BOKA in boardroom sparring
... as political infighting intensifies ahead of Karate association elections
Signs of political instability at the Botswana karate Association ( BOKA) are taking center stage ahead of the eagerly anticipated elective Annual General Meeting billed for Lobatse later this month. Fierce competition will be expected between the incumbent president Tshepo Bathai and the illustrious World Karate Federation ( WKF) referee Shihan Mpho Bakwadi who has recently emerged as a presidential hopeful. However this week saw the emergence of another BOKA presidential hopeful in Keorapetse Dube of Ryushin- kan Karate Do Botswana. However it did not take long for Sensei Dube to face resistance as he immediately challenged BOKA for allegedly failing to extend an invitation for elections to both him and his federation.
“What I can tell you is that we are members of Botswana Karate Association ( BOKA) in good standing and my style has appointed me to stand for elections as president. But right now we are waiting for a response from BOKA because we never received an invitation to the elections.
So I wrote to BOKA requesting an invitation to the elections such that we familiarize ourselves with the process but despite this we submitted names of our candidates but we don’t know if we did things correctly. But at this point in time I can’t speculate why they didn’t send us the invitation but as soon as I get a response from the association then I will see what’s the way forward and take it from there, “Dube said.
While Ryushin- kan Karate Do Botswana is a good member of BOKA and compliant at the Registrar of Societies it is not yet clear on why BOKA did not extend the elections invitation to them. However according to sources close to the developments there has been some alleged ploy by some people in the current BOKA executive committee who want to frustrate Dube’s efforts of contesting the elections. In recent weeks, BOKA has been in the media for the wrong reasons after they were allegedly accused of suspending Bathai’s rival Shihan Bakwadi. Even though the suspension was later reported to have been lifted , the deed was viewed as a deliberate trick of intimidating opponents by the incumbent committee therefore the recent scandalous situation of failure to extend elections invitation to Ryushin- kan Karate Do Botswana has been deemed the same.
“They want to sabotage Dube, he is duly registered with Registrar of societies and a BOKA member who has never been expelled or suspended. The only mistake that Dube made was to apply afresh to BOKA last year after he was lied to that the Registrar of societies has two certificates of his style, “a source who spoke on condition of anonymity said. Reached for comment on the matter BOKA president Bathai said the issue of Ryushin- Kan’s membership will be dealt with at the Annual General Meeting and even provided a letter which the association wrote to Sensei Dube regarding their membership.” The issues will be addressed at the AGM and it’s the meeting that will decide on the issue going forward. I am obviously conflicted in the matter that is why I am taking the issue to the AGM,” he said.
In the letter dated the 16th of July 2020 BOKA states that International Ryushin- kan Karate Do Botswana has been offered provisional membership for 12 months.“Kindly note that provisional members do not have voting rights during general meetings and also do not get any financial assistance from BOKA,“part of the letter reads. In another letter authored by International Ryushin- kan Do Karate Botswana on the 17th of JULY 2020, Sensei Dube duly accepted the provisional membership into BOKA.
However evidence shows that International Ryushinkan Do Karate Botswana has been a member of BOKA since 2013. When this reporter brought the issue to Bathai’s attention he said,” Obviously there are reasons for the new application,” he said.