BOKA accepts new karate style as affiliate

Ryushin-Kan karate has successfully affiliated to the Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) during the latter’s Ordinary General Meeting   in Gaborone over the weekend. However, this is not the first time Ryushin Kan has affiliated to BOKA. The style was first registered under its chief instructor Andrew Dobolo some years ago.

The instructor later left the karate style under a cloud of controversy, but he had been practising the karate style under Seikokai before he resigned it from BOKA earlier this year. Nevertheless, the karate style’s return to BOKA under a new instructor now means the karate body has a total of eight affiliates. Following Dobolo’s departure, Ryushin-Kan re-registered with the Registrar of Societies and affiliated with BOKA for a fresh start. This week, the new Ryushin-kan style instructor Isaiah Ramontshonyana said the style has always been in good health even after its instructor left recently.

“We re-registered in 2013 and last year we were provisional affiliates, now we are on probation. However, we have been benefitting from some BOKA coaching courses and training clinics,” he said. Despite having no affiliation to BOKA, Ramontshonyana said they continued to attend international tournaments that included the Ryushin Khan tournaments in South Africa in 2013 and 2014.. They also had four athletes in the national team that competed in the last Zone 6 games. “We relied on parents and fund raising initiatives to send over 20 athletes to tournaments in SA.” During their probation period, Ramontshonyana said they will draw a plan to attend international tournaments and host a Ryushin-kan   international tournament in Botswana next year. Speaking at the OGM over the weekend, BOKA president David Mathe confirmed that BOKA currently had eight full members.

He added that they had one provisional member with one of their former members, being Seikokai, resigning from BOKA during the course of the year. For his part, Dobolo who resigned his Seikokai style from BOKA recently, said he left   because of petty politics within the Karate umbrella body. He added that there was a fight over the Ryushin-Kan name with another version of the style being registered by some of his former affiliates who had earlier broken away from him.