Tongaat’s karate king and master

The ancient Japanese art of karate made its way to South Africa in about 1950 and is alive and thriving on the North Coast today.

‘Hanshi’ Sonny Pillay began learning the martial art in 1968 at the age of 17 and has been teaching in Tongaat since 1980.

Now an 8th Dan black-belt karate master, the owner of Shotokan Karate International South Africa (SKISA) and the president of Karate South Africa (KSA), Pillay trains his class of roughly 30 students at the Tongaat Sports Centre every Thursday, in addition to conducting training sessions in other parts of the province.

“About 60% of the karate fraternity in South Africa is made up of children, which is great for the future of the sport in the country,” said Pillay.

“Karate teaches self-defence through self-control and hinges on the development of discipline, etiquette, character and effort, which is why it is so important for children today to learn.”

Pillay said his belief in karate’s positive impact on the youth is what drives his goal to train children in the martial art and he is upbeat about the sport’s future both locally and nationally.

“As the president of KSA I am very excited about karate in our country because there is every possibility it will make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which gives kids of today an Olympic dream to reach for.”

He added that karate’s Olympic status is to be announced at this year’s games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after years of petitioning by the World Karate Federation (WKF).

With more than 50 years of involvement in the sport and roughly 150 000 young students learning karate across the country, Pillay said he would like to make sure it continues to grow and develop on the world stage.

“Karate is growing in popularity in leaps and bounds around SA and it is particularly popular in the sugar belt of the KZN North Coast where it is active and alive.”

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