In fact, the wrongs that they so much craved to right are simply not going away, but instead, are sticking out like a sore thumb. Football has always been at the centre of negative spotlight, but what is happening at karate makes the Botswana Football Association (BFA) a bastion of democracy.
It is only that every football sin is beamed in the full public glare while codes like karate bicker under the cover of darkness, hoping their shenanigans will go undetected. There is less scrutiny for the other codes making football look like the all evil child when there are far more problematic codes, karate being one of those trying so hard to be relevant with its rascal behaviour.
When Tshepho Bathai was removed as president last year, the promise of the land of milk and honey was at the epicentre of the new administration’s roadmap. However, months down the line, alas, the situation keeps deteriorating. Like the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), karate seems to have developed a liking for the courts. Instead of development, the buzz word is now infighting which is evidently detrimental to the progress of a sport that has over the years become synonymous with success.
The current crop appears hell-bent on slamming the brakes of progress and reversing gains of the past. Their claim to fame thus far is ousting the previous committee but little progress has been made on the desirable action front. It looks like the new crop of karate administrators is itching for a fight. We are told karate is all about discipline but what we have witnessed in recent times is the opposite of discipline, as karatekas are morphing into war-lords right before our eyes.
The insatiable appetite for blood on the floor appears to be growing, with each camp on a trophy hunting expedition. Bathai wants Bakwadi’s head at all costs while the reverse is true.
It’s now all about egos and personalities to the detriment of the sport. Ladies and gentlemen, you have shone enough in the war-mongering department, please can you do the same regarding the development of the sport. I don’t think you will want to be judged as the men and women who shamelessly dragged karate to the gutter.
The Botswana National Sport Commission(BNSC) and other relevant bodies must not be complicit, but crack the whip. We know if it was football behaving like a spoilt brat as karate is doing, action would have long been taken, or seen to be taken. Do the same with karate and all other bickering codes that aimlessly chow taxpayers money under the government grant. Be ruthless with codes that want to be the law unto themselves.
