Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek-Looking at it from a broader view, the categorisation of sport codes at this point appears to be the only panacea to Namibia’s sports funding headache, chairperson of the newly-established Independent Task Force, Amos Shiyuka strongly believes.
An independent task force was recently set up by the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Services to devise a well-packaged ‘Remedial Sports Intervention Plan’ aimed at addressing a raft of shortcomings within the local sport fraternity. Shiyuka heads the two-member task force with veteran sport administrator Elize Petersen.
Addressing President Hage Geingbob during the football stakeholders meeting at State House yesterday, Shiyuka said if Namibia is to become a nation that thrives through sports, then the prioritisation and categorisation of sport codes is the way forward.
Shiyuka is of the view that with the current limited resources at government’s disposal, it is impossible to satisfactorily fund all the country’s 52 sport codes and that the only way to optimally and effectively distribute the limited resources is for sport codes to be categorised, prioritised and funded according to their special needs.
Although the task force’s final report is still in draft form, the overall understanding is that they will come up with a new categorisation and funding model that would rank sporting codes based on their participation, governance and leadership, development, international achievement and national interest.
Shiyuka says such achievements should complement the development of Namibian sport and assist in meeting other national objectives as Namibia continues to march towards the attainment of the goals set out in the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
As part of Shiyuka’s plans, sport federations will be assessed on governance and leadership, reporting and compliance through the submission of financial and activity reports, as well as liquidity and solvency, in relation to sound financial management principles.