Karate Hall Construction Begins

MOSAH MOKGANEDI
Correspondent | Monday February 15, 2010 00:00

 

The Dojo will be built at the karate plot behind the National Stadium in Gaborone. The construction of the facility was meant to be complete by the end of next month after the Japanese embassy provided finance for the project early last year. However, BOKA spokesperson, Moses Moloi said work could not start because the Gaborone City Council (GCC) wanted to make some assessments before the project begins and this caused the delay. He is relieved that construction will finally take-off. He lauded the Japanese embassy for the P700,000 sponsorship which was made through the Grand Aid for Cultural Grassroots Projects Scheme (GACGP). The embassy will dispatch an instructor to BOKA through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) once the facility is complete.

Moloi said the training centre will be built in four phases. The first phase will see the construction of a hall and ablution facilities. Moloi said the building of the hall comes at a crucial time when karate has been included in the London 2010 Olympics. He said the centre will be critical for indoor training and can be used for other sports codes. He said they will rent the facility to other codes in order to raise funds for the extension of the centre. At least P10 million is needed to complete all the four phases. The Japanese donation will cover only the first phase.