Was Vision 2016 well-articulated? Just thinking even louder about the failed Vision 2016 programme, that has not only seen taxpayers money going to waste, but also a waste of someone''s time.Well, nobody anticipated that things will turn out the way they have, but I for one can attest to it that there was no proper planning.
So, here we are busying biting off our fingers and probably hiding under tables from the failed programme that we thought would bring glory to the Namibian nation.
While I sympathise with the poor athletes who are sitting at home and waiting to hear about their future in the Caribbean country (Jamaica), let me also question the authorities that gave a green light to this programme.
I firstly want to know how the athletes were selected and if it was based on athletic performance, then how did they end up studying if we are now hearing that they do not qualify to pursue courses such as sport science.
Was that not known or did someone just think of keeping it a secret, hoping that we will never hear about it.
It angers people like me who are passionate about sports to think of how much money went to waste; first for not producing what we intended to and for selling false hopes to us that these athletes would be studying sport science. Now, news has it that they do not have the necessary qualifications to pursue such courses.
As much as I sympathise with these athletes that some are even suggesting that they return home, I must point out how shocked I was to hear that despite them going to Jamaica in 2013 and one hoping that they would be in their third year, I have learned that some are only going into second year now, which for me does not make sense.
If you got a chance to study, for that matter without even having to fork out a cent, then why not “grab the opportunity presented to you and make the best out of it.”
So I am just thinking, will the programme still remain Vision 2016 and if so, are all the activities that the athletes will be taking part in funded by the ministry considering the budget blows that the sport ministry is faced with, and if so, where will the money to fund the athletes that will prepare for the next Olympic Games come from?
We have heard that the Olympic cycle is four years and that does not mean training a year before the Games, but it must start just immediately after the Olympic Games. We have the championships coming next year; the question here, is how ready we are for such a competition?
I guess those who initiated such a programme are now sitting with egg on their faces as they try to make an assessment of the whole programme and what fruits they reaped from it.
I honestly think Vision 2016 should be discontinued and if such athletes genuinely qualify to pursue the courses they are taking then through the assistances of the Ministry of Sport, let them apply for funding from NASFAF and let the money in the sports ministry be spent on sports development and preparation of athletes and not on athletes'' studies.
The ministry and NASFAF can have a memorandum of understanding that stipulates that athletes who wish to pursue their sport careers will be guaranteed funding if they qualify.
We need to be strategic in our planning and be able to convince government on the needs of sport in the country and that the money should be made available to the directorate of sports is utilised efficiently.
At this point in time, I think there is a need for the directorate of sports to sit down and look at what exactly we want to achieve from sports, so that we don''t find ourselves just participating for the sake of it and not have a clear vision of what we want to achieve.
As we are now at an infant stage of drafting and thinking about what programmes we can set in place to have a number of athletes qualify for the next Olympics, let me advise that whatever programme put in place, if there will be any, should be those that guarantee results and not just to fight for one athlete like what happened this year where we had 10 athletes in the Vision 2016 programme but what the nine were doing was ignored to focus on one athlete.
Let us save ourselves from being called a failed country in sports by coming up with programmes that will give us results and make sure we get maximum value for money spent.
kaino@namibiansun.com