Africa-Press – Namibia. BEING a referee may not be glamorous, but it is a rewarding and fulfilling function, say Eveline Lungameni Augustinus and Wilhem Letukwafa Haitembu.
The pair are among 11 of Namibia’s newly Fifa-certified referees and assistants, who have received their accreditation to handle international matches.
Along with Haitembu, Samuel Nghipandulwa, Vistoria Shangula and Twanyanyukwa Antsino are primary referees. The six assistants are Augustinus, Matheus Kanyanga, Alex Lumponjani, Ndapewa Kornelius, Nevonga Matheus and Lisias Shaningwa.
Blighted by injuries, Augustinus swapped her playing gear for refereeing apparel and has not looked back since. “I’m really proud that I’m accredited by Fifa as an assistant referee. I’m encouraging other women to come join sport. They must take up refereeing and see how far they can go. It can open their doors,” she said.
Haitembu also cut short his promising playing career, as he believes he has a better chance of realising his dream of being involved in the biggest international competitions through officiating. He won the Skorpion Zinc Under-17 Cup and The Namibian Newspaper Cup with Omusati region.
“I tried playing. I reached the national level as a player. The dream of every player is to go abroad but the football standard in the country does not guarantee that. So, I decided to try something else and see if refereeing will take me out,” he said.
Haitembu, voted the best referee of the tournament at the 2015 Skorpion Under-17 Zinc Cup and The Namibian Newspaper Cup in 2016 and 2017, wants to follow in the footsteps of South African referee Victor Gomes, who took charge of the Afcon final between Senegal and Egypt.
“He’s from Cosafa. It motivates us a lot. So, our dream is to go to Cosafa and then go to Chan [African Nations Championships]. It’s every refs dream to reach Afcon. If you reach the Afcon, then it means it’s possible to reach the World Cup,” Haitembu said.
Namibia nominated 16 officials to Fifa’s panel but four did not make the cut, said NFA referee coordinator Absalom Goseb. Fifa also uses national rankings when determining the number of officials to be accredited per country.
NFA injected N$1 million into a development programme for match officials last year. The funds were used to run several courses and a nationwide talent identification drive, said Goseb.
“Over the years, we’ve had a small budget and could not sufficiently develop referees in all the regions. But now, we are able to reach as many people as possible with the NFA’s investment,” he said. Shangula, Antsino, and Lumponjani will handle the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations first-leg qualifier between Zimbabwe and Botswana.
“I’m so happy about our women who are officiating at this level for close to three years now. I would like to encourage more to sign up. Being a referee is just as important as being a player; it is not a downgrade,” Goseb said.
“Under the leadership of the referees committee that we have now, under Erastus Shilunga (assessor) and his group, I think [Namibian] referees can go far.
“I see it has started already. We took one year to go out to 14 regions to train men and women and it has paid off,” he added.
“We have to take it to another level. After five of these type of courses, we might have referees at the African Cup of Nations. When the Fifa instructors were here last year, they told us that there is talent in Namibia.”
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