Editorial … Olympic Disgrace, From Bad to Worse

THE SEX scandal this week in Namibia’s Olympic team has only confirmed what many observers were concerned about: that with the poor leaders in charge, our athletes are doomed and stand little chance of bringing home medals.

For months, if not years, reports have pointed to bad planning, lack of leadership and the harmful squabbles among officials, which threatened to disrupt the country’s participation in the Olympic Games taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, right across our shores on the opposite end of the Atlantic Ocean.

Alas, the rape charges against 22-year-old Jonas Junias, Namibia’s flag-bearer during the opening ceremony, should by now settle the debate that the wrong people are leading our athletes and damaging the country’s hopes to shine again on the international stage.

In no way are we saying that Namibia’s Olympic committee, including its president Abner Xoagub, sports minister Jerry Ekandjo and his deputy Agnes Tjongarero or other officials are to blame for the crime Junias is alleged to have committed.

But the confusion and mishandling of the case has only underlined accusations that the officials have little clue of what their own roles at the games are about. In fact, the conclusion is clear that they went to the party capital of the world only to have fun, forgetting that winning at sports requires hard work.

Or, how should we look at the fact that the first thing Xoagub did when the story finally reached the Namibian media that Junias had been arrested a day earlier (first reported by Al Jazeera) was to castigate journalists for not contacting him to hear his “side” of the story?

Talk was even doing the rounds that one politician shouted at a journalist: “Why are you calling me? I’m not a rapist. Did I rape anyone?”. The journalist’s alleged crime was deeming the politician important enough to get comment about the incident as the issue has cast a bad light on Namibia.

Then, we are told the lawyer hired by the country’s team could not communicate with the accused or team officials, and that allegedly accounted for Junias failing to get bail on the first attempt. Added to that, the mother of the boxer, Helmi Fales, only learnt from news media that her son was in jail and not sleeping peacefully in Rio’s Olympic Village.

As if that was not enough, Xoagub bullishly pronounced that they were hard at work to have Junias released on bail just in time for his boxing match. Really, now?

Can any person in their right mind even countenance putting an athlete with rape charges hanging over him back into the limelight of a boxing ring, at the Olympic games for that matter? Let us assume Junias has extraordinary prowess to steady his mental state and focus on winning. His participation would not be appropriate.

Suppose the spectators boo him during the match, and still he defies the odds? Would the officials have done the boxer and the country any justice in the process?

The sex scandal is not merely an issue of our participation at the games gone wrong, but it is a continuation of the farce that has dogged Namibia’s preparations for the games, during which the likes of Xoagub denied certain athletes the opportunity to compete, despite the fact that they had qualified by international standards.

It is becoming clear that the standards of our officials are all about mediocrity.

Pity the athletes, many of whom probably lack exposure to other cultures and the world. We can only hope that they get through the Summer Olympics in spite of their leaders, but it would definitely not be because of good leadership.

Cleaning up the mess is required urgently, even before Xoagub, Ekandjo, Tjongarero and company return from their state-funded samba holiday.

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