{"id":100987,"date":"2026-04-17T14:37:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:03:28","slug":"hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe","title":{"rendered":"Hard Work and Perseverance in Haukambe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>The life story of former junior national team defender Sedekia \u2018Song\u2019 Haukambe is one of hard work and perseverance.<\/b><\/p>\n

Haukambe first made a name for himself in the famous red-and-black jersey of former Namibian cup kings Black Africa (BA), before he was scooped up by the all-conquering Civics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first told by my coach at Black Africa I was too young to play for a team of BA\u2019s stature. I was only 16 years old at the time, but I proved to him that the will of a 16-year-old was just as strong as that of a 20-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stayed on and made my debut against a rampant Blue Waters side at Walvis Bay. It was a true baptism of fire because I first had to mark Sydney Plaatjies, who destroyed me at right-back before I was switched to left-back, where I was finished off by Paulus \u2018Wire\u2019 Shipanga,\u201d the retired right-back says.<\/p>\n

He says he was praying to be replaced during the match, but instead, coach Mike \u2018Barnes\u2019 Petersen left him first struggling against Blue Waters left-winger Plaatjies before right-winger Shipanga finished him off.<\/p>\n

Haukambe\u2019s coach and teammates laughed at him after the match and told him that was his introduction to Black Africa and premier league football.<\/p>\n

NO QUITTER<\/p>\n

The second time Haukanbe demonstrated he was not a quitter was after he failed his trials at a club in Germany he was recommended to by a friend of former Civics club director Helmut Scharnowski.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was basically told I did not have what it takes to play football in the German leagues,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told myself there was no way I would come back to play football in Namibia again after I got so impressed with the set-up of German football. I joined fourth division team SC Herford for a season. Statistics now read that I lived in Germany for 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedekia Haukambe in action during a league match in Germany.<\/p>\n

After Herford, Haukambe joined Tus Dornberg, where he stayed for five seasons before he moved on to FC Gutersloh, where he sustained a career-threatening muscle injury which left him with no action for a whole year before he resurfaced at Gutersloh again.<\/p>\n

The powerful right-back continued playing in the German lower divisions with various teams.<\/p>\n

Today, he is still playing in the seventh division with SpVg Heepen after retiring at age 40.<\/p>\n

Heepen is based in Bielefeld in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia.<\/p>\n

Before he came to Windhoek to attend school at Pioneer Boys Secondary School, Haukambe started playing street football at the age of 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played at an open space known as Bundesliga Park near Kuisebmond Secondary School. It was the come-together spot of the football-playing black youths of Walvis Bay,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watched the older boys like Dokkies Theodor, Wycliff Kambonde, Gottlieb Nakuta, Dahle Mutirifa, and Paulus Shipanga, who all went on to play big league football with Blue Waters and Eleven Arrows respectively, entertaining us with their skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time Haukambe got introduced to organised football was when he joined Atlantis Sports Club, which also started playing against visiting teams from Germany. He says that Schalke wanted to invite him over to Germany at the time but his parents refused.<\/p>\n

At Pioneers Boys Secondary School, Haukambe met up with the likes of former Black Africa and African Stars gifted striker Bradley \u2018Asprilla\u2019 Wermann and the overlapping right-back Freddy Kauzu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a very energetic and committed young player and I didn\u2019t allow any nonsense from opposition forwards. That was probably what (Rusten) Mogane saw in me and it did not take any long before he called me up to the national under-17 team he was coaching,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The young Haukambe was later integrated into the national under-20 and later into the under-23 team where he played against some of South Africa\u2019s top junior players.<\/p>\n

Although he never played for the Brave Warriors, he was always called up to the training camp of the senior national team.<\/p>\n

Sedekia Haukambe and his wife looking radiant on their wedding day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret never having won a single senior national team cap. I was privileged enough to have trained with the country\u2019s top players, some who played overseas in Germany while the others played for top in the South African Premier League,\u201d Haukambe says.<\/p>\n

The late Zambian coach Ben Bamfuchile is one of the best coaches he has trained under, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBamfuchile was a father figure to us; it\u2019s unfortunate he never fulfilled his mandate with Namibia due to illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired star won a lot of silverware with BA, including the Sam Nujoma Cup, multiple Windhoek Lager NFA Cups, and another NFA Cup with Civics before he left for Germany.<\/p>\n

WORK, FAMILY<\/p>\n

Haukambe, who is married and has a son, has been working for what can be referred to as Germany\u2019s \u2018NamPost\u2019 for the last 12 years.<\/p>\n

He says he just finished his property agent exams and is looking forward to a new career.<\/p>\n

His advice to young players is: \u201cDon\u2019t think once you\u2019ve made it into a premier league team you\u2019ve made it football-wise. The football world doesn\u2019t have limitations. Strive for the professional league in South Africa, then Europe must be your next destination.\u201d Haukambe says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink big, like playing in the domestic cups, with your ultimate goal being the Uefa Champions League.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. The life story of former junior national team defender Sedekia \u2018Song\u2019 Haukambe is one of hard work and perseverance. Haukambe first made a name for himself in the famous red-and-black jersey of former Namibian cup kings Black Africa (BA), before he was scooped up by the all-conquering Civics. \u201cI first told by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":100985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-100987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nHard Work and Perseverance in Haukambe - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The life story of former junior national team defender Sedekia \u2018Song\u2019 Haukambe is one of hard work and perseverance.< ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hard Work and Perseverance in Haukambe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The life story of former junior national team defender Sedekia \u2018Song\u2019 Haukambe is one of hard work and perseverance.< ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T14:37:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T15:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/sm_1776425475.286693.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"578\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hard Work and Perseverance in Haukambe\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-17T14:37:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-17T15:03:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\"},\"wordCount\":925,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/sm_1776425475.286693.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hard-work-and-perseverance-in-haukambe\",\"name\":\"Hard Work and Perseverance in Haukambe - 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