NAMIBIAN youth internationals Eslin Kamuhanga and Roger Katjiteo are the latest players to be implicated in an age cheating scandal, a news report on NBC television aired on Tuesday revealed.
The pair, who have represented the country from under-17 through to senior level, reportedly altered their ages in order to qualify for the junior national sides. They are believed to be part of larger group of footballers cheating the system by falsifying their age.An NBC probe into allegations of Namibia having fielded over-aged players in a German international under-17 tournament last month led to the fresh revelations. Katjiteo bagged vital goals which helped Namibia win the youth tournament.While the lanky Black Africa forward’s date of birth is registered on the club’s website as March 26,1993, the report claims he was in fact born on July 17, 1989 and answered to the name Ukarapo Katjiteo. The investigation sites a 2004 class register at his former school A Shipena Secondary School in Windhoek. He was an integral part of the Omaheke region’s The Namibian Newspaper Cup winning team in 2008 and was known as 15-year-old Roger Kumbee.Former schoolmate Kamuhanga claims he was born on May 6,1992, however according to a class register of 2002 his ‘real’ date of birth is May 6, 1987. Hence Kamuhanga is 24 years-old, while Katjiteo is aged 22 and not 19 and 18 as their passports state respectively. This makes Kamuhanga ineligible to play for any national junior side, while Katjiteo can still feature for the under 23’s. The damning report also almost never saw the light of day as under 20 head coach Bernard Kaanjuka – also the country’s deputy director of sports – is said to have exerted his influence to try and suppress the information.In fact, a ‘dismissive’ Kaanjuka stopped an attempt to interview the players without ‘valid reasons’. The introduction of a new registration system last year exposed the double identity of Ramblers FC’s utility player Emilio Martin. Martin (21) had been masquerading as 17 year-old Sem Ipinge the previous season. The new system also flushed-out nearly 40 players who were found to have lowered their ages. At the time, NFA’s head of registration Titus Kunamuene said the association would launch an investigation, a stance he maintained yesterday when contacted for comment. In contrast, his senior and NFA secretary general Barry Rukoro said he was not interested in investigating players who were thought to have altered their ages or names.’These things are very complicated,’ Kunamuene told The Namibian Sport. ‘We are not condoning age cheating,’ he said. ‘The NFA does not tell players to change their ages.’According to Kunamuene the NFA has difficulty in conducting thorough background checks on players due to stringent privacy laws. This is the second time in two years that Namibian football is alleged to have had players changing their ages with little intervention from the football authority, a situation likely to deprive the deserving youngsters opportunity to represent the country in their respective age categories.’I don’t know who gave NBC permission to go to the school,’ he added. ‘We must do these things in the right manner. ‘I’ve got no right to go to (the Ministry of) Home Affairs and look for another person’s information without their approval.’ sheefeni@namibian.com.na
