The Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) yesterday officially launched the Namibia Uniform Forces/Service Sports Association, which is a new sports umbrella body that will accommodate athletes and regulate sporting activities of the Namibia Defence Force (NDF), Namibia Correctional Services (NCS) and the Namibia Police Force (NamPol).

NSC chief administrator Freddy Mwiya said thst  after long consultations with relevant stakeholders and the three forces, the Namibia Uniform Forces/Service Sports Association was successfully registered as a new umbrella body affiliated to the commission. 

Mwiya added that athletes from the NDF, NamPol and NCS have in the past couple of years produced top athletes in the country who have gone on to represent Namibia with utmost pride at international level, and with the launch of the new body, more athletes from the three forces can now be unearthed.  

“We started with this initiative in 2019 and after lengthy consultations we finally have this body as part of the regulating body. Thanks to NamScore Consultancy for inspiring the idea to launch the uniform body. Uniform forces have in the past produced several elite athletes such Helalia Johannes, Paulus Moses, Paulus Ambunda and Julius Indongo to mention but a few. So with this body being launched, we expect more athletes of similar calibre to be produced,” he said.

Also speaking at yesterday’s launch, NamPol’s Kenneth Muatara, who is also the acting chairman of the newly formed body, thanked the NSC for affiliating their body with them and also acknowledged their leaders in the forces for allowing them to compete with other bodies, and not in isolation.

“Thanks to our leader, Chief Inspector Sebastian Ndeitunga for the opportunity to come up with a constitution which accommodates us the uniform members. This will now allow us to operate things officially and legally and not in isolation,” he said.

Also during yesterday’s launch, the NSC used the platform to announce the continuation of its running memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF), a partnership that assists top performing athletes with study loans to pursue academic excellence at various institutions locally and abroad.

“The agreed MoU is a comprehensive framework of collaboration engaging the two organisations NSFAF and NSC and its affiliated members (sports federation and umbrella bodies) to be assisted with study loan facilities and supervise loan holders. The study loans are allocated to students who excel at national, regional, continental or international competitions and their candidatures are then analysed by the NSC in close corporation with the affiliates,” it was explained.

Some of the acclaimed fields of study under the initiative include sports nutrition, sports data analytics, high-performance sport management, sports management and sports journalism. - mkambukwe@nepc.com.na