Karate SA back on track after suspension
A TUMULTUOUS period for Karate SA (KSA) has come to an end as the Union of African Karate Federation (Ufak) lifted their suspension following successful negotiations in Algeria last week.
A series of events led to Ufak suspending KSA’S membership in December last year before approving the formation of a rival association, in contravention of the World Karate Federation (WKF) constitution that does not allow dual affiliation in a country.
KSA chief executive Carlos Vilela said on his return from Algeria they had been reinstated and were recognised by both the international and continental bodies.
“After our meeting in Algiers everything has been resolved, KSA has the full support of Ufak and WKF and they uplifted our termination, so it is basically back to business as usual,” Vilela said.
“After the meetings in Algeria a lot has been achieved, we will have an executive meeting in Johannesburg this weekend where we will go through everything that was decided.”
KSA, recognised as the official umbrella body for karate in the country, was involved in a tournament that also featured full contact karate, which is not an affiliate of the WKF. This has allegedly been the reason for KSA’s suspension by the continental federation.
North West Province Karate was invited to an event hosted by the provincial government’s Department of Education and Sport Development that also included full contact in its program.
“The way we are positioned, there is only one world body recognised by the International Olympic Committee and that is WKF,” Vilela said.
“Anybody who wants to participate in a recognised karate body has to be members of whoever the affiliate is of WKF; in this case KSA. Everybody is welcome to join us as long as they comply to the statutes of WKF and Ufak. ”
KSA also had to fight for recognition on the home front, where they were initially deregistered by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) last August over the reinstatement of officials and the inclusion of Full Contact Karate.
Backed by the world body, KSA challenged the deregistration with WKF president Antonio Espinós sending a letter to Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy criticising its decision.
“KSA has been a loyal WKF member, resisting pressure from Sascoc to accept other dissident karate groups in the country,” Espinós said at the time.
“SA’s decision (to resist) was the correct one as Sascoc has for several years attempted to impose measures on South African karate that come from a lack of understanding of what karate is and how the sport is structured.”
The arbitrator ruled in favour of KSA with costs which included its reinstatement retrospectively from August 12 last year.
“It’s a positive time as opposed to what happened the last few months,” Vilela said. “A lot of clarity has come from a bad situation.”