An internal Namibia Football Association (NFA) report says a national team player sent N$12 000 owed to the association to an official’s personal cellphone.
The report, dated January 2026, was compiled by suspended NFA finance director Mino Gariseb and is titled ‘National Team Allowance Payments Report’.
It says the N$12 000 had not been repaid to the association by January this year, although it was transferred to the senior official’s number in March 2025 already.
The report forms part of a memo compiled by Gariseb detailing how the NFA mistakenly paid N$148 000 into national team players’ accounts last year.
The Namibian earlier this week reported that one reason for his suspension was paying national team players double without any effort to recover the NFA’s money.
The affected players were required to repay the money, including through deductions from allowances and bonuses for upcoming matches.
But one player, Godwin Eiseb, whom the report says the NFA overpaid by N$36 000, has told the NFA he had already repaid N$12 000 of that amount by transferring the money to a cellphone number belonging to the association’s competitions and registrations director, Tim Isaacs. Eiseb confirmed to The Namibian that he paid the N$12 000.
“When asked, Godwin [who plays for Orapa United Football Club in Botswana] said the funds had been repaid to the NFA,” the report states.
It says no deposit has reached the NFA.
A text message, however, shows a N$12 000 pay-to-cell transfer on 17 March 2025 from Eiseb to Isaacs’ number.
“Up to 6 January 2026 no repayment was made or arrangement was communicated,” Gariseb writes in the report.
He recommends that Isaacs be relieved of duties involving national teams and that the technical department take over national team logistics.
“Cyril [Tim] Isaacs is not competent enough to handle national teams’ duties,” Gariseb states.
It is not clear why a repayment owed to the NFA went to an official’s cellphone number, or what happened to the money afterwards.
Isaacs, a long-serving football administrator, this week told The Namibian that he was not involved in the processing of the payments.
“In respect to the alleged payment into the NFA account, the NFA acting general secretary would be best placed to confirm whether the funds were paid into the NFA account. I do not have access to the NFA’s accounts,” he said.
PAYMENT ERRORS
The report names two other players who allegedly received allowances and bonuses meant for other players.
It says the NFA overpaid one player by N$52 000 and the other by N$60 000.
Adding Eiseb’s N$36 000 brings the total to N$148 000.
The payments concerned fixtures involving Lesotho, Cameroon and Kenya. Bank documents attached to the report show the NFA made national team payments totalling N$700 000 on 14 March 2025 and N$435 000 on 20 March 2025.
NFA acting general secretary Mabos Vries on Wednesday told The Namibian the allegations against Gariseb and Isaacs were still under review and it would not be appropriate for the association to comment on them.
“In the interest of maintaining the integrity of the process, the association will refrain from providing further details until the review has been finalised,” Vries said.
Efforts to get comment from Gariseb were not successful by the time of going to print.
PRESSURE ON FINANCE
In the same report, Gariseb raises concerns about interference by members of the NFA executive council in administrative and financial matters.
“It is also recommended that executive council members should remain outside of administrative matters, especially when it comes to payments to be made,” he states.
He says the finance department had been put under extreme pressure to process payments after working hours, which has contributed to errors.
Gariseb also calls for better verification of bank details, transaction logs, staff training and regular audits.
“Payment errors, while sometimes inevitable in complex systems, can be minimised through diligent controls, training, and oversight,” he writes.
Gariseb was suspended on 9 October, a day after the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) announced a N$90 million sponsorship of the association over three football seasons.
In a suspension letter, which The Namibian has seen, Vries instructs Gariseb to stop performing his duties while the NFA investigates allegations of financial irregularities, mismanagement and administrative failures.
LONG-SERVING OFFICIALS
Chrisantus Kamaghoko, a former secretary of the North East First Division, praises the leadership of NFA president Robert Shimooshili but raises concerns about long-serving officials in key positions.
“I don’t know how to handle this matter of keeping people within the association for longer than 20 to 30 years. It is also one of the factors that is killing us,” he says.
Kamaghoko singles out football development and financial management as two major areas requiring urgent attention, saying the association has not demonstrated sufficient progress in either.
“Football development is not receiving the necessary attention that it deserves,” he says.
He further questions the lack of visible initiatives aimed at strengthening the NFA’s financial stability, saying there has been little indication of what the finance department is doing to improve the association’s financial position.
The payment controversy has emerged against a long history of disputes over who controls the NFA’s finances.
In an interview with The Namibian in 2018, former general secretary Barry Rukoro said project managers sometimes handled football funds but were required to reconcile spending against supporting documents.
He was referring to earlier practices, not the present allegations.
Former NFA president Ranga Haikali told The Namibian in January 2022 that he had refused to sign financial statements he regarded as unreliable during a separate leadership dispute.
His remarks also predate this case.
*This article was produced by The Namibian’s investigative unit. Send us story tips via your secure email to investigations@namibian.com.na
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