Factionalism blamed for BOKA crisis
Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday January 28, 2015 12:00
The BOKA divisions forced four members, including the president, Tshepho Bathai to resign late last year rendering the committee dysfunctional. It triggered a Commission of Inquiry and its findings blamed the divisions for the crisis.
“…within a few months following assumption of office, it became clear that there were two groups within the committee.
The first group consisted of the president, the vice president (technical) and the secretary general while the rest of the members formed the other group,” the report, released in December said.
The resignations were blamed on the internal wrangling and ‘to a lesser extent by external influence’, the report noted.
The president was accused of making unilateral decisions without consulting members belonging to the opposing faction.
It also noted the vice president (technical) took long to relinquish his post as head coach after being elected into the executive committee last May.
“This created tension between members where a perception was created that the situation was being allowed because the incumbent was a close ally to the president. At the time of the interview, there was still no consistency in the understanding that a new head coach had been appointed,” the report said.
The commission interviewed various people associated with BOKA, past and present.
The task force also came to the conclusion that the BOKA Commission was non-functional, as it has never held meetings. At the end, the BOKA committee carries out duties, which should be performed by the commissions.
“For instance, the selection of the national team is a task for the Technical Commission but it was handled by the executive committee owing to the non-existence or malfunctioning of the appropriate commission,” the report said.
The retirement of funds was singled out as another challenge for the karate body.
“It came out very clearly that there was lack of appreciation and commitment by the BOKA leadership to timeously retire funds issued to members for various activities which is highly unprocedural and could easily result in misuse of funds at BOKA,” noted the Commission, which was headed by the Director of Sports and Recreation, Falcon Sedimo.
It said allowances for athletes for a Senegal trip last September were still unaccounted and the president only retired his per diem on October 2 having been given the money on August 7.
The commission also questions over P24,707.20 given to Andrew Dobolo for a trip to South Africa.
“There is no absolute assurance the funds for the Karate Open Championship in Soweto, South Africa were used for the intended event as per the fund application request.”
The BNSC board has not made its discussion over the explosive report public but affiliates voiced their concern at the state of affairs during a weekend special general meeting.
They argued those fingered in the report should be made to account. An interim committee, headed by David Mathe has been inserted as efforts to find solutions gather pace.