The game of table tennis in Uganda is in limbo

By Philp Corry

It is with heavy hearts that we are forced to put out this information to the public, yet all the able media platforms available in Uganda are silent.

On several occasions, we have been denied the opportunity to speak on these platforms simply because of what we want to speak, but nonetheless, speak we shall here.

NOTE: Sadly the game of table tennis in Uganda is in limbo and it has been there for quite a while now & unles some changes are made at the management level of the sport, it is going to rot in limbo. Here’s how & why.

Recently on the 10th/ Jan/ 2021, UTTA officeholders held an elective general assembly at the Uganda Olympic Committee premises where they were reelected into office by a supposed 14 paid-up member clubs.

Jagwe Robert – Chairman, Emmanuel Matsyetsye – Vice-Chairman, Ronnie Andira – General Secretary, and Ronald Nyaika – Treasurer.

We would like to take this opportunity to offer our “congrats” to all members who won themselves a position. However, normally elections are a constitutional process and are made public for all concerned and non-concerned to possibly be part of, but the manner in which this one was hurried leaves big question marks.

Anyhow, the authenticity of the election will be a matter for another day, today we want to focus on the so-called PAID-UP MEMBER CLUBS that elected these office bearers, these include Ndejje University, Akitta, Mbogo College Sch, Fotogenix Table Tennis Club, Corner House, Mbale Table Tennis Academy, Roma table Tennis Club, Prime Table Tennis Club, Oasis Table Tennis Club, Manafwa, Mbale Tiger, Kampala International University, Pingis Academy, and Bet Surfers.

It is at this point that we repeat the headed statement above that “the National Council of Sports (NCS), the body in charge of regulating all national sports federations & associations is at a larger extent the main cause of the downfall of the sport of Table Tennis in Uganda”. HOW?

In the 2020, Jagwe Robert published a UTTA AGM report which stated that the Association only had “SIX PAID-UP MEMBER CLUBS” and these were, Corner House, bet surfers, Sekanyolya, Oasis, Ndejje University, and Mbogo College (see pic below).

Please put in mind that in March 2020 Uganda recorded its 1st Covid-19 victim which resulted in the government putting the whole country under lockdown in a bid to control the spread of the virus. All kinds of gatherings were forbidden including sports for a period of 6-8 months.

As table tennis players, we know very well what is on the ground regarding sport in the country, not only have we been dormant since lockdown, it’s been like this for years now, and that is why table tennis has not been represented at the _Uganda_Sports_Press_Association_-_USPA_ Gala for the last 4 years, (TOPIC FOR ANOTHER DAY). Jagwe and his team knew that despite the extreme dormancy of the sport, their time in office was up in 2021. So what did they do!

They rushed to register 8 more clubs to serve at the elections during a COVID-19 torn period where all sports programs were suspended!! Surely an organization like NCS should have the technical structuring to know that no club owner would be in a hurry to pay money to register a club in a dormant period, with a dormant association during hard financial times caused by the restrictions on the corona virus.

These are all briefcase clubs concocted to serve at the election and it’s the duty of National Council’s to vet and ensure that they are properly & constitutionally fulfilled with the structures and other requirements as stipulated in the UTTA Constitution.

Article 11.1C of the UTTA constitution states that “Clubs must only apply to join the UTTA for purposes of promoting the sport but not any other such as political or other detrimental purposes”.

We want to challenge  Ogwel Patrick the General Secretary at National Council of Sport and his team to prove that they vetted these clubs before presiding over at the election of 10th January this year i.e. produce the following information as stipulated in (Article 11 of the UTTA constitution) about only one of the supposed paid-up member clubs of the Uganda Table Tennis Association, i.e. “Fotogenix Table Tennis Club” it is a club that has existed in table tennis for many years and is owned by Tom Kiggundu a former Chairman of UTTA.

1. The administrative structure of the club, from its Chairperson, General Sec., Treasurer, Coach and players.
2. Produce the letter requesting to join the association, a sports related constitution, proof of playing the sport in the last 4 years and proof of training ground.
3. A letter from the association accepting the above request, receipt of subscription payment to the bank & receipt confirming payment from the association.

Please provide this information  Ogwel_Patrick_ or Donald_Rukare_ .
Lastly, we would like to share something about four clubs that are not registered with UTTA, these are _SLUM_PING_PONG_ located in kampala, _Nakasero_table_tennis_/_Rainbow_sports_centre_ in kampala, Honerics Club in Hoima and _Buyobo_Table_Tennis_Club_ located in a village called Buyobo in Sironko district.

These are currently the only full functional and constitutionally upright clubs in the country and that’s why they are all recognized by and recieve funding from the World Table Tennis governing body i.e. the _International_Table_Tennis_Federation_ .

Just last year _Buyobo_Table_Tennis_Club_ and _Nakasero_table_tennis_/_Rainbow_sports_centre_ each recieved in excess of 1000USD in grants to resurrect club operations amidst the corona virus restrictions from the _ITTF_Foundation_ , _SLUM_PING_PONG_ on the hand has a school fees program going on to help educate the children in the slum areas which ITTF and other sponsors are injecting a lot of money in.

Same with Honeric in hoima. So not only are these clubs helping to nurture the young boys & girls for a brighter future, they are bringing in millions of shillings for the country too.

But it is very puzzling and disturbing that non of these clubs are subscribed to the Uganda Table Tennis Association these are the sort of matters that the people sat in the offices at NCS should be looking into instead of drawing signatures to approve UTTA budget reports that are over 2 million UGX on just lunch for just 1 UTTA meeting of six people.

We appeal to the _Ministry_of_Education_and_Sports_Uganda_ _Janet_Kataaha_Museveni_ and the State Minister of sports Mr _Hon.Denis_Hamson_Obua_ to look into the operations of the _National_Council_of_Sports_ because there seems to be a deliberate plot to ignore the problems facing the sport and instead keep incompitent leaders to continue running it to the ground.