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TEAM Namibia endured a nightmare 35-hour bus trip to the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa Games in Potchefstroom where they were due to play several hours later.
The trip was beset by problems from the start with the original departure time of 14h00 on Wednesday being postponed several times until the team of about 260 Namibian athletes and officials left at about 23h00 at night.
That was just the start of their problems though as the trip stretched out for more than a day and they only arrived in Potchefstroom after 10h00 on Friday morning.
According to a concerned parent they were held up for more than five hours at the border because the paperwork was not in order, and after they finally got into South Africa, their accommodation plans continually changed.
With the bus drivers exhausted and stopping regularly to rest, the trip stretched on at a snail’s pace, before they eventually arrived in Potchefstroom at 10am on Friday, 35 hours after their departure.
With some of the sport codes due to play matches later on Friday it was not clear whether they would go ahead or change the fixtures to accommodate the exhausted Namibians.
“Our children have to go and represent our country, but how can they do that under these circumstances. It’s very unfair to expect national athletes to sit on a bus for 35 hours with minimal food and hardly any sleep and then go out and represent their country,” one parent said.
“I want Namibia to know whats going on and how poor the Namibia School Sport Union’s organisation is. This has been going on for a few years now but everyone just keeps quiet, the kids come back and then the tour is over. We see how many medals they won in the paper but no one knows about the problems behind the scenes,” the parent added.
When approached for comment, the national coordinator of the NSSU, Solly Duiker evaded queries about the nightmare trip.
“The team was accompanied by the chairman of the NSSU; he will be in a better position to answer, because I left Namibia yesterday, and arrived last night via Botswana,” he said via WhatsApp.
The NSSU chairman Theophilus Nuugulu could not be reached for comment.
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