Mwiya wants athletes educated about sports transformation

WINDHOEK, 09 MAY – Chief Administrator at the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), Freddy Mwiya on Monday said athletes should learn from an early age about sport codes other than what they are used to because of their skin colour or segregation.

In an interview with Nampa, Mwiya said athletes should willingly join sport codes of their choice, instead of being told to do so because of their colour or exclusion from a certain sport code.

“I was recently in Australia for the Commonwealth Games, where I saw the Australian netball team with only white players, while Kenya only had black players. This made me realise that sometimes, it’s really difficult to find people of a certain colour playing a particular sport, because they are not used or exposed to it,” Mwiya said.

The Deputy Minister of Sports, Youth and National Service, Agnes Tjongarero has in the past expressed her concern at the “lack of transformation” in teams that represent Namibia at international sporting events.
According to Tjongarero, transformation of sport is a national priority to promote social cohesion and nation building.
Mwiya, who has been advocating the deputy minister’s call for transformation since his appointment to the office in April 2017, told this agency that awareness should be taught from childhood if this change is to be effective.

“It is an educational thing that we have to incorporate at school levels because you find certain regions that do not have certain sport codes, which makes it difficult for them to think of other sports from what they are used to.”

Mwiya stated that with the current setup in the country where people play sports based on segregation of where they grew up, or what school they went to, it will be difficult to transform sports at a fast pace.
NAMPA