Kelly hits NSC below belt

BOXING Namibia president Kelly Nghixulifwa challenged the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) to prove themselves as competent or get abolished as a sports authority.

He said the NSC is ‘hugely incompetent in most, if not all of their dealings and has a personal vendetta against the sport of boxing’.Nghixulifwa spoke after Namibian boxers scooped the overall top spot at the Africa Boxing Confederation Zone Six Elite Boxing Championships held in TeyaTeyaneng, Lesotho, last weekend.Namibia got the award for Best Team of the Tournament, Best Boxer (Immanuel ‘The Prince’ Naindjala) and Best Bout (Erastus Marenga) titles at the event which featured six southern African countries.In the process, the Namibian boxers scooped nine medals in total, of which four were gold, one silver and four bronze and ended top of the medals table with 23 points.Nghixulifwa was furious, saying that the NSC was not there for the development of sport and could not even make available the N$60 000 that the boxing team requested to compete at the regional event.’I take it personal to call the NSC to order. They are not here for the development of sport and failed to help us when we approached them,’ he said.Nghixulifwa, who is also the chairman of the Namibia Boxing and Wrestling Control Board, said the NSC refused to give them the money based on two points.He said the NSC demanded audited financial statements of the boxing federation and the second reason was that they did not get their annual allocation from Government to sustain the sporting codes.Nghixulifwa charged that the first reason was no excuse for the NSC not to give a helping hand because of the financial statements.’We submitted our financial statements for the year 2006/7 already, while the 2008/9 financial reports are not due yet. This means that we complied with their request already and we are now in a new financial year. So their reasoning on giving them financial statements is not acceptable,’ he said.He claimed that the second reason for not having money was also irrelevant.’I know they (NSC) have money. We can go and look at their bank statements. Why did they have to hold a national sports indaba if they don’t have money then?’ he asked.Nghixulifwa said Boxing Namibia was not invited to the indaba and until today, no reasons were provided for their exclusion from the gathering, which took place at Heja Lodge outside Windhoek last weekend.’It just shows their personal vendetta against boxing and I therefore call on Government to abolish the NSC or put it under the Directorate of Sport. Their functions are seriously of no use to sports development,’ he claimed.Nghixulifwa said the Ministry of Sport, through their Sports Directorate, rescued the boxers and managed to cover some of the expenses. ‘We had to run back to the Ministry and they selflessly helped us in this regard, while we have an authority (NSC) that has been put in place to help codes financially when on national duty. We even had to go out of our way to beg some financial institutions for credit to make this trip possible,’ he said.Director of Sport Vetumbuavi Veii said they were honoured to give a helping hand to the boxers as they represented the country.’It is our obligation to assist wherever we can for athletes who are competing outside Namibia and at the same time, we are delighted that they did very well despite the hardships they went through during the trip.The five boxers and their technical staff of at least four people travelled to Lesotho by bus and only had N$3 000 as pocket money to cater for food and drinks.Deputy Minister of Sport Pohamba Shifeta in response to Nghixulifwa that they will look into the matter and will try to find a solution. No immediate comment could be obtained from NSC chief administrator Rusten Mogane. corry@namibian.com.na