Shihan is a Japanese honorific title in karate that translates to "master instructor" or "teacher of teachers". Jeffrey Jackson is no stranger to the high-stakes competitive nature of international karate, and he has the accolades to prove it.
Eleven of the South African Commonwealth squad of 30 fighters at the 12th Commonwealth Karate Championships, taking place from 5 to 8 November 2026 in Scotland, come from Mitchells Plain and have been coached by Shihan Jackson through the seven dojo’s he has established all over Mitchells Plain.
That statistic speaks volumes of the man from Pelikan Heights who remains as passionate as ever in his vocation to positively influence the lives of the community in which he was raised.
“My family moved from Lavender Hill to Mitchells Plain when I was 8-years-old,” says the now 51-year-old Jeffrey. “I remember sitting in an abandoned car with my best friend Cheslyn when we were both 11. We were listening to an older guy grooming us to join a gang. Cheslyn agreed to join and had his gang tattoo done right there and then. The guy was busy with the first letter of my tattoo when my mom shouted for me to come home.”
That timely intervention marks the first of many turning points in Jeffrey’s life that would see him go on to achieve what seemed to be impossible for a probable gangster with no prospects.
“A few days after the tattoo incident Cheslyn was dead. He had tried to save another kid from drowning while in the midst of his gang initiation, and he ended up drowning as well. At Cheslyn’s funeral I made a new friend who was taking karate classes, and his mother asked me to walk him to class for safety.”
This meant I had to sit through the class while he went through his lesson, until one day the class was short of one partner and the Sensei asked me to fill in.”
To hear Jeffrey, describe his journey from that moment feels like observing a tiny seed unfold beneath the earth to force its way out to the surface and into the light and grow rapidly into a towering tree, standing tall and proud.
“I spoke Afrikaans, I had never been out of Mitchells Plain except to go the Grand Parade, I had never met a white person and I did not fully understand the rules of karate. So when, at the age of 17, our club was invited for what I thought was just another local competition at the University of Cape Town, I was just a shy kid who kept his eyes down and got on with the fighting. At the end of the tournament I heard them announce that I had won the gold medal, and honestly, I had no idea what it was for or why I had won it, that’s how little I knew about what was going on,” he laughs thinking back.
“That medal meant that I was the Western Province champion in the under 70kg weight category and I was also now part of the national squad.”
Things happened very quickly after that for Jeffrey. That same year he found himself driving up to Johannesburg in a taxi to compete for nationals, where he lost his first fight. “The experience just made me want to do better and I trained harder and made the WP team again and also made a point of learning the rules. Soon, now 1996, I made the nationals again and placed third. Now I was part of the national squad and not long after that I was part of the national team where I won the silver medal in my first representation of South Africa against Namibia.
And that was when the traveling began, all over Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Scotland, England to name but a few. I competed in several All-Africa games, but the highlight was the world championships in Mexico/Montreal in 2004 where, little did I know, the prequel to my Commonwealth gold medal would play out.
The atmosphere in Mexico was overwhelming, lots of people, lots of countries, and lots of organized chaos. When they announced my name, the audience barely responded, however when they announced my opponent, who was representing England, the crowd roared back with applause.
Within a minute of my fight with England, I was up by 3 points to nothing. However, I got injured after that, and a misunderstanding of the French referees’ instructions, led to me being disqualified.
Four years later though, I met the same opponent in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games and deftly dispatched him before overcoming Botswana in the finals to clinch the gold medal for South Africa.”
“Right now its very clear for me to see how those achievements have served as a foundation for this next generation of fighters from Mitchells Plain to go do battle in Glasgow. The only challenge is that despite them having been invited, they still have to pay their own way to get there. We receive no funding or support from government and it means that a lot of these kids will not be going anywhere in November.”
Most of the parents of the children who have been chosen simply cannot afford the cost of getting their kids to participate in the games in Scotland, which is a real pity, because they are really talented martial artists.”
If there are any individuals or institutions who wish to assist with funding, kindly contact Shihan Jeffrey Jackson at • Phone / WhatsApp: +27 76 164 1827 / +27 71 705 3197 / +27 65 972 1856 • Email: karatesatorisa@gmail.com
