…stand up and be counted
It’s a well-documented secret that many people are affected by the habitual reticence of those who control the purse strings to commit without reserve to the development and success of certain sports codes in this country.
Truth be told, larneys are still very much in charge of the purse and ultimately our common destiny, unfortunately that’s the naked truth whether we like it or not. Those at the helm of corporate businesses are passionate enemies of sports bodies that are predominantly under the stewardship of people whom they perceive to be generally corrupt and incapable of being trusted with sponsorship funds to administer the various sporting disciplines in this country. Yours truly feels very sorry for sports codes such as netball, but one cannot under the present circumstances draw all the distinctions we should like to. However, suffice it to say that turning to the question of sponsorship, there has, yours truly has observed, never been a finger pointed in the direction of our own business moguls, the chief beneficiaries of Black Economic Empowerment (our BEE magnates).
Namibia has a horde of them roaming around cruising in top of the range flashy toys (vehicles) and boasting openly about their seemingly bottomless pockets where the moolah is holed up for safety, a portion of which could have been given to the needy without shedding an ounce of sweat. As it stands, there is an urgent need to reconstitute the BEE philosophy since under the current format this entire exercise does not seem to serve any useful purpose insofar as development, sports or otherwise, is concerned. Perhaps it is time to imbue these BEE moguls with a social conscience by legislation and to require of them to donate a small portion of their too easily begotten proceeds to needy organizations such as orphanages and financially struggling sporting disciplines, particularly netball and volleyball to mention only a couple.
Darkies have always been quick out of their blocks to apportion blame to larneys whenever things are not going their way. This comedy of shenanigans unfolds every day while our own brethren are having a jolly good time in Evelyn Street, guzzling the most expensive wine and downing mind-numbing amounts of beer, getting beerier and beerier meanwhile, only to wrap up the foggy bacchanalian exercise with a dinner at Hotel Thule sure to be upchucked later.
Poor beleaguered and cash-strapped netball, despite its borderless popularity and being one of very few sporting disciplines that has managed to overcome the hangover of apartheid and boast people from all walks of life and hues, continues to suffer neglect, ever since Namibia’s independence in 1990. It’s against this background that yours truly would like to sincerely pay tribute to the courage and fortitude of those in charge of the ladies game for their perseverance and unwavering dedication to take the game of netball to greater heights and to reclaim our rightful place among the best netball playing nations in the world. However, all those efforts and the dream may never be realised in the absence of financial support and other needed resources. It remains my fervent hope and prayer that some of our ‘brek gat’ self-styled BEE moguls will put their money where their traps are in order to rescue this adrenaline pumping game played by our ladies from going the way of the dinosaurs and certain demise.
Dear readers, I beg your pardon, no offence to the integrity of the Khomas Central Zone Netball League, but what really prompted yours truly to tackle this burning issue bare-knuckled derives from the laughable prizes dished out at the league’s season ending prize giving ceremony in Windhoek last weekend. Come on, a paltry N$1 000 for the team of the year award and N$100 and N$150 vouchers for individual winners is a disgrace and an insult to the ladies game, to put it mildly. The exercise in my view severely devalues netball in general and needs to be interrogated with the urgency it deserves before netball takes the inevitable dive into oblivion. Netball has been skating on very thin ice over the last couple of years and needs to be rescued from the doldrums. No wonder Namibia has been overtaken by former continental minnows Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia, while we were ranked No 2 in Africa and among the world’s best netball playing nations just slightly over two decades ago. We must not hesitate to remove leaders if they fail to deliver instead of waiting until irreparable damage has been done to take action. I rest my case.
By Carlos Kambaekwa