We have a dead NSSU – TjongareroDeputy minister talks of replacing administrator The body that is supposed to look after school sport has come under attack from the highest office dealing with sport. The deputy minister of sport, Agnes Tjongarero, has questioned the work of the Namibia Schools’ Sport Union (NSSU) in developing sports, stating that the union is “dead”.In an interview with Namibian Sun yesterday Tjongarero blasted the union for failing to develop sport at schools in the country.
“The basic development of sport is with NSSU but we have got a very dead NSSU in Namibia. If you go to a school at Koës or Kahenge, for example, they will tell you that they have never seen the national coordinator, Mr Solly Duiker, for 26 years,” she said.
She stressed that school sport is the core of development in any country.
“Who is taking these different sports to the schools because there is no cooperation between the federations and NSSU and as usual NSSU is shining in their absence and they are never there and the federations were complaining how they will hear and improve if they do not attend events,” she said.
“It seems like the person we have there, Mr Duiker, is tired of being there and maybe we have to try and get somebody who is really interested in developing the kids,” she said.
Tjongarero said the only thing she hears about NSSU is “Ball Games”.
“Ball Games who? From what school, Bukalo school? Or which schools?
“We need to change and we have to do so quickly and drastically and take the sport to those kids whether there is a facility or not,” she maintained.
She emphasised that in development it is not always about facilities but first having to demonstrate the game to the kids and getting them interested.
“First raise the interest and if you see that there is, then you can go to a mining company for example and ask them if they can build a tennis court there. Something along that line, but we do not do that currently,” she said.
She went on to say that in Namibia people think that athletics is just running but it goes beyond that, as not everyone can be a sprinter.
“Not all of us are sprinters but might be good in long jump, javelin throw, among others, but who is demonstrating such sports to the kids?”
She said with modern technology it is not always necessary for someone to travel to go and demonstrate how a certain sport is played.
She stressed that there has to be cooperation between sport federations and the schools’ sports union, and operating in a vacuum should stop.
“We are denying 90% of the kids the kind of sport in which they could have excelled,” she said.
KAINO NGHITONGO