RUNDU – The Kavango East Football Association (KEFA), in conjunction with NFA are hosting an empowerment training of football coaches at Rundu.

This is done through a Fifa, NFA, with the objective to get to the grassroots, the five-day training started on Monday and ends on 29 August, with about 30 participants.

“We wish our young ones to realise their potential through you, there’s always a difference between a calling and something that you do because nobody else is doing it, I hope all of us in here coaching is our calling, and if you are a coach you behave more likely like how the teaching profession is So when you are a coach, you need to prepare what you are going to train your players just like how teachers prepare for lessons,’’ said KEFA Exco member Sau Ronginus, during the official opening of the course on Monday.

“You must always go to the field prepared, and Namibia is depending on you, specially in our region, if you look into our region it is supposed to have the best of the talent in this country but what is lacking is the people to cook this talent, if you go around even here in Rundu you will find small kids have their own academy’s but nobody is directing them or coaching them.

Sau told participants that when they get their certificates or licences they will become coaches with knowledge and recognition. “And by that we would like to see a change in the situation, I understand that coaching is very expensive but we must always think of what impact are we giving to our future players or leaders in sports,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, KEFA  chairperson, Patrick Mukoya, urged the participants to be productive after the training. “We need to be productive and disciplined as coaches, we should not entertain quarrels while on duty and off duty. Your duty is to train. I’m very happy as I see many young faces here, and we also have many experienced colleagues amongst us,’’ he said.

“Let us utilise this opportunity and let’s become the best, and also advise those out there that if they want to be self-employed, they should attend some courses, every day in the newspapers they are talking about unemployment, and this is one part of creating jobs for yourselves. We have a lot of coaches in our midst without papers, they always say I’m a coach, and I always ask those who claim to be coaches where they get their papers,’’ he said.

Conducting the training is Paulh ‘Shakes’ Mallembu, a Fifa-CAF coach educator and NFA instructor, together with NFA Junior instructor Julius Simbombo.

Mallembu is a popular football coach from the Kavango East Region, known for coaching major local teams like United Stars FC and Rundu Chiefs FC, and for his work with national youth teams. He is a proponent of positional play, technical skills, and combination play, and he emphasizes the importance of tactical development for young Namibian players. Mallembu also coaches women’s football at the COSSA Games and has experience with national under-17 and under-20 teams in Cosafa
competitions.

While Simbombo is a football coach who was appointed as the assistant coach of the Brave Gladiators (Namibia’s senior women’s national team) in February 2025, joining Head Coach Woody Jacobs. He is the founder of Buffalo Horns Football Academy, a football academy in Rundu and Nkurenkuru, and previously coached Bingo FC and the Kavango West team to the championship title in the 2023 Newspaper Cup.