Top Namibian athletics coach, Letu Hamhola has lost his appeal against the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC) and Athletics Namibia (AN).
In November 2021, Hamhola appealed against the decision of the NSC, NPC and AN not to bestow on him the Coach of the Year award and to omit Johannes Nambala and Ananias Shikongo from the annual MTC Namibia Sports Awards (NASA) Sports Star of the Year prize for 2021.
In an announcement in Windhoek on Friday, NSC Chief Administrator Freddy Mwiya said the appeals committee dismissed the case, but did not offer the reasons for their decision.
“The case was dismissed by the appeals committee. The reasons will be made available on Monday. In the same judgement, NPC was ordered to review its constitution,” Mwiya said.
Contacted for comment, Hamhola confirmed that he was informed of the outcome, but added that he could not comment on the dismissal of the appeal as no reason was advanced to him.
“We will only comment after we receive the reasons for the dismissal of the appeal. We also need to review those reasons and make an informed decision on the way forward,” Hamhola said.
Meanwhile, Mwiya said he was happy with the outcome of the appeal as it proves that the NSC had followed the rulebook and guidelines of NASA correctly.
Hamhola, Shikongo and Nambala, along with their guide Sem Shimanda, boycotted last year’s NASA event in Windhoek, saying that attending the awards reception would have meant that they condone discrimination against people with disabilities.
Hamhola had taken exception to the fact that Nambala, who won the best sportsman with a disability award, and Shikongo, were not shortlisted for the most valuable prize of the awards despite their well-documented achievements.
Shikongo claimed the nation’s first medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo with silver in the T11 400m.
Nambala, who has won a medal at every world championship since 2013, including gold at the most recent edition in Dubai in 2019 and two silver medals at the Rio Paralympics six years ago, claimed bronze in Tokyo.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
