Karate wars come full circle

An atmosphere of uncertainty is circling the Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) president, Tshepho Bathai. The late firebrand opposition leader, Kenneth Koma once said, ‘lo ntshetse morago mme ga lo ntlhaloganye'. Loosely translated he meant that people followed him yet without fully understanding him. Maybe the karate community needed to dig deeper to understand how their man operates.

Bathai was first pushed out in 2015 and David Mathe came onboard as interim president. Montshwari Motlogelwa, Mpho Bakwadi, Lere Basupang and Sidney Maruping were part of Mathe's interim committee. In 2017, Bathai made a comeback as he was elected president by the affiliates. However, Bathai dropped a bombshell in June when he informed affiliates he will step down in October.