NCS chief Hamunyela warns NFA over team exclusion
• By Michael Uugwanga
The Namibia Football Association (NFA) might find itself in hot water following its decision to exclude Namibian Correctional Service (NCS) Football Club from playing in next season’s Namibia Premier Football League (NPFL) despite NCS winning the Southern Stream First Division.
In a statement from the NFA this week on the matter of promoted and relegated clubs to and from different NFA leagues for the season 2024/2025, the association has passed a resolution stating that Blue Boys FC, who are the runner-up in the Southern Stream First Division will play in next season’s NPFL and not NCS the winners.
The reason is that NCS is ineligible for promotion due to conflicting ownership interests with another NFPL team, Khomas NamPol, which, according to the association, is already a league member.
However, NCS will still be recognised as the winner of the Southern Stream First Division, but not one of the three newly promoted teams in the top flight football alongside other nationwide winners, such as KK Palace FC, the winner of the North West First Division and Cuca Tops FC the winner of the North East First Division.
NCS FC is a team owned by NCS, a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, a ministry that also comprises the department of the Namibia Police Force (NamPol). However, the two departments (NCS/NamPol) operate differently and have different budgets and leaders. NamPol is being spearheaded by Lieutenant General Joseph Shikongo, while the NCS boss is Commissioner-General Raphael Hamunyela.
Responding to the sage that could prevent football in the country from starting on time, NCS Commissioner-General Hamunyela is in an exclusive interview with Confidente, as he shared his thoughts on the whole matter and the way forward.
“I know 100 percent of the situation (NCS vs. NFA). We need to understand, or for the court to interpret, what an entity is. There is no entity without the founding statutes.
“One entity uses one law, NCS, and the police are two different entities. We (NCS) have acts that differ from those of the police.
“As a political principle, the minister does not appoint a correctional officer or a police officer, as people appoint these given the mandate by the constitution and the law. Hence, if you say they are one entity, I fail to understand the argument with the NFA. Still, you see, if you look, I did research. If you go to Zambia as we are here today, Zambia uses the same rules: FIFA rules, Confederation of African Football (CAF) rules, and Zambian Football Association rules.
“Today in Zambia you find air force, Army, and national youth service are under the Ministry of defence, and all of them have teams in their league. Zambia police and correctional service are under Ministry of home affairs but they were relegated now and they were all playing in the premier league. If you go to Botswana, Botswana defence, Botswana police and Botswana prison they are all in one Ministry and all of them have been in the premier league with the same rules of CAF, FIFA and Botswana Football Association. And if you go Lesotho they do have the something. I think I do not know, I do not understand what is our argument if we are all applying the same rules of CAF and FIFA,” said Hamunyela.
Hamunyela also hit back at the NFA, particularly its president Robert Shimmoshili and the entire executive members, for not thoroughly investigating the matter before concluding that the police and correctional are like one, which is not the case.
It is against this background that Hamunyela said they are going to challenge the matter through both FIFA and CAF.
“Why does one individual want to interpret that we and the police are entities because we are under one Ministry? We need to differentiate what an entity is because I read the law on the entity, company or subsidy, and we are not even a subsidy to the police; we are not even one entity to that of the police. Even our law and our budget, as we do have our budget different from that of the police that I am running as a general commissioner, is the one that decides my budget. The Executive Director (ED) is the accounting officer but does not recruit anyone. All the correctional officers are being recruited by me in terms of constitution invested in me and are promoted by me.
“To say we are not going in the premier league because we are one entity like the police. If that is the case let the court decide. We are not going the leave as it is. We have to challenge the matter to get it through CAF and FIFA. We will take the legal route and follow the procedures. We are such a small country and therefore I am not sure why we are coming up with such things,” said Hamunyela.