Current situation at the NFA: A reply (Part 1)

PROGRESSIVE FORCESThe opinion piece of former NFA secretary-general Barry Rukoro published by Namibian Sun on 8 and 9 December 2021, headlined ‘The current situation at the NFA’ refers.I wish to put the incorrect and misleading assertions in the above two accounts to test as follows:Mr Rukoro introduced his long and meaningless prologue by referring to a political upheaval in Namibian football, and likening the advent to these events to an American-style regime change in Iraq and Libya.This introduction is highly irrelevant, and draws a false narrative to how the change in the leadership of the Namibia Football Association has been brought about.While we accept that the introduction statement is more an attack on FIFA, we need to give the correct background to FIFA’s intervention.The previous executive committee of the Namibia Football Association was nearing the end of its mandate in 2018, and was due to hold an elective congress on 5 December 2018. Coincidentally, the term of office of Mr Rukoro as secretary-general also came to an end by the end of March 2018, and when the former president, Mr Frans Mbidi, indicated to Mr Rukoro that his term of office was not going to be renewed, all hell broke loose and this was also confirmed by FIFA when they wrote to the NFA and said he was not recognised.The battle between Messrs Mbidi and Rukoro split the executive committee of the NFA into two camps that halted the season calendar of the Association. Football has not been played since the 2017/18 football season.When the divided executive committee failed to call its elective congress on the scheduled date, their term of office expired, and as Mr Rukoro will attest, FIFA applied its constitutional rights and intervened by deploying the FIFA Normalisation Committee for the NFA.When the FIFA Normalisation Committee for the NFA took over, many allies or puppets of Mr Rukoro occupied regional seats as chairpersons well beyond their expired terms. The following examples are mentioned: Mr Jacob Aindongo, chairman of Omusati Regional Football League without election for 14 years. Mr Charles Mukua, chairman of Erongo Regional Football League without election for seven years. Mr Beatus Nandago, Oshana Regional Football League and Mr Jantze, Otjozondjupa Regional Football League chairpersons were also in their positions with expired terms. All these individuals were planted to assist Mr Rukoro to vote a new executive committee in office, including a president with whom he was going to replace Mr Mbidi.These clear instances of abuse of position, power and unconstitutional protection of people in positions during the term of Mr Rukoro at the NFA Secretariat is what was stopped by the FIFA Normalisation Committee for the NFA.When the FIFA Normalisation Committee for the NFA ordered regional football leagues with expired mandates to hold elections, all the puppets of Mr Rukoro were outvoted by their members.This vote of no confidence eliminated his artificial majority amongst voting members, and set the stage for holding an elective NFA congress without foul play for the first time in the Association’s long history.In addition to the above, Mr Rukoro, who acted as the lynchpin of rigged elections over these years, was forcefully escorted out of office by the Namibian Police after he defied the directive of the FIFA Normalisation Committee to vacate the NFA office at the end of his term.This having been said, we must proclaim that the Namibia Football Association became a free, constitutional organisation for the first time in its long history after the forceful departure of the author of these two opinion pieces.Mr Rukoro further states that the Progressive Forces survived numerous court challenges and appeals to the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) by the NPL, and became arrogant in the process. That cannot be further from the truth. Firstly, Mr Rukoro speaks from a point of ignorance, or has some malicious intent to mislead his readers.The Progressive Forces were never at any point taken to court by the NPL or anybody. There was no reason for that. The NPL took the FIFA Normalszation Committee to court with a flimsy case that was not worth the paper it was written on, and lost because the Namibian courts declined jurisdiction, rightly so. Mr Rukoro’s deliberate conflation of the Progressive Forces with the FIFA Normalisation Committee clearly demonstrates his ignorance, or his deceitfulness.In the latter instance, he is dishonest with the readers of this newspaper, underestimating their intelligence badly.Why Mr Rukoro refers throughout his writing to the Progressive Forces instead of the Namibia Football Association is a mystery, but it will do justice to this reply if we interrogate his allegation of the legal instruments that were violated in the run-up to and during the recently held NFA congress.Let us now give the context to how the former first vice-president of the NFA ended up usurping the functions of the former NFA president.Mr Ranga Haikali was suspended on 13 August 2021 for reasons now recorded in the public domain.It is interesting to note that this author chose to avoid mentioning the suspension of the former NFA president by the former NFA executive committee in his opinion pieces.We understand his reasons. If he acknowledges the suspension, which was in force until the day of the last congress, he would have no legitimate claim against the NFA first vice-president signing off amendments to the NFA Statutes, or performing any other functions in the absence of Mr Haikali.Article 38(6) of the NFA Statutes provides that: If the president is absent or unavailable, the first vice-president shall deputise. And article 38(8) states: If the position of the president becomes vacant, the first vice-president shall deputise until the next congress. The above statutory provisions provide the legal context and justification within which the former first vice-president performed his roles in the absence of the suspended former NFA president.Nowhere in the NFA Statutes is it written that the first vice-president of the Association can only act on the instructions of the president. It is a blatant lie, if this is what Mr Rukoro insinuates, that does not have the blessing of the NFA Statutes.

Current situation at the NFA: A reply (Part 1)

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-08

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Current situation at the NFA: A reply (Part 1)

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-08

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