Judge me based on my special skills, says Mpondela
By MICHAEL MIYOBA
ZAMBIA Athletics president Elias Mpondela has called on the sporting community that will take part in next week’s National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NOCZ) elections to judge him based on his special skills.
Mpondela has expressed interests to challenge NOCZ president Alfred Foloko in the elections slated for January 15.
In an interview, Mpondela said he was not special but has special skills which can transform NOCZ into a better organisation.
Mpondela said he would do things differently to ensure that the performance of national Olympics goes higher and use NOCZ to market the country and sports at international level.
Mpondela said he is not too intelligent than his competitors but was privileged to have been exposed to numerous leadership positions which would help him to execute his duties diligently if elected as NOCZ president.
“I’m coming in not as a special person but I’m coming with my special skills that I believe when deployed, those special skills, special connections, special networks, my ability to raise money and my ability to connect with the corporate world is what NOCZ requires.
“Some of the failures we do record is because we have no voice and sometimes we have no voice because the voices are not there and so I believe my brother Foloko has done the best he can and he knows how the elections were four years ago and the voters know that we need to elevate the profile of sports in the country so my massage to the voters is that judge me by my record,” Mpondela said.
Mpondela said his vision is to make sport as an industry and involve the corporate world to achieve commercialisation of sport that will lead to sport being an industry that creates jobs.
He said he has the credentials and a proven track record required to transform sport to an entertainment and economic industry that requires very prepared leadership.
