Bathai knuckles down after new mandate
Calistus Kolantsho | Thursday April 13, 2017 13:11
He frequently shuffles his ring to stress a point, as he emphasise the need to put the karate house in order, so often facing endless fire fighting moments.
Bathai’s first term in office in 2014 ended abruptly and unceremoniously- after just five months at the helm, due to the persistent in-fighting.
But on a glorious sunny day in Mogoditshane at the Big Five lodge, Bathai was given a fresh mandate for the next four years to haul karate out of the coals.
Bathai says since karate is now an Olympic sport there is need to come up with a holistic approach. He points out that at the moment there is no coaches’ programme.
“We are targeting an Olympic medal. (Actually) there are five areas that we are targeting. We need to come up with a coaches’ development programme.
It will start at grassroots level to (the) elite. Even when somebody is included in the national team, they should have certain qualifications that we are looking for. At the moment it is haphazard,” he reveals.
Bathai says at the moment Botswana is practising traditional karate that is spear-headed by chief instructors at federations. He says hence the need to come up with chief instructors training programme that has been neglected by BOKA.
He says as the owners of karate technique, it means karate will not grow. Bathai says on annual basis, chief instructors will be sent to Japan for training and come back to plant the technique back home.
“The other issue is referees. Our referees are not up to scratch. Tournaments can take the whole day with only 200 participants. That is unacceptable. In other countries, you may have 3,000 athletes but they finish on time. It means we are not doing something right,” he says.
He says there had been some complaints raised about the issue, adding referees ethics were not followed.
Bathai says there should be procedure to follow when appointing officials for Africa Union Sport Council Region V and other international competitions. He says that has led to BOKA losing many referees and the plan is to get them back into the fold.
Bathai says there is no programme in place on how a karateka makes it into the national team. He says there is need to come up with a nation wide plan to scout for talent. He says the arrangement will cater for athletes from rural/remote areas.
“We are going to implement Project 1000 which is aimed at establishing 1000 clubs by 2020. It is going to be intensive. There are some instructors at some federations who are not doing anything and we are going to engage them in the implementation,” he says.
“I have come up with BOKA Vision 2017-2020. The vision includes the establishment of BOKA Karate Foundation, finance and investment committee, elite karate academy amongst others.”
Bathai argues that administration remains below standard across all sporting codes. He says the area has been left behind and there is need for treasures and their chairpersons to be trained on financial issues.
“Our hall is dilapidated and below standard. We need to set up a national headquarters’ building fund so that sponsors can start assisting us. That should be done quickly,” Bathai argues.
He says they are going to resuscitate the BOKA Trust, which will be made up of businesspeople, not karatekas.
He says it is important to find trustees who can raise funds for the association.
Bathai cut his teeth in karate in 1988 in Lobatse following in the footsteps of his father. He has been involved in the sport for 29 years, going through all BOKA and federations structures.
He has been a national team coach, judge and a referee and is currently a chief instructor for Karate Nomichi Botswana and 5th Dan black belt.
“During my spare time I play squash because of my wife. I like reading a lot on various issues. We are blessed with two children, a boy and a girl,” he says.