Tributes are flowing in after the passing away of the Re ba bona ha Karate instructor who was based at Tsabong Centre, Boitshepho Nyambe. He passed away on August 2, 2017.
The Marobela-born instructor, who holds a purple belt in karate, was appointed to head the centre in April this year by the Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) and Botswana National Sports Commission through a project sponsored by Debswana.
Re ba bona ha is a skill development programme that aims at tapping and nurturing talent at a tender age.
BOKA spokesperson Officer Isaiah Ramontshonyana says the centre has lost an energetic and lively individual who dedicated his time to teaching young individuals karate skills. He was a teacher at Tsabong Unified School where the Karate Centre is based.
He said: “It is going to be difficult to find someone to head the centre at the moment because Nyambe stayed in the school where the centre is. Moreover, he had the flexibility of aligning the training programme to student’s needs, thus leaving room for better performance in children.”
Nyambe is said to have made his own training programme that was convenient for himself and his students, and it was forwarded to BOKA for scrutinising and any necessary amendments were made thereafter.
Ramontshonyana said as BOKA, they now have a difficulty in finding someone to fill the void left by the unexpected passing on of Nyambe.
He highlighted that at the moment, if they could, they would send someone from Gaborone to go head the Centre, but they are still yet to decide on the way forward in due course.
He said “We express our condolences to the grieved family and relatives, fans as well as the children that he trained.”
Re Ba Bona Ha was first piloted as a project in four identified centres in Gaborone in 2002, running into 2003, only in the sport of football. It was then rolled out to Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe, Molepolole and Lobatse in 2003 and Maun in 2004, still restricted to Football, at which point the management of the programme was transferred to the BFA.
The programme intensified in 2004, leading to an investigation into rolling it out to other centres, and other sporting codes: karate, chess, softball and others.
At the time of going to press, funeral arrangements for the late Nyambe were still unknown.
