BOKA kicks out affiliate
The Botswana Karate Association ( BOKA) has recently terminated the membership of Botswana Shokokai Karate Union ( BSKU) in what came as a shocking move.
Even though the association is still dealing with the appeals of their elections which were held in April, where there are alleged irregularities, BOKA is set for another battle with BSKU which are likely to contest their removal from the karate folds. Early this year, prior to the elective Annual General Meeting, when BOKA was checking the affiliation status of its members, it was reported that BSKU does not appear in the records of the Registrar of Societies.
BOKA is already battling another case of membership with International Ryushinkan karate Do Botswana federation who were placed on provisional membership and denied being part of elections despite them having been BOKA members since 2013. However, last week, BOKA took a drastic action to terminate BSKU membership from karate, a decision which has raised eyebrows since it is not yet clear how the federation doesn’t exist at the Registrar of Societies. At some point the federation was suspended by BOKA during the build up to the elections in what was deemed as intimidation of opponents. In a letter authored by the association to BSKU, BOKA states that following the termination, the federation can apply for new membership once they satisfy the set requirements.
“Following the exercise on compliance with BOKA membership requirements in accordance with article 5 of the constitution, you were duly informed of your non- compliance and afforded a reasonable time to rectify the situation. This matter was taken before the general assembly to make determination on your membership status. I regret to inform you that the General Assembly resolved to terminate your membership with BOKA effective immediately,” reads the letter from BOKA.
In an interview with BG Sport, BSKU chairman David Mathe confirmed that following the shocking disappearance of their records, they engaged the Registrar of Societies. “We received communication through the letter that placed us on suspension, stating that the Registrar of Societies indicates that we do not exist in their records but when we engaged them they stated that they did not say we do not exist but that they could not find our record as they were still looking for our file,” said Mathe.
The disappearance of BSKU files at the Registrar of Societies have brought many factors to the issue since the federation has been a member of BOKA for many years and in fact one of the first few federations. This has since raised questions on the where abouts of the communications and files that BOKA has on BSKU since the federation voted many times in the past elections.
In addition, the legality of BSKU votes during 2017 elections as well as motions and contributions they made to BOKA in the past meetings have been greatly questioned following the emergence of the issues of non- compliance by the federation.
Quizzed if there isn’t any foul play involved in the matter, Mathe said they had their own suspicions. ” We were placed on suspension on the 27th of January 2021 until 31st of March, after which BOKA was to review and determine a way forward. This was the same letter that made us aware that the Registrar of Societies had indicated our non- existent status. We do not know whether there could be some foul play at Registrar of Societies but we reasonably believe that the action that was taken had everything to do with AGM. We are going to challenge this termination of our membership as we believe the action is not procedural, constitutional and done in bad faith,” he said. Reached for comment BOKA president, Tshepo Bathai said, “AGM took the decision to terminate their membership. Remember they were on suspension since January to prove their registration status with Registrar of Societies which is a requirement for BOKA membership. So the executive took the issue to the AGM for a decision to be made, “Quizzed how come there is no trace of membership records at both BOKA and Registrar of Societies, Bathai further said, “At BOKA there are no records, the registrar also wrote to us saying there are no records, so I don’t know if they disappeared or they never existed.”