Several Namibian sports personalities have pleaded with sports-loving Namibians to get vaccinated so as to speed up the return of all forms of sports in the country.
The Namibia Football Association through its president Ranga Haikali and Secretary-General Franco Cosmos said as an association, they have approached relevant authorities with the proposal to vaccinate players from the first and second division, as well as the Namibia Premier Football League (NPFL).
“It should not only be the players, it should be the players and their families because you cannot just vaccinate players and leave their families out. The players will still be in contact with their families,” Haikali said.
Cosmos agreed with him, saying unfortunately it is also a human rights issue which is very delicate.
“All we can do is encourage not only players, but the whole Namibian nation to get vaccinated so that we can get back to normal. We cannot say you must or you shall get vaccinated,” he added.
Cricket Namibia Chief Executive Officer Johan Muller said while they cannot force people to be vaccinated, they promote everyone getting vaccinated.
“The ministry and the sports commission has given us a letter stating that players travelling to the T20 World Cup must be vaccinated as per regulations from the host country. We also have support from our stakeholders in terms of promoting vaccination,” he said.
Ervin Naimhwaka of Athletics Namibia said while they do not have a campaign per se, they are always encouraging athletes to voluntarily get vaccinated so as to reach herd immunity numbers.
“With athletics, the other challenge we find is the issue of age as most of the athletes are usually told they are below the eligible age to get vaccinated,” he explained.
Sports commentator Isack Hamata said sports always loses out because it does not present a strong case to the government when it comes to various issues.
“If we can get the numbers of vaccinated athletes high, then we can present our case to the government and request to start sports without spectators. This drive should be led by the Sports Commission and the ministry,” Hamata said.
Netball Namibia collects weekly data from the clubs and regions and compiles it so as to present their case and have the sport back in action as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Namibia Sports Commission Chief Administrator Freddy Simataa Mwiya said a five-member task force was set up last week to come up with a working document that will work on improving the vaccination drive amongst the youth in general.
“Our focus is to encourage the youth and sports people to get vaccinated. That drive will be launched very soon. We will work with various federations in this drive,” Mwiya said.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
