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‘Infighting derailing progress in sport’ 

Minister of Sport Agnes Tjongarero. File photo

Minister of sport, youth and national service Agnes Tjongarero says the biggest challenge her ministry was faced with in the past year was infighting in various sport codes.

“Not only within one sport federation, but many of them. That is what we had to deal with in most cases.”

Speaking to Desert FM recently, Tjongarero said: “Because all those complaints are coming to us, we have to waste our time on such petty stuff.

“Instead of planning something better, productive time and energy are wasted on dealing with such things. That was one of the challenges we had to deal with as a ministry.”

Reflecting on last year’s sport calendar, Tjongarero said the delay in the upgrade and renovation of Independence Stadium and a tender-related court case gave her “sleepless nights”.

“That alone was the biggest upset for me, because we could have had progress made at the stadium, but fortunately we are now on the right track.”

Regarding the judgement in this case late last year in favour of the ministry, she said: “When I heard the judgement, I wanted to dance without music.”

Known for shooting from the hip, Tjongarero said much more can be achieved in sport.

“If Namibians and generally those in sport can stop working in isolation and do away with the ‘mine alone’ mentality, much more could be done in sport . . . that is sadly killing us and Namibian sport.”

The minister said as many people as possible should be involved in local sport.

She said there are many people “with bright ideas who need to be assisted and in turn do wonders for Namibian sport”.

The ministry has submitted a N$1-billion budget proposal to the treasury for the next financial year, because it wants to establish structures in the regions, Tjongarero said.

“We do not want to put up only football fields, but sport structures where athletics, basketball, hockey and volleyball are played in the regions.

“For all these years I have been asking and pleading for a sport psychologist, a very important element in the sport industry, especially when the going gets tough for national players – that is when we truly need a sport psychologist.”

She said when national teams travel to compete internationally they do not have the benefit of a sport psychologist, while other competing nations do.

“As a ministry we spoke to the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF), which welcomed us. However, I cannot apply for you. Those who are interested and have the passion must apply to institutions and approach the NSFAF.”

Tjongarero said the ministry also met with the Namibia Sports Commission to inform its members of opportunities, with not much interest shown thus far.

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