Sensei Mzwandile Matebese has chosen karate as his prime weapon in fighting crime in and around Grahamstown.
Matebese (33) who trains ten aspiring karatekas in Luvuyo Hall in Joza, works for Eskom and has been training in karate for the past 14 years.
Sensei Mzwandile Matebese has chosen karate as his prime weapon in fighting crime in and around Grahamstown.
Matebese (33) who trains ten aspiring karatekas in Luvuyo Hall in Joza, works for Eskom and has been training in karate for the past 14 years.
“I have been training and playing karate for a long time, and when I started it was about self defence as I originally come from Port Elizabeth,” he said.
Matebese has a karate club called the Joza Karate Club and trains his protogees twice a week. He says he used to have a lot of people training with him but they were not reliable or serious enough to continue.
“It doesn’t help to just have people training with you unless they have a purpose in life, and purpose is what I have found in the ten people that I train,” he said.
Matebese’s karate club recently took part in the Secko tournament at the Fish River Sun and brought back a few medals.
" I was very happy because my trainees showed character even though it was their first ever tournament,’ he said. “I think I have done my bit in karate and believe that it’s time to give back,” he said.
“Karate is to me more than a sport because I also see it as something that is deeper than the physical presence that’s it’s associated with.
Karate disciplines the mind because it makes one appreciate other people around you.” Matebese says that he has learned this through losing a lot of fights himself.
“It makes you disciplined because you soon realise that life is not all about you. You realise that there are other people, and that to me I find very a humbling experience,” he said.
The biggest problem he believes still affecting communities, particularly in rural settings, is the negative attitude among the youth.
“The youth in our communities have become criminals and addicts because of wrong attitudes towards life.
Our youth have lost faith in themselves, and that is a wrong attitude because once you think that way it’s hard to have confidence in yourself,” he said before adding that he wanted to help the youth of Grahamstown stand up straight and make a difference.
