With no available remedies within the local football setup, sports minister Agnes Tjongarero has cast her net wider in search of solutions and expertise to help normalise the deteriorating situation of Namibian football.
As part of her ongoing mediating efforts to try and bring about harmony between the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and the expelled Namibia Premier League (NPL), Tjongarero instructed the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) to appoint an independent committee that will investigate, reengineer and come up with strong and tangible recommendations that will help kick off football.
The newly-appointed six-member mediator committee will comprise of Botswana-born veteran administrator and chief executive officer of African Union Sports Council Region 5 (AUSC) Stanley Mutoya, Bro-Mathew Shinguadja, Walter Don, Roswitha Gomachas, Heritha Muyoba and Thomas Mbeeli, who are all renowned Namibians from diverse fields of public and private administration.
The committee’s appointment was yesterday jointly announced by Tjongarero and the ministry’s leadership team as well as NSC chairperson Joel Mathews during a press conference held at the ministry’s headquarters.
Mathews said the committee have been given a one-month timeline to complete the task of restoring football and added that members of the committee went through a vetting process and were selected based on their expertise and knowledge of sports and public administration.
“We have full trust in the appointed committee and we hope they will help bring the situation of football back to normal. They (committee members) all went through a vetting process and looking at their various skills and expertise, we are fully confident in them. The committee has been given powers to engage and consult as widely as possible and that includes engaging both the NFA and NPL during this process,” said Mathews.
Tjongarero yesterday emphasised that football is a national sports code which remains at the forefront of the government’s developmental initiatives because of its potential to contribute to employment creation and social welfare.
“Based on the provisions of Chapter 6, Article 40 (a) of the Namibian Constitution read in conjunction with Section 14 of the Namibia Sport Act 12 of 2003, my office has directed the NSC to appoint, in line with Section 8 of the Namibia Sport Act, a committee to independently and impartially mitigate the impasse in the Namibian football. The ministry humbly appeal to all stakeholders to render support and assistance to the committee to achieve the intended assignment. The committee will be authorised to conduct its business in accordance with the terms of reference. It is expected that the committee will, at the conclusion of its term, produce a report with recommendations to enable my office to determine the next course of action,” she said.
-ohembapu@nepc.com.na