While one should applaud the Namibian Under-21 ladies hockey team for her courageous commendable good showing at the ongoing Under-21 Africa Junior Hockey World Cup Qualifiers on home soil – one is obliged by the oath of our beloved land of the brave to pause for a long breath and take a decent look at the overall composition of the team’s playing personnel. Do yours truly really need to remind you my dear readers and sports followers that the composition of the team leaves quite a lot to be desired since it does not truly reflect the genuine representation of our demographic and diverse cultural society.
This is the very same sporting discipline that has been time and again showered with praises and bestowed with accolades by the country’s sports authorities for the best development programmes over the last couple of years. Now, the fundamental question that needs to be seriously addressed is; were all these camouflaged juicy developmental programmes just a hawk tailored to hoodwink unsuspected sports officials into believing that development was seriously enjoying top priority at the Doc Jubber fields in Olympia?. I’m jus asking. Namibia has just celebrated two decades, 26-years to be precise, of democracy and yet previously disadvantaged indigenous Namibians are being deliberately grounded and sideline when it comes to representing their native land at August gatherings internationally. Hold on, the buck stops with the seemingly toothless National Sports Commission (NSC) or else who should shoulder blame for these ongoing shenanigans.
It should be well consumed and plainly understood that its incumbent upon the NSC to ensure national teams fulfill certain requirements as enshrined in our constitution and the Namibian sports act of 2003.
NSC is obliged to do proper checks and balances before sanctioning the composition of such dubiously selected teams representing the country at events of such magnitude.
For the umpteenth time, the bone of contention is about transformation, which should not be confused with development because the latter is about nurturing gifted athletes while talent identification should at no be colour-coded at any costs. Transformation is about creating opportunities to talented athletes who are constantly at the receiving end of prejudices and not given a chance to prove their worth as deserving squad members. It’s a well-documented secret that Larneys are given countless opportunities week in and week out to proven themselves while darkies are exposed to sporadic chances or none at all. Many a sporting discipline previously reserved for the elite minorities appears to not have embraced the concept of unification notwithstanding the fact that Namibian sports is now operating under one banner. Of course, there has been an acceptance of unity because reality demands that Finish and Klaar!!!. As it stands, it looks like embracing change has been quite a bitter pill to swallow for those who are used to being in charge and pulling the strings. I rest my case.