Veteren Seshego sensei to pursue his fourth dan

POLOKWANE – Karate veteran, sensei Thomas Sekhale of the Oyama School of Karate in Seshego, has developed many a karatekas in the province and will soon be pursuing his fourth dan.

The assessment of the grade also considers the fitness of the candidate and the candidate’s mental capacity to lead.

Thomas is now 62 years old and a consistent trainer wanting to train even more karatekas in Seshego and surrounds.

He started his karate journey when he was 18 years old, at sensei Esrom Mogano’s dojo (Shihon Karate Dojo) in 1978.

He was passing by the local school in the old New Look location when his attention was caught by the sounds Mogano and his students were making as they trained. He decided to watch and then later joined the group which was training full-contact Kyokushin karate.

His love for Kyokushin grew as he aged, and he participated in tournaments from 1982 at the Polokwane Centre. He became part of growing karate in the province as he also trained students at Mogano’s dojo.

He graded his first dan black belt (shodan) in 1981 at the Polokwane Centre. In 1984, he trained with Shihan Isaac Mashinini in Soshanguve and Mabopane to prepare for a national tournament together with sempai Zeth Ntini.

In 1985 he trained under Shihan AK Ishamail in Durban, and in 1986 he took second position at the Seshego Stadium in the heavy weight category with Mashinini winning.

In the following year, he graded his second dan black belt at Medunsa under Shihan A.K. Ishmail.

In 1991 he took a break from training to focus on personal matters and family. In this time, he participated in kickboxing training and even fought a few matches.

In 2009 after returning to Limpopo, he resumed karate training.

He is currently co-instructing in two dojos, Seshego and Polokwane, with sempai Peter Malatji.

In 2021 he went through an intense grading session in KZN together with the now sensei Bongani Mtshweni and sempai Peter Malatji.

They were all awarded their belts in 2022 at the Ngoako Ramahlodi Sports Centre, by Shihan Gumede after their students’ kyu grading session.

Sekhale is passionate about karate and enjoys spending most of his time training with children in his dojos.

He says karate keeps him happy and healthy. His care for children stretches beyond karate as he is the most senior member in age and grade in the dojo, making him a father and a grandfather to everyone.

His advice to many is to commit to regular training even though it is not as intense as karate, for fitness and health reasons.