Boxing Chief Cries Foul

Otniel Hembapu

17 May 2011

Windhoek — “We were robbed; Namibia could have won four gold medals at the Zone 6 championships, which took place in Gaborone, Botswana last Saturday,” said Joe Kaperu, secretary general of the Namibia Boxing Federation (NBF).

Botswana emerged as the overall winner of the African Zone 6 Boxing Championship, with four gold medals and two silver medals, followed by Mauritius in second place with three gold medals and one silver medal, while Namibia came in at third with two gold medals and three silver medals.

Namibia’s gold medallists were Desmond Mujandjae Kasuto who defeated Seychelles’ Agnes Keddy in the light heavyweight category and super heavyweight, Tobias Munihango, who stopped his Seychelles opponent in the second round with a crucial knockout to bring the gold medal home.

Meanwhile, Jafet Uutoni, Johannes Shilidema and Titus Iyambo were Namibia’s silver medallists, whilst Johannes Simon and Elias Nashivela had to be satisfied with bronze.

Uutoni also received a trophy for best bout of the tournament.

All the above-mentioned seven Namibian boxers qualify for the African Boxing Championship to be held in Yaounde, Cameroon from June 2- 10.

“Namibia was robbed as the scoring of the judges was very controversial but that’s done and in the past now. The only thing we can do in future is to bring in judges from different countries as a neutral panel of judges” said Kaperu.

“It was daylight robbery as Uutni dominated the fight throughout but unfortunately the judges gave points to his opponent by a huge margin,” continued Kaperu.

During the conference that took place in Windhoek yesterday, Kaperu in addition paid tribute to the late David Tawa who died this morning in Oshakati.

Tawa will be remembered as an amateur boxer who had great ambition and much love for boxing – may his soul rest in pace.

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