Daily Archives: April 3, 2014

Motshabi attains third Dan black belt karate


Mahikeng-Her diminutive stature could deceive some into thinking she is just another beauty with long nails (excuse the pun) but Kgomotso Motshabi is an athlete of note. This karate instructor at Mmabana Arts, Culture and Sports Foundation in Mahikeng has recently passed the third Dan black belt grading conducted by SA Japan Karate Association Masters in Mandeville Sport Complex, Johannesburg.

To qualify for a third Dan black belt, a karate student must have had a second black belt for a period of at least 3 years.

From the grading where she finally get Third Degree (Dan) black belt, Sensei Kgomotso Motshabi was selected to participate at the 13th Funakoshi Gichin Cup in Japan from the 17th – 19th October 2014.

Kgomotso describes herself as a sports person from an early age where she participated in codes such as gymnastics, netball and athletics at junior schools. She started attending karate classes early in 1990 when she joined Mmabana Mafikeng Dojo (karate club) under the tutelage of Sensei Badu Mothusi. She says the reason for this was curiosity in the sport that took over from all the other sporting codes she was involved in before.

She remembers her first competitive fight as if it was yesterday, “it was during the national championships held at the then Molopo Sun Hotel. From that tournament, I managed to come out with a bronze medal, which I still cherish to this day”, says Kgomotso with a grin on her face.

She adds that, the bronze inspired her to continue with the sport in an effort to attain more medals of ‘better’ colour and eventually a black belt. In the process of ‘getting’ those better coloured medals and a race to the black belt, she completely became committed to the sport.

“Upon realizing my potential and dedication to the sport, my instructor recommended that i be sent for instructor’s courses which assisted my career a lot. That was in 1997 while still a second brown belt karate-ka, after returning from a tournament in Zimbabwe with six medals (four gold and two silver) for both individual and team performance that I started to conduct training sessions”, she added.

Among her achievements, she count being selected a national coach for the junior karate team that went to represent the country at the 10th World Karate-Do Championship in Australia in 2006; where the SA team obtained second position (silver medal) out of 163 countries that took part in the championships.-TDN
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40 people arrested for public violence in Bloemhof


By Obakeng Maje
Bloemhof-North West police allegedly arrested 40 people for public violence and malicious damage to properties in Boitumelong location in Bloemhof.

Colonel Emelda Setlhako said that the community stoned the houses belonging to the mayor and two councillors.

“The community  also burnt down the municipal office in the location and damaged the community hall. It is alleged that several tuck-shops belonging to the Bangladesh Nationals have also looted and damaged” Selthako said.

The situation is still tense and the police are monitoring the situation.-TDN
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Youth coaching an integral part of development – Mashaba


Johannesburg-South African Under-23 National Team coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba believes coaching at youth level has been the difference between the provincial teams and clubs that are taking part in the SAFA U17 Inter-Provincial Tournament at the Nike Football Training Centre. 

Mashaba is one of the talent scouts on the lookout for upcoming stars taking part in the tournament. He says he has been impressed by the kind of football played by the invited clubs and also from some provincial teams.

“This tournament is long overdue, but what has become evident at these games is the level of coaching. I think our coaching department still has a lot of work to do in terms of finding more coaches and I know there is a plan in the pipeline that SAFA earmarks developing coaches over a certain period. I think those will be the coaches who will help with the problem that we are sitting with,” said Mashaba.

“Some of the players are doing things instinctively and this shows us that we need to tighten up the side of coaching as well to give these players what they deserve – the basics for playing football. We speak of players having ‘football brains’ and this you can pick up mostly with teams from the clubs. There is a lot of difference if you look at the teams from the likes of Kaizer Chiefs, Bidvest Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns – they have qualified, experienced coaches and there is some consistency in the coaching of these boys. Once we collectively start taking that route of uplifting our coaches, our problems will be solved.”

Mashaba, who led the Men’s U17 and U20 National Teams to victory in the COSAFA Cup, said theirs is an important task at the SAFA U17 Inter-Provincial Tournament.

“The ultimate purpose of us being here is to obviously look at selecting players who will form a base for some of our junior national teams so that we have a pool of players we can select and also have on standby. We will also look at recommending some of these players to the academies until such time we have enough academies in the country where we can select the best in each province. I think that is the route that we have been missing all the time,” added Mashaba.

“One other thing with events like these is that players pick up as the tournament progresses, but we just hope that fatigue doesn’t derail that progress.”

Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs continued where they left off on Day 1 to register another huge victory – beating Mpumalanga 5-0 in the opening game of the day.

Free State recorded their second victory of the tournament with a hard fought 2-1 win against hosts Gauteng. The host province got the consolation goal through Samuel Nkomo while Felix Noge and Kamogelo Pheleu scored for Free State.

KwaZulu Natal got the better of Mamelodi Sundowns with a 3-2 win while Bidvest Wits proved to be the better side as they defeated North West 2-1.-TDN
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