Serufho told MmegiSport recently that the Sport Act does not allow the BNSC to intervene in National Sport Associations (NSA) internal squabbles. “We are toothless. There is nothing we can do because if we intervene, an NSA can take us to court. We are aware of what is going on at BOKA but our hands are tied,” he said. This week affiliates moved to impeach the BOKA committee led by president Mpho Bakwadi. The affiliates want a Special General Meeting (SGM) early next month where a motion of no confidence is expected to be passed against the committee.
Speaking to MmegiSport, Bakwadi said BOKA has appointed technical, referees, disciplinary, appeals and women’s commissions. He said other remaining commissions have not yet been appointed mainly due to lack of resources. “The accusation of financial accountability is false. We have submitted audited financial statements at the 2024 AGM. It is also false that we have failed to hold regular meetings. We have been holding meetings as and when there was a need to do so,” Bakwadi said responding to some of the accusations stated in the petition. He said BOKA will not convene an SGM requested by the member federations who submitted the petition. “The petition is based on falsehoods. Since the reception of the petition by BOKA on January 13, 2025, two signatories to the petition being the Botswana Shito-Ryu Federation (BSF) and JKA Botswana World Federation have written to BOKA disassociating themselves and withdrawing from the submitted petition and out of five remaining signatories, Karate Nomichi Botswana and Botswana Goju-Kai Karate Federation are not members of BOKA,” he said. Bakwadi explained that out of the seven initial signatories to the petition only three; Kofukan, Shitoryu Shukukai, and Ryushin-Kan are bonafide members of BOKA.
