Paralympic Namibia placed under interim board

The Namibia National Paralympic Committee (NNPC) has an interim leadership for the next three months tasked with reviewing the body’s constitution and organising elections for a substantive executive.

The term of office of the previous leadership lapsed in February.

Daniel Trum, who will chair the six-member interim committee, says they will not fail in their duty to reform the NNPC.

The committee also includes Yvone Hansen (vice-chairperson) from the Hardap region, Johanna Haufiku (treasurer) from Khomas, Pedro Nghishiwete (public relations officer) from Oshana, plus additional members Pandulo Sheehama of Khomas and Kavango West’s Johannes Matias.

“We are going to work as a team to ensure that what is expected of us in this period, we have to do our level best. We are going to do exactly what is expected,” he says.

As a former athlete, Trum says he understands what is at stake and that the well-being of the athlete must take precedence in the envisaged transformation of the NNPC.

“There is nothing new for me in sport. I used to be an athlete myself some 20 years ago. We will start with the constitution, we need to study it. We will engage the relevant stakeholders to see which areas we need to amend, which format we will follow and which platform we are going to use and so on.”

None of the interim committee members are eligible for election onto the executive.

“We are not here to stay, we are here to do what we have to do and leave. We must do it well so that we assist the new leadership to chart a new path that will lead to prosperity for the movement,” Trum says.

The interim committee already has a slippery slope to navigate regarding the issue of what to do with long-serving secretary general Michael Hamukwaya whose strong ties to the previous board and management style appear to be a thorny matter.

“We said we are giving this responsibility to the interim committee, because he has a contract with the former executive,” Namibia Sports Commission chief administrator Freddy Mwiya says.

“His contract is still on, but there’s a challenge on that contract. That’s why we are giving [it to] this committee, because we don’t want to micromanage.

“As it stands, he did not yet get a letter from the new body to tell him ‘you are no longer with us’.

“They might need the service if it goes well.

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