them in various sports disciplines.”
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On his part, Sports Council, director of planning, marketing & infrastructure development, Limbani Matola, who is chairperson of the main organising committee, said the first selection will be done by sports associations themselves, who will nominate those they deem to have performed better than the rest.
After that, selected members of journalists will then assess authenticity of selection whose final approval will go for an adjudication panel with 70% rating strength to come up with three top nominees, who will be voted for by the public at 30% rating.
For the change of venue, Matola said the Malawi Sport Awards honours excellence and the lakeshore event is to make them feel that their performances are been well rewarded on top of the fabulous cash prizes they receive.
Malawi Sport Awards is a red carpet event honouring excellence and the winners in each category automatically qualify for the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 awards.
Last year’s event
Last year’s Sports Personality of the Year accolade went to Malawi Scorchers Temwa Chawinga, who also won the Sports Woman of the Year award, beating her sister Tabitha.
It was in recognition of her role in leading the Malawi Scorchers to their first-ever international women football title, the COSAFA Women Championship 2023 where she also attained four individual accolades — Player of the Tournament; the Golden Boot award as well as two Player of the Match.
On top of that, the Malawi Scorchers won the National Team of the Year while their coach Lovemore Fazili was named the Coach of the Year.
The accolade for Sportsman of the Year went to Yamikani Guba — Malawi’s only heavyweight professional taekwondo athlete based in the UK, who has been recognised for winning 15 medals in 2023 in taekwondo in his host country, UK where he is serving in the British Army — 6 gold medals; 6 silver and 3 bronze.
For his contributions in which his team Nyasa Big Bullets won four titles in 2023 — the TNM Super League, FDH Bank Cup, Castel Challenge Cup and the Airtel Top 8 — Zimbabwean coach Kalisto Pasuwa went home with the Non-Citizen of the Year award.
Female referee Enes Gumbo was named the Best Referee; Malawi Schools Under-15 girls captain, Victoria Mkwala is the Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year; Malawi Paralympic Committee (MPC) president James Chiutsi as the Sports Administrator of the Year while Para-Sport Against Stigma was the Best Executed Sports Programme.
Hanna Winesi and Mphatso Saukire won the Sportswoman and Sportsman with disabilities respectively while and Luke Chimwemwe Smit won the Junior Sports Person of the Year.
The Best Sports District of the Year was Karonga with Mibawa Television being honoured as the Best Sports Media House of the Year. Out of the 16 awards, eight went to football — National Team of the Year, Sports Personality of the Year, Coach of the Year, Junior Female Sports Person of the Year, Sports Woman of the Year, Non-Citizen, Best Referee and Sports Association.
Chilima announcing the overall winner last year
The Malawi Sport Awards Gala 2023 was graced by former Vice-President, late Saulos Chilima as guest of honour and in his speech, he emphasised the importance of embracing sports as a substantial business opportunity for Malawi.
He had said sports is a big business and can be used to generate financial resources for the sports sector as well as the country’s economy through talent export — and thus urged corporate companies to step forward and support sports by offering sponsorship and advertising opportunities, envisioning the awards ceremony as a flagship event in Africa.
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