By: Kelvin Chiringa
Namibia’s football circle has been hit by a legal fight which this week sparked in the High Court in connection with a Zimbabwean player who allegedly registered for work with two names at different intervals.
The case has pitted Gobabis based Young African Football Club against the MTC Premier League with 21 other defendants who include a mob of local teams, NFA secretary general, lawyer Kadhila Amoomo and the disciplinary committee of the Namibian Premier League.
The courtroom was nearly filled to capacity this week Thursday to listen to arguments around an urgent court application lodged by the team.
The team highlighted that the issue it was placing before the court concerned the Zimbabwean player whose services they made use of in 2017 up to the 2018 premier league season.
He was then named Albert Mujikijera only to later provide another name for registration as Tapiwa Simon Musekiwa.
The club alleges that a disciplinary hearing was held at which the committee dismissed legal points raised by the applicant, an act the club has watered down as “bad in law”.
Complaints have been raised that the player flouted a raft of Namibian laws and ought to be penalized.
Senior immigration official, Tjinomaza Tjizoo recently recommended that the player should not enjoy a visa renewal or an extension and that he had escaped retribution.
He also alleged that Musekiwa was “being protected by the chairman of the NPL, Patrick Kauta, who is also the chairman of African Stars FC and his employer”.
Kauta is quoted as affirming that Musekiwa had completed a seven-match ban for playing under a false name when representing former club Young African in 28 Namibia Premier League matches in the previous season.
A local daily has also reported that before the start of the 2018-19 campaign, Musekiwa declared under oath that he had used the tampered passport of a certain Albert Mujikijera, who is employed as a welder in Windhoek.
However, reports are that Kauta said Musekiwa had been appropriately penalised by the NPL disciplinary committee, and that the NPL would not initiate criminal prosecution as that would amount to double jeopardy.
The club has in the meantime said it provides employment to about 40 persons.
They however admitted that they were found to be legally offside on two counts of fraud and got demoted to the first division, with a N$50 000 fine for illegally employing the Zimbabwean.
Tjizoo has in the meantime claimed that 27 of these players and 10 members of the technical team and three backroom support staff had lost out on their salaries as a result of the Zimbabwean.
