Maqonda Ndlovu
MTC officially launched the fourth edition of its famed Knockout Project, which will see funds raised and channelled towards the Brave Warriors’ preparation and participation at the 2024 Confederation of African Football (Caf)’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
The tournament is scheduled for Ivory Coast in January and February 2024.
The launch took place in Windhoek yesterday, where MTC chief human capital and corporate affairs officer Tim Ekandjo said the plan was to celebrate perseverance through the Brave Warriors.
“When it is fashionable to give up, these boys have persevered. They have gone through a lot of things that we do not need to know or mention by simply
saying. Whatever my circumstances, I will not give up. We can learn quite a lot as Namibians. They have taught us
perseverance through not giving up,” Ekandjo said. The Brave Warriors have
played their home matches away from home, while the local league has been in limbo for more than four years due to infighting at the NFA.
Despite going through all these challenges, the easiest thing to do was to quit, but the team decided to defy the odds and qualify for Afcon 2024. As a country, we can learn a lot from these boys when it comes to perseverance, as Ekandjo explained.
“There are two important things we want to achieve. First, we want to send our boys to Ivory Coast well-prepared. I always say we expect a lot of good results, but we do not prepare as well as our opponents do. The second thing is that the Brave Warriors have never progressed from the group stages of the Afcon tournament. We are saying to them that this year, the nation is behind you; qualify for the group stages,” Ekandjo said.
He added that the project aimed to raise N$5 million in a space of one month through this project, which will be channelled to the Brave Warriors’ participation at Afcon.
Ekandjo said private and public-sector institutions are encouraged to pledge a minimum of $100 000.
These pledges should be made by the 8th of December. There will be an SMS line that will be running for ordinary Namibians to contribute to this code. The SMS line, 88488, will cost N$3.00. Ekandjo said individuals who would like to contribute to the Brave Warriors can contribute any amount to the project.
MTC pledged 40% of the amount (N$2 million), with the rest set to come from other contributors. The MTC honcho said this project is being done with the blessings of their main sponsor of the team, Tafel Lager and the Namibia Football Association.
National Housing Enterprise (NHE) manager of Corporate Communications and Marketing Mutonga Matali said they will support the project with N$100 000.
The Hage Geingob Cup organisers said they will donate all the proceeds from the gate-takings, collected on 18 November, to the Brave Warriors’ preparations.
Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin thanked the MTC Knockout Project for the initiative, saying it will go a long way in encouraging the players to give their all and achieve their dream of winning at least one game at Afcon.
The MTC Knockout Project has seen 35 companies from both the public and private sectors come together in the past three years to raise N$3.5 million, which has benefitted the fight against gender-based violence, homelessness and nation-building. – jrnmarko@gmail.com