By Aloysius Byamukama
Former commissioner of physical education and sports Dan Tamwesigire has come out with a response to his decision to stop boxing in schools in Uganda.
Tamwesigire ordered the banning of the sport in Ugandan schools in 2009 when he was serving in the same position, and efforts by Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) to revise the decision has been futile since.
While speaking on behalf of federation heads during the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Associations (USSSA) annual general meeting last Friday at Old Kampala SS, UBF president Moses Muhangi blamed Tamwesigire for taking the decision he said was not a right one to take and has since had a negative impact on the sport, pleading with the current commissioner Rev Can Duncans Mugumya to help.
“I have tried to ask for that letter banning boxing so I go to court, but I have not got it. People understand football, they understand athletics but they don’t understand boxing and all this is happening because there’s a man called Tamwesigire. Hon commissioner our performance internationally is not good because we don’t have youngsters coming up,” Muhangi said
However, Tamwesigire has responded in a sound that affirms his decision and is not ready to advise differently.
“If his Federation can meet the basic safety requirements as listed by the International Boxing Federation (to which UBF is affiliated) let him go ahead and organize the sport in our (Uganda) schools. But I am yet to know a teacher training institution which has Boxing in its curriculum,” Tamwesigire said.
Adding, “Importantly, for any activity to be done at school SAFETY is paramount. We should not do an activity because others are doing it. You may wish to Google safety in Boxing for the youth. Do you know of any sport whose main objective is to disable (knock out) the opponent even if most contests are won on points?,” Tamwesigire responded.
USSSA president Patrick Okanya says the association is looking at how to include combat games (karate, boxing and kickboxing) since they played at schools international level where Uganda participates.
Commissioner Mugumya says they will seat as a ministry and find out from the previous leaders why the sport was removed, then see the concerns and then devise means of working on them together with other stakeholders like NCS and associations in schools before taking a decision on whether to have it back or not.
Boxing was scrapped from the schools’ calendar in a February 2009 communication by Tamwesigire, to then IOC sports education and development officer Thomas Sithole, as he was on a technical visit to Uganda.