27 April 2011
Namibia’s chances to host the Zone IV Boxing Championships hang in the balance, with Botswana having been approached to host the event if the Namibia Boxing Federation (NBF) fails to organise the event in time.
The secretary general of NBF, Joe Kaperu, said they still hoped to host the event in May, but they had already asked Botswana to take over the hosting in case they are unsuccessful.
Namibia was originally supposed to host the event from April 25 to 30 but will now try to host it from May 9 to 14.
“We have changed the dates to 9 to 14 May as we are still busy negotiating with the sponsors and if things do not come right we have an in principle agreement with Botswana to host the tournament,” Kaperu said.
“The reason that things are only being done now is that some of the NBF executive committee members did not want to host the championship to start with, and it is only recently that everyone got on board with hosting the event and now we have to look at making the necessary preparations,” he added.
Kaperu would not divulge which of the executive committee members were against the idea of Namibia hosting the tournament and their reasons for going against it.
The chief administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), Rusten Mogane, said that they had not given NBF the green light to host the event because they had not submitted a budget for the event that would see 10 countries competing.
“We have not yet approved the tournament because they (NBF) have not yet provided us with the budget,” Mogane said.
“The Sports Act has a clear guideline that states that they should submit a budget three months before hosting an international event,” he added.
Kaperu however says that they filled in the forms to host the event in January, but did not submit a budget to the NSC.
“It is not practical for the Sports Commission to ask for a budget three months in advance because we don’t have sponsors for the event so how would we have a budget, we are still talking to the sponsors,” Kaperu said.
“The sponsors will only get on board when they see an approval letter from the NSC, so that puts us in a difficult position,” he continued.
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Namibia: Zone IV Boxing Tourney in Doubt