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Windfall for Mighty Gunners

2008-07-03  Staff Report 2

Windfall for Mighty Gunners
"By Carlos Kambaekwa OTJIWARONGO MTC Namibia Premiership rookies Mighty Gunners have been boosted by a massive sponsorship ahead of their penultimate clash against Black Africa at the Mokati Stadium in Otjiwarongo, this weekend. The men in uniform have thrown in their might with local insurance giant Lawsure and will from now on be known as Lawsure Namibian Defence Force Mighty Gunners Football Club. The Otjiwarongo-based team became the proud recipients of a whopping N$300,000 sponsorship deal that runs over a period of three years. The deal was concluded at a glittering ceremony at the 4 ARTY Military Base headquarters, north-east of Otjiwarongo yesterday. The Managing Director of Lawsure, Danie Botes, says his company has been following the team's rapid progress with an eagle eye and decided to join the fray and become part of a team that is capable of winning trophies, playing entertaining football and being a major force in domestic football. ""Our primary aim is to see this team going from strength to strength - hence our decision to invest in the club and players alike."" Botes challenges the playing personnel and technical staff to make a difference in people's lives through the game of football, and urged the team's followers to join hands and take out policies with Lawsure. He assured the team' followers that Lawsure would honour its obligation even in the event of Gunners failing to escape relegation during the current season. Lawsure is an insurance entity that specializes in labour issues, human right abuses, road accident claims, criminal charges, and assisting with bail applications and tax disputes, amongst a horde of issues that requires legal assistance. In his acceptance speech, Major General Epafulas Ndaitwah, who is also the patron of Gunners, said: ""Mighty Gunners is the first ever team from any NDF unit to have reached the highest peak in the history of domestic football because the team did not get into the country's topflight league by chance."" Ndaitwah adds that Gunners' promotion to the elite league was the culmination of the historical background of the military base. ""In real life, failure is always an orphan while success is every one's child, and this is because nobody wants to associate themselves with failure, so let us all soldier on by taking courage and be the parents of Mighty Gunners through success and failure. By so doing, there will no time when the Gunners would become an orphan."" Gunners was formed in 2003 and started in the national second division before they gained promotion to the upper tier the following season. However, the team's quest for promotion was stalled by boardroom wrangles but this did not stop the men in uniform from taking their rightful place amongst the country's leading football teams, as they eventually got promoted to the MTC Namibia Premier League at the beginning of the current season. Though the men in uniform have been finding life a bit tough in top flight football, the club's long serving coach, Dawid Snewe, is highly confident his team won't go down this season. ""It has been a learning curve for most of our young and relatively inexperienced players but we will definitely survive the dreaded axe and from what I've seen in our last match away to Oshakati City last weekend - this team is more than capable of beating both Black Africa and Orlando Pirates in our remaining two matches on home turf, believe you me."" "
2008-07-03  Staff Report 2

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