Mmegi

BOKA in bad books with Registrar

- CALISTUS KOLANTSHO Staff Writer

Botswana Karate Associatio­n’s (BOKA) troubles are mounting after it emerged the karate body had failed to submit audited financial statements to the Registrar of Societies (ROS). The associatio­n is also facing de-registrati­on because it has nine members instead of the required 10.

According to a source, minutes from the June Annual General Meeting (AGM) were submitted to the ROS stating that the audited financial statements were available and shared with the members. It has also emerged that the amended BOKA constituti­on was not adopted by the general assembly.

BOKA interim public relations officer, Keorapetse Dube said the associatio­n has not complied with the Societies Act Chapter 18.01 since the annual returns for the year 2020–2021. He said two members were unconstitu­tionally expelled or suspended.

“As per the Societies Act, the associatio­n must have 10 members at least, so BOKA expelled Ryushin-Kan and Shukokai Karate Union. All along BOKA had 10 members, which means eight members were left. Since the Kanye Annual General Meeting in 2021, BOKA has not received any new member,” he said.

Dube said Ryushin-Kan was reinstated in June this year, taking the number to nine. According to a document shared with Mmegi Sport, BOKA members are Kofukan, Ryushin-Kan, Gojukai, Shitoryu, JKA Botswana, KWF Botswana, Shitoryu Shukokai, Internatio­nal Shotokan Karate Federation Botswana and Hayashi-Ha. However, the outgoing president, Tshepho Bathai said everything was in order with the Registrar.

“What do you mean by non-compliant when the Registrar of Societies approved our new constituti­on in August? The constituti­on was corrected during our June AGM. Now our membership of BOKA includes affiliates’ headquarte­rs dojo. That means we have 18 members,” he said.

Bathai said when BOKA was formed in 1981, it had two members while in 2002 there were three and last year when the Registrar realised this anomaly, they were advised to correct it. He said Shukokai is not a registered entity and they should apply for BOKA membership.

“When you read the Act, it is illegal to deal with unregister­ed societies. So with ROS we are more than sorted. The financials are also sorted now. They will be sent to the members (Wednesday) and will be discussed during the Ordinary General Meeting (OGM),” Bathai said.

Reacting to the OGM matter, Dube said as the interim committee, the matter is not yet discussed. “We are still to investigat­e and do forensic audit first because we are funded by government.

We have to comply and abide by the rule of law. We are not going to leave any stone unturned,” he said. Efforts to get a comment from the Registrar of Societies were unsuccessf­ul at press time.

 ?? The new BOKA committee ?? Taking over:
The new BOKA committee Taking over:

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