Windhoek – In a letter addressed to the Namibia Premier League (NPL) executive committee on Friday, Civics FC is demanding that the league’s executive and, by extension, the secretariat fully implement the directives issued by the NPL’s Disciplinary Committee (DC) last month.
Last month, the league’s DC resolved to demote and give Gobabis club, Young African, a combined fine of N$50 000 for fraudulently registering and using Zimbabwean import Tapiwa Simon Musekiwa with tempered identity documents last season.
Additionally, the DC instructed that “Young African FC forfeits points for all the matches that the player played under the fraudulent cloud and that the points be deducted that were gained by Young African FC and must be awarded to the opponents whom they were playing against for each match,” the DC’s ruling clearly instructed.
Should the league fully implement the DC’s decision of deducting points from Young African and award them to the other clubs, it would mean relegated Young Chiefs will bounce back into the league and the chances of Civics playing in the upcoming Standard Bank Top-8 Cup will be bolster.
But the league has to date failed to implement the DC’s instructions and Young African has since been demoted but no points were awarded to the waiting teams. As a result, the NPL’s failure to implement those directives has affected the chances of Chiefs returning to top-tier football and equally the chances of Civics participating in the Top-8 Cup.
Consequently, Civics chairperson Donelly Nell on Friday wrote to the NPL executive committee to seek clarity as to why the DC’s resolutions were not implemented and further accused NPL chairman Patrick Kauta of deliberately overruling and undermining the DC’s decision by not implementing it.
“The chairperson Patrick Kauta unilaterally took a decision not to enforce the league standing as issued by the NPL Exco on the strength of the Disciplinary Committee ruling in the matter between NPL and Young African. You will undoubtedly appreciate that the Disciplinary Committee is an independent Judicial Tribunal and Kauta should accord such assistance as the Disciplinary Committee may require to protect its independence, dignity and effectiveness. We must Immediately point out that the ‘rules’ and ‘articles’ upon which Mr. Kauta purport to rely for his unilaterally decision not to enforce the final league standing of 2017/18 season, are simply irrelevant. None of the ‘articles’ and ‘rules’ relied upon are relevant and none establishes authority for Kauta to alter the DC ruling,” reads Civics letter.
It further reads: “For example, the chairperson proclaimed that the final league standing 2017/18 only for illustrative purposes which it is in fact an instrument for measuring for prize monies, relegation and qualification purpose, for instance Standard Bank Top 8.
“In fact, Kauta’s decision can rightly be classified as ultra vires, he went beyond the law making powers conferred on him by the NPL Constitution and Manual on Rules and Regulations, and restricted the DC ruling – which he did not have the power to do so. Despite the said ruling, we noticed that Civics FC does take part in the Standard Bank Top 8 Cup and we also find it most disconcerting that the NPL proceeded to exclude Civics FC for the Standard Bank Top 8 competition.”