Maqonda Ndlovu
The Namibia Taekwondo Federation (NTF) was officially admitted as a new member of the World Taekwondo family on 28 May 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Speaking to New Era Sport on Tuesday, following the successful registration of the federation, interim president of NTF Sieggie Veii-Mujoro said Namibia was one of the two African countries (along with Eritrea) that did not have taekwondo as a sport.
“The vice president of the Taekwondo African Union Jonathan Nnaji expressed a desire to see Namibia taking part in the sport. I was approached to set up the federation as an interim president. We fulfilled the requirements, and African Taekwondo registered us and helped us get our world affiliation,” Veii-Mujoro said.
Namibia becomes the 130th country to be affiliated with World Taekwondo.
The admission was crucial for Namibia, as this is a new sport for the country.
“We do not have the capacity or finances; government cannot assist us in developing this sport. The admission will pave the way for the development in the form of finances, equipment and human capital in the form of coaches, administrators and so on,” explained Veii-Mujoro.
He further said their immediate task is to start with the training of trainers, establish clubs and draw the interest of people in Namibia.
Veii-Mujoro said they will submit NTF’s budget request to World Taekwondo through the African Taekwondo to start developing the sport in Namibia.
He said the strategy is to take the sport to the men and women in uniform (the army, police and correctional services) and to schools, and establish clubs in each of the 14 regions in the country.
They will then form regional federations that will then advance the interest of the games.
Veii-Mujoro added they will soon share their strategic plan with the nation, as they hope that Namibians accept taekwondo as a national sport.
“We will share with the media about our training programme, where can people go to practise taekwondo and so on. We also plan to use the regional sports officers from the ministry of sport to get us people of interest,” he added.
Veii-Mujoro is assisted by Cornelius Dalton as the interim vice president, Jatjinda Kambatuka as the interim secretary general, as well as interim exco members Joviita Kandjumbwa, Basilius Karupu, Protasius Singombe and Tendai Chikumbu.