By: Kelvin Chiringa
A delegation meant to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Botswana to bid for the hosting of the Africa Cup of Nations by both countries has come under scrutiny after several technocrats were left out and AgnesTjongarero’ss son-in-law was included.
The delegation is expected to touch down in Botswana this Thursday and forge a formidable alliance to submit a joint bid to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.
Serious questions have been raised as to why the delegation does not have the chairperson of the Normalisation Committee, technocrats from the directorate of sports and the Namibia Sports Commission.
Tjongarero has dispatched six officials who will meet with Botswana’s six authorities and, thereafter, craft an alliance dubbed the BONA, which must see both countries vying jointly to host African teams for the first time in their histories.
Yet sources within football circles have said the minister’s son-in-law, Timo Tjongarero, will jet off to Botswana despite not being greenlighted to be part of the team.
When approached for clarity, the minister distanced herself from the matter.” “I am telling you… I am telling you the issue of son-in…it’s not me who drafted those letters. If his name is there, amongst those letters, then it’s there. Go and ask the person who drafted the letters. I don’t draft letters,” she said.
Pressed on why she was distancing herself when she was the minister in charge, Tjongarero said, “Yes, I am the ultimate, but I am telling you, go to the person who drafted those letters, who brought those letters to me. I don’t sit and pick people.”
Tjongarero also said the reason why the Normalisation Committee has been left behind is because its job is to normalise football within Namibia and not outside.
Chairperson of the Normalisation Committee, Bisey Uirab confirmed that he is not making part of the delegation.
However, he said a secretary would report back to the committee. “The delegation will be led by the honourable minister. We are working under the ministry, and the SG is under our direct command. She reports to us, so we have full confidence,” he said.
In the meantime, Tjongarero said the success of Namibia and Botswana in scooping the bid to host Afcon lies with the media and how it will portray both countries to the continent.
However, she has been slapped with criticism from a football official in a Supersport video that has since gone viral in which her capacity to host Afcon is questioned when she could not afford to pay for African Championships.
“This is the minister last week. Was it the Namibian minister of sport who was talking of hosting the African Nations Cup? I mean, people must be serious, very serious! I mean, if you can not even entertain your youth, allow them to play qualifiers; what Afcon are you going to host? Just to take a team and compete, you don’t have money.”
Tjongarero said the Normalisation Committee made a mistake by not consulting the ministry before exposing to the world that there was no money for the CHAN games.
She said had they been consulted, a plan would have been concocted to scrounge for some funds even though there was nowhere readily available. “I am not saying the money is there, sitting somewhere, and we could have grabbed (it). But there is always a plan to make, and we could have seen what we could have done if we had been consulted. But we must also remember that the people of the Normalisation Committee are also new in these things, and it might be a mistake which happened there,” she said.
In the meantime, some sources have pointed out the absence of Mwiya on the delegation as a broadening of the hostilities between the minister and the Namibia Sports Commission boss.
Some said if she does not recognise his office in matters where it ought to be involved, she risks being in contempt of court.
