Windhoek
Black Africa FC striker Bradley Wermann replaced Brave Warriors skipper Ronald ‘Stigga’ Ketjijere as new vice-president of the Namibia Football Players Union (NAFPU), while Life Fighters FC midfield maestro Robert Nganjone was installed as one of two additional members of the union.
The appointment of new members was resolved and endorsed by the general assembly during NAFPU’s Extraordinary Congress held in the capital on Saturday, where amendments to the union’s constitution and various financial and human resource policies were also reviewed and subsequently adopted by the congress.
Just a few weeks ago, Ketjijere, who is the Brave Warriors captain, and Uerikondjera ‘Mammy’ Kasaona, who is the Brave Gladiators skipper, both resigned as first and second vice-presidents of NAFPU but no concrete reasons were provided for their unceremonious exit.
However, sources with immediate knowledge of happenings at the union claimed that both Ketjijere and Kasaona had fallen out with NAFPU’s secretary general Olsen Kahiriri over sitting allowances after both players demanded that the union pays them for every sitting, but Kahiriri had claimed that the union’s constitution and human resource policy did not make provision for allowances for board members.
Hence, at the weekend, the general assembly resolved to amend the financial and human resource policies in order to make provision for each board member to receive a sitting allowance of N$3 000 per sitting, N$1 000 per emergency sitting and N$100 airtime per month per board member.
Also, chief amongst the resolutions taken at the weekend’s gathering, which was attended by more than 24 members including regional members, was to endorse Nganjone as one of two additional members to the union’s set-up, with Brave Gladiators’ Eva Ulumbu the other additional member.
As per the recommendations of FIFPro, the congress also resolved to reduce the number of union vice-presidents from two to one vice-president, who will be second in charge from the union’s president and former Brave Warriors enterprising midfielder, the skilful Lolo Goraseb.
The congress also endorsed the installation of Johannes Iyambo of Eleven Arrows as the union’s regional coordinator for the entire Erongo Region. A well-packaged strategic plan for the union was presented to the general assembly and was equally given the go-ahead and will now undergo a final touch-up before becoming the union’s official strategic guidebook.