Youth served misery at national games

It appears the Namibia Youth Games (NYG) were again an unpleasant experience based on complaints of shoddy accommodation, unappetising food and transportation woes.

The multi-sport competition was held across Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa from Thursday to Saturday.

The competition, which made its return this year after the shambles at Rietfontein in 2020 left it sponsorless, was especially distressing for the //Kharas regional team, which was made to wait for transport back home for eight hours in the sun at Oshakati.

It is unlikely that the budding athletes would have arrived in time to be able to attend school today.

Some members of the //Kharas team live as far as Noordoewer, which is little over 1 500km from Oshakati and about 15 hours by road.

A deeply concerned parent informed the //Kharas sports office, which was inundated with calls from disappointed caregivers, that they would make alternative transport arrangements for their child to return home.

“We have parents worried that the kids are travelling throughout the night, which is very unsafe. Will meals be provided? Looking at the distance and looking at the hours they still have to drive from Oshakati to the south. That’s a very worrying problem,” a //Kharas sport office representative said yesterday.

The official, who chose anonymity to avoid victimisation, said some of the team’s athletes are due to travel to another youth competition in South Africa today.

“Parents already paid for this trip and now don’t know what will happen to their children. They also want to know who will reimburse them if they miss the trip,” the sport official said.

This issue is in addition to athletes sleeping on worn mattresses on the floor to go with malfunctioning ablution facilities and in rooms with broken windows at rundown school hostels.

It is a situation eerily reminiscent of events in 2020 when boys and girls were lumped together, sleeping on the concrete along hallways due to poor dorms, leading to then sponsors MTC ending their support of the event.

A parent reached out to The Namibian, alarmed at the appalling conditions youngsters are faced with at the Games.

“My son and his co-athletes were chosen to represent Namibia at Oshakati, but the living conditions are not okay. They want the athletes to pay for another place they got while the coaches and referees are in a hotel. After all it is about the athletes and not the coaches or referees,” the concerned guardian said.

In a WhatsApp audio clip obtained by The Namibian, an unidentified team official expressed dismay over the living quarters.

“Indeed, this is a very bad experience and I don’t like things done this way,” the official said.

“The place where the kids are going to shower … I will not even shower there. Because if you shower, everybody is looking at you. There are no windows, nothing that is covering the showers.”

The NYG are jointly staged by the Namibia Sports Commission and Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, with the “aim to nurture young talent and serve as a stepping stone for the African Union Sport Council Region 5 Youth Games in 2025 and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics”.

Namibia is expected to host the Region 5 Games next year.

Namibia Sports Commission chief administrator Freddy Mwiya yesterday brushed off the issues plaguing the NYG.

He said the organisers received only one complaint about the state of accommodation and food, which were “Namibian standard”.

“We dealt with it. We told them those who think they have money can take their child and pay for a hotel. The food was of a good standard as well,” Mwiya said.

“In terms of accommodation, we have a Namibian standard in terms of the provisions of our education system. The hostels were declared fit by the municipalities, otherwise we would not have put people there”

The transport predicament was caused by a faulty bus, Mwiya said and that the children potentially missing out on school was beyond their control.

“You cannot come and worry now. When you go to the Olympics, you can’t tell them about school. It is unfortunate,” he said.

“They were supposed to travel with another bus, but we discovered that it has a hydraulic problem. We got them two buses with air con. The other bus did not have air con.”