Tigers, NPL in legal tussle

Tigers, NPL in legal tusslePremier League charges club with misconduct The Namibia Premier League has sent a letter to Tigers FC charging them with four counts of misconduct after they failed to turn up for two of their premier league opening matches. Tigers, defending champions of the league's 2015/16 season, together with Black Africa and Orlando Pirates raised concern about the league kickoff dates, threatening to boycott matches. However, only Tigers missed their first two matches giving away points to Civics and Unam FC.

Soon after, administrators of the NPL pronounced themselves on Tigers' failure to honour their match obligations, charging them with misconduct and giving them ten days to respond.

The team then turned to a lawyer from Sisa Namandje & Co who in turn wrote a letter dated 1 November to league administrator Joshua Hoebeb in response to article 56 (4) of the Namibia Premier League constitution which reads: “The prosecutor who is appointed by the secretariat and endorsed by the BOG has the sole power and authority to prosecute, to take decisions as to whether it is appropriate for the NPL to prosecute any alleged acts of misconduct”.

The letter informs Hoebeb that he is not the prosecutor, nor has he been endorsed by the BOG, nor does he have any power to bring any charge of misconduct against any member of the NPL.

“Your conducts are therefore ultra vires the constitution of the NPL and are therefore illegal, unlawful and constitute misconduct against you under the circumstances, for acting beyond any powers you may have,” the letter reads.

The letter further states in point five that NPL should withdraw all the charges against their client and act in accordance with the constitution and that the client will thus stand and attend to any lawful hearing setup through lawfully appointed and legitimate judicial bodies, to defend itself against any charges brought against the client.

“We, therefore, advise you to withdraw your purported charges against our client and act in accordance with the constitution. In any event our client denies any misconduct purportedly committed by our client and specifically state and deny the unlawful and illegitimate charges brought or preferred against our client.

“We further specifically state that we see your conducts as intimidating tactics against our client and our client will not tolerate such conducts whatsoever,” it further reads.

In another letter addressed to NPL chairperson Patrick Kauta, Sisa Namandje & Co requested ten documents to be forwarded to them within ten days of receipt of the letter.

These are: the constitution of the Namibian Premier League; the match report for an alleged planned game, which was purportedly arranged between Tigers and another club called Citizens Football club at Sam Nujoma Stadium; a match report for an alleged league match, which was allegedly set between Tigers and Unam Football Club at Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek; team returns of a match allegedly between Citizens and Tigers Football Club; team returns for an alleged match which was scheduled between Tigers and Unam Football Club at Sam Nujoma Stadium; the match commissioner's reports between the aforesaid alleged scheduled matches between Tigers and Citizens Football Club; the current log standing of the Namibian Premier League, the approved activity calendar of the Namibia premier league; minutes of the BOG meeting of 11 October 2017; the letter by NFA authorising the commencement of the league; and the sponsorship agreements between the NPL and any sponsor.

Namibian Sun asked Hoebeb to give clarity on the matter and to state what the four charges of misconduct against Tigers are. He responded that he was on study leave and could not comment on the matter, therefore questions should be addressed to Kauta, who refused to speak to this reporter.





LIMBA MUPETAMI