Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Agnes Tjongarero, has said her wish is to see the newly appointed commissioners at the Namibia Sport Commission (NSC) address various issues and improve policies at the commission.

The sports minister told this agency in a recent interview that as a minister, she has the right to appoint five commissioners from the federations, while the other four positions should be applied for as stipulated in the Public Enterprises Governance Act of 2019.

The new commissioners are Cilas Wilders (chairperson), Paul Nanyeni and Sina Tlabanelo, while Patrick Percy Xoagub and Turky Tiisa Ndashiiva (vice chairperson) were retained.

Tjongarero stated that the NSC board is supposed to consist of nine members, but while awaiting the appointment of four commissioners who applied for positions, she has given the five commissioners the go-ahead in carrying out their duties.

“There are several matters that need to be rectified or investigated at the commission, especially the financial issues that are in a mess. If the commissioners fix these matters, then things will go well,” she said.

She added that the new board members must give guidance to the commission on how to use funds to help the federations.

“There should be less travelling from the commission side as we have sports officers in the regions. Therefore, there is no need to have a person traveling from the commission in Windhoek to the regions, as this uses up the budget that we are supposed to give to federations as part of their administration fees,” Tjongarero said.

This year, the NSC was allocated N.dollars 17.5 million from its previous budget of N.dollars 10.2 million it received during the 2022/23 financial year.

During her budget motivation speech, Tjongarero said the improved budget was intended for the commission to implement several of its programmes and projects it had put on hold due to a lack of funding in the past.

“Since we had the sports awards in Lüderitz last year, I have been asking for a report of what was pledged by the different companies and no one has answered me on this. I, therefore, hope that the new board will investigate this matter of how pledges from companies are used,” she said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency