Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Agnes Tjongarero, says sports federations must ensure that all sports codes are present in all 14 regions of the country to accord equal opportunities to all.
In a speech read on her behalf on Saturday at the official opening of the First General Assembly in Windhoek, the minister said the regions must be given priority as ‘Namibia is not only Windhoek’ and that the federations are mandated to serve all 14 regions.
“I urge you all to ensure that your constitutions are legally binding and well-crafted as per the advice of the 2019 constitutional framework and following the provision of the Sports Act to avoid boardroom politics at the expense of our athletes. I’m a bit happy about the attainments of some codes during the course of 2022,” she said
The event was attended by over 35 sports codes, where several issues were discussed, including the categorisation of sports codes, using sports as a nation-building tool, the security of athletes when participating in sporting activities outside the country and the role of women in sports.
Speaking at the same event, the Director of Sports Jo-Ann Manuel urged federations to plan well in advance and make relevant arrangements well ahead of time to avoid unnecessary delays.
Using transport requests as an example, Manuel said some federations request transport on a Friday for a trip intended for Saturday, a situation which makes it impossible to attend to.
Namibia Sports Commissioner (NSC) Chief Administrator (CA), Freddy Mwiya, urged federations to increase their footprints in Namibia, saying most sports codes seem to focus on Windhoek alone, leaving Namibians outside the capital without choices.
The categorisation of sports kicked off on 07 February and will run through to the 03 March, where six officials from the NSC and the MSYNS will assess all sport codes performances both on and off the field to see how they are doing.
This will then help in the grading of these sports, as currently there are three grades in which the sports codes are graded.
These are national sports, developmental sports and recreational sports.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
