Otniel Hembapu Windhoek-An independent committee, spearheaded by Amos Shiyuka and Elize Petersen, which was appointed a few months ago to investigate and do a thorough assessment on the state of Namibian sport, has finalised its probe and is ready to submit a detailed report to the line ministry. The two veteran sports administrators were appointed by the Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Jerry Ekandjo, via instructions of President Hage Geingob, who at the time expressed his growing concern over the dwindling state of local sport, particularly football. Shiyuka and Petersen’s appointment was aimed at assisting the sports ministry to come up with a ‘Remedial Sports Intervention Plan’, which would provide well-detailed solutions to the many problems obstructing the local sports fraternity from reaching its full potential. More importantly, the committee was expected to put much emphasis on the ever-growing trend of misappropriation of funds by sport administrators, maladministration, racism in sport, lack of developmental programmes and also to address the bloated sport codes on the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) radar, which government no longer can afford to maintain. With the assistance of the NSC, Shiyuka and Petersen were also expected to come up with formulas of how to commercialise Namibian sport so that it becomes less dependent on government subsidies and one such solution was to reduce the number of sport codes, which are currently more than 50. The pair was also tasked to come up with a system that will monitor, research and evaluate the impact of sport in society, a system that will fast-track information about other successful sport for development programmes in other countries that boast a strong track record and a research basis. Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday, Shiyuka said they are done with the whole process and have already finalised the report in the findings of their investigation, adding that the only thing left is to hand it over to the line ministry. He was however reluctant to go further into detail on the findings contained in the report, saying he cannot share anything with the media as the ministry is yet to see the report. “Unfortunately I can’t share anything at this point because the minister first has to receive and go through the report. Once he is satisfied and fully familiar with the report, I’m sure he will then communicate with the media and the public at large on the findings contained in the report. Like I said, it will be very unprofessional of me to disclose details of our report before we even hand it over to the minister,” said Shiyuka.
2017-09-14 10:26:41 1 years ago
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