Hockey coach cleared of racism allegations

Left to Right: Marietta Stoffberg - vice president of the Namibia Hockey Union, John Kangowa -Chairperson : Independent panel, Maryke Short -National coach Windhoek-The Namibia Sports Commission and the Namibia Hockey Union have reported back on their findings regarding investigations that sought to analyse allegations of racial discrimination. Said allegations were leveled against hockey coach Maryke Short.At Tuesday’s press briefing the Namibia Sports Commission shared the findings with the media. Chaired by John Kangowa, as retainer, the independent panel found that there was no racism at play towards any player, the coach or executives in all the circumstances investigated. The investigation panel, however, found that there was a technical challenge with governance. Although Hockey does well as a code, there are still some elements that require improvement within the administration of the code. "We had a meeting with the Hockey Union after the report was provided to us. After our meeting, we gave them this report and also had a meeting with Miss Herunga and the coach yesterday. We spent at least two hours together with them. Very happy that at least the two of them can now at least understand one another and managed to reconcile" said Freddy Mwiya Chief Administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission. Speaking at the same occasion, the vice president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Marietta Stoffberg, said that she is pleased with the findings of the investigation and that they would now like to start on a clean slate. Stoffberg also revealed that the tour to Zimbabwe and the U16/18 teams had been cancelled. The coach, who is at the centre of the racism storm, also told the media briefing that she is happy with the outcome but given a chance, she would definitely do things better. "I felt that I did not handle the situation too well, going on Facebook and Twitter and stuff and retaliate against those accusations against me. In the future there are a few things that from my side I will do a bit differently but everything happens for a reason, so I've learned from my mistakes and I'll still coach. I love what I do and I love sport" Short said. The Sports Commission also called on the Namibia Hockey Union to disband the current u-16 national team and compose a new one, while the National coach, Maryke Short has also been recalled as that team's trainer.

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Katrina //Gowases

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Wesley Vries