National team boxers led by celebrated Patrick Chinyemba and Margret Tembo have said they cannot work under newly-appointed head coach Kangwa because they feel he’s unqualified to handle them
The controversy surrounding the appointment of Charles Kangwa as the head coach of Zambia’s national boxing team has taken a new twist with the country’s top boxers disowning him and making it clear they still recognise Wisdom Mudenda as their head coach.
Paris Olympics quarter-finalist Patrick “Baddo” Chinyemba and 2022 African Championships minimumweight gold medallist Margret Tembo, speaking on behalf of national team boxers, have told boxersworld.co.ke they still recognise Wisdom Mudenda as their head coach.
A furious Chinyemba, a gold medallist in the 2022 African Championships and reigning African Games flyweight champion, said it’s impossible for Kangwa, Star-1 coach to replace more experienced Star-2 Mudenda.
“Coach Mudenda has been with us for a long time he’s very experienced more than Kangwa and understands boxing,” said Chinyemba, adding: “No coach had won more than four medals in the African Games but Mudenda did it with us in Accra in 2024 he won seven medals, Kangwa can’t be the senior coach but can work under Mudenda, infact we don’t want him at all in the national team.”
Tembo on her part said: I myself won’t allow it to happen because it will affect my performance, I have been with coach Mudenda ever since I joined the national team and I will say he is the best so far.”
Tembo pulled no punches telling the President of Zambia Boxing Federation Boniface Sokoni they will not work under Kangwa.
“If they want to put Charles Kangwa as the head coach they have to change the team as well because we’re with coach Mudenda, he knows us very well.
“As a senior national team boxer I’m not in support of removing Mudenda, we have been with him for a long time and respect his professionalism.”
Contacted, Mudenda dismissed the appointment of Kangwa whom he said is his junior having conducted a course in 2017 in which Kangwa was one of his students.
Mudenda put the record straight saying his removal has nothing to do with indiscipline as alleged by the Zambia Boxing Federation President Boniface Sokoni but it has more to do with the federation’s elections early this year.
Mudenda aligned himself with the President of the day Lt Colonel Mashakwa Nalumango who took over from Dan Chiteule at the end of last year after Chiteule stepped out for health reasons. Nalumango was the Deputy President to Chiteule.
“There was no way I would have gone against the current office as is normally the case during the elections that’s why I supported Nalumango,” Mudenda told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview from Lusaka.
Mudenda said Sokoni has no valid reason to replace him with a junior coach just because he (Mudenda) didn’t support him during the elections.
“Instead he should have elevated me to become the National Technical Director but not bringing Kangwa to replace me, it doesn’t make sense at all,” said Mudenda.
“The President didn’t even have the courtesy to write to me or call me for a meeting to discuss the change.”
Mudenda is one of Zambia’s most successful boxing coaches and has guided the national team to the medal bracket in a number of major international tournaments including the Accra African Games winning two gold, three silver and two bronze medals. He started coaching the national team in 2007 up to 2012 when he was removed after a new executive office took over and returned to the fold in 2017.
Mudenda is currently a Start-2 coach he acquired in 2010.
“I was the first Zambian coach to be given a star status. All the current Star-1 coaches passed through my hands.
“At one time,” recalls Mudenda, “I was given an opportunity to attend a Star-3 certification course by a white couple who owned a gym in Zambia, Ibex. They wanted to sponsor me to go to Kazakhstan during the World Championships but the offer was gunned down by the people who were in power.”
Mudenda said he would not mind being replaced by the right coach younger than him.
“I can be comfortable when the federation appoints someone younger than me who understands boxing properly but not my student Kangwa who is over 60 years. In the class of 2013/17, I identified a few coaches who can take over and be groomed to be better coaches.”
The removal of Mudenda has ignited a hail of criticism from boxing stakeholders including former Zambia Boxing Federation President Thomas Chileshe and a prominent professional boxing promoter Christopher Malunga.
The federation’s Secretary-General Gift Banda has also resigned in protest at the appointment of Kangwa and what he said was poor leadership under Sokoni.
“Kangwa does not qualify to be the national coach, he lacks the requisite qualifications,” said Banda.
Chileshe was quoted in the local dailies saying the change was malicious and that proper procedures were not followed.
“Had the federation followed proper consultation, the question of qualification would not have been an issue,” said Chileshe while Malunga has described the appointment of Kangwa as an embarrassment to Zambia boxing.
In a statement, Malunga said: “It is shameful that Charles Kangwa has arrogated to himself the role of spokesperson for ZBF. His administrative knowledge of boxing is virtually nonexistent, and every statement he makes only exposes his ignorance.
“The Federation made a grave mistake appointing him as national team coach. A Star 1 coach has no mandate to lead a national team — at best, he only qualifies to assist a Star 2 coach, which is the minimum requirement for such a position.
“This appointment is a disservice to Zambian boxing and must be reversed without delay. We will take this matter up with the rightful authorities mandated to administer the sport, and we demand his immediate removal. Entertaining Kangwa any further is not only pointless, it is an insult to the integrity of our sport.”
With his guard high up to shield himself from a rain of punches from every corner, Kangwa has defended his appointment, and said he has attended two certified courses in Nairobi, one in 2007 under the military supervision.
“For people to say someone else wrote the exams on my behalf is unfair, let them prove it,” Kangwa was quoted as saying in a local daily.
He also took a swipe at criticism from the professional boxing sector.
“What’s their business in amateur boxing, let them concentrate on amateur boxing,” said a defiant Kangwa.
My efforts to get a comment from the Zambian federation president Sokoni were unsuccessful even through messages on his WhatsApp wall. For how long Sokoni will remain under his protective shell remains to be seen as pressure mounts on the removal of Kangwa.
