Football clubs feud with Outapi Town Council over land

SIX football clubs in the Omusati Region staged a demonstration against the Outapi Town Council on Wednesday after their grounds were taken away from them.

The protesters accuse the council of having demolished their four sport fields at Onakayale village without their consent. They claim to have been allocated the piece of land by the late village headman Blasius Nangolo, who died earlier this year. The town council is said to have earmarked the area – situated less than 50 metres from the Nangolo homestead – for unspecified development. The placards read: ‘We need a stadium. Why (has) the Outapi Town council taken away our land? Why limiting development? We are against self-enrichment. Outapi town council you are failing us as far as sport is concerned.’The demonstrators intended to hand over their petition to council CEO Oswin Namakalu but were told that he was absent and nobody was instructed to receive their petition. Led by a police escort, the demonstrators marched to the office of Governor Sophia Shaningwa who told their leader, Jona ‘Dlamini’ Ndinoshiho, that she cannot receive their petition as the right person to receive it is the mayor of Outapi. ‘We will come back again with our complaints and will try to hand in our petition to the mayor of Outapi,’ said Ndinoshiho. According to Ndinoshiho, the clubs spent a lot of money on setting up the fields near Onakayale and Okaili villages. They claim that a local businessman had promised to put up a proper sport stadium with a pavilion at a cost of more than N$90 000. ‘We have even drawn up a plan that we were about to go and present to both the town council and the contractor that we have chosen to construct that stadium for us,’ Ndinoshiho said.