A whopping amount of N$3.4 million that was initially meant for this year’s annual Dr Hage Geingob Cup has been diverted and will now be rechannelled towards a charity initiative that will see pensioners across the country benefiting from the scheme.
This year’s edition of the President’s cup was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which had restricted and in some cases limited the number of spectators in attendance at sporting events countrywide.
As a result, the organisers of the Dr Hage Geingob Cup resolved to cancel the 2020 edition of the popular football tournament and chose to rather invest the funds intended for this year’s event into a charitable initiative that will see thousands of the country’s old-age pensioners benefitting through various donations.
This year’s edition of the Dr Hage Geingob Cup was officially launched yesterday in the capital and saw President Hage Geingob, various sponsors and organisers of the prestigious event all in attendance.
Speaking at yesterday’s presser, Geingob expressed his happiness with the fact that although the sporting side of the event had been cancelled, organisers still creatively went ahead to find another way for Namibians to benefit from the competition.
“It’s a very important event that unifies the nation through football, that’s the main purpose of the tournament. So, this year we thought of doing it differently by putting the resources that were meant for the competition together and giving it back to the elders, because it could only make sense through this way. We thought of a way of giving back to the group that was most hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Geingob said.
Through the Dr Hage
Geingob Cup charity initiative, pensioners across all old-age homes will be receiving items such as TV sets, toiletries, blankets, mattresses, radios, food parcels, and a whole raft of essential goods.
The goods to be donated will be financed with the N$3.4 million meant for this year’s tournament, which stems from MTC’s N$1.6 million sponsorship and Namibia Breweries Limited’s N$1.6 million sponsorship as well as N$250 000 sponsorship from Bank Windhoek.
–mkambukwe@nepc.com.na