The wellbeing of jockeys is of high importance - Uerikua
GOVERNOR of Otjozondjupa region James Uerikua has called on the Namibia Horse Racing Association (NHRA), clubs and racehorse owners to start looking after their jockeys.
Uerikua said this in an interview with Nampa during the MTC Horse Racing Derby that took centre stage at the garden town of Okahandja on Saturday.
The governor, who came to witness the crème de la crème of Namibian race horses, said he was content and couldn’t be happier because the event brought all people from all the different corners of the country together at one place in the spirit of Ubuntu.
“For sport to develop; we need real sport facilities in terms of sport stadiums and equipment. We also need to identify talent and nurture it so they can reach their full potential because only through sports we can develop this country,” he said.
Uerikua stated that NHRA can realised its potential if clubs and horse owners start looking after the wellbeing of their jockeys.
“I see the jockeys walking around but I need to go through the life of a jockey. Where do they sleep? Who is he and what type of a life does he live because the job they are doing is dangerous and anything can happen if he falls off that horse,” Uerikua said.
The governor said he would like to know the packages the jockeys are receiving if they happen to fall off the horse and become redundant.
“Who will look after his family? what type of remuneration packages or percentages do they get if the horse wins?” asked Uerikua, who further called on organisers and club owners to seriously look into this matter since people enjoy the sport because of the them riding the horses and not because of the horse owners. Speaking to the media after the event, the Association president, Marthinus de Waal, said clubs rely on sponsorships and money collected from gate fee as well as registration fees to operate but the association is working hard in improving the livelihood of those involved in the sport.
“Jockeys are the most important part of our organisation and we encourage every owner
to register their jockeys with Social Security. Therefore, if anything happens to them, they will be compensated while at the same time as owners we also have to pay these jockeys if anything happens to them while doing their job,” De Waal said.
De Waal added that the association is in the process of bringing experts from South Africans to train the jockeys.
“We lack professionalism with our jockeys but due to lack of funds, we struggled to get experts to train our people. All the money we usually get was used to pay the track fees, which we hire since we don’t have our own, with MTC on board now. We will continue working towards improving the conditions of the horses and people at all our racing tracks,” he added. – Nampa