Sports in Namibia: Wind of Hope or Withering Breeze?

NINETEEN years of independence and Namibia still boasts non-competitive development teams. Athletes run the best times against themselves, save for boxing.

Our conflicting sport structures continue to feed a lethargic sports environment nourished by tenuous state institutions. Since Frank Fredericks, Namibia has not produced a star track-and-field athlete, while promising coaches are stuck with development clubs and little else. What is the problem: resources, lack of commitment by somebody or the absence of an idea whose time has come? Are we moved by the wind of hope or driven by a withering breeze?Gone are the days when our soccer stars made the international charts. Pele Blaschke, Oscar Mengo, Doc Hadley, Pele Eichowab and contemporaries such as Mohamed Ouseb, Robert Nauseb, Safile Shivute, Razundara Tjikuzu, Ronnie Kanalelo, Collin Benjamin, Oliver Risser, George Hummel are among those who impressed. Some home brews impressed and became stalwarts at club level but little to attract national selectors or international talent scouts. Perhaps our clubs are not effective in exposing players to regional and international competitions. Perhaps our qualified coaches are few and far between and, perhaps our soccer clubs are struggling in the periphery due to limited resources, limited management capacities and limited self-conscious capacity on the part of leaders, to provide vision, direction and programme. What remains a challenge though, is the fact that our athletes are mediocre in competition with others elsewhere.A few years back my friend and long-time sports associate Seth Boois wrote a book on Namibia’s sports. The book was launched by the all time sports promoter and patron, Dr Hage Geingob. Theo Namases, director of ceremony, remarked that Hage was a goal scorer in his time. Dr Geingob politely corrected the error by saying that, in his day with Etosha Lions of Tsumeb he played in the ‘danger zone’ and never scored a goal. What I found instructive was what Geingob said about the determination, physical strength and dedication of the soccer players then. He recounted the train journey to South Africa the soccer team of South West Africa undertook to play in the Curry Cup. The total delegation consisted of eleven players and two officials. (Yes, you heard me!). He said that no player could afford an injury as they would be blamed for faking, because substitutes did not exist in such distant competitions. Today most of our soccer players are hardly match-fit and cannot pass cuppa test. Little wonder that national coaches almost insist on taking eleven players and eleven reserves to international competitions. In 1998 Seth Boois and I had a stint with the soccer national team as coach and manager respectively. This gave us the first insight into the management of national teams and as it were, a bird’s eye-view on the running of soccer in general. Half the time the players were threatening strikes because they were not paid. Tim Isaacs, the current manager of the national soccer team, was our Kit Manager. I asked Tim how things were going with discipline currently. He confirmed that things have moved along and players received better treatment. The impression I gained though, was that players remain transitional due to the absence of a predictable catchment area. On the whole, Namibia’s competitiveness, with the exception of boxing, leaves much to desire. Namibia has not produced an athlete of international repute after Fredericks and that remains a source of concern. It is interesting that boxing has no internationally acclaimed expatriate coaches. Perhaps we need local coaches in other sports codes in order to perform.