Boxing SA continued with its campaign to build synergy with other continental boxing regulators to stop a spate of boxers fighting outside the country without authorisation after hosting a Namibian boxing commission recently.
The two-day event took place at BSA headquarters in Hatfield, Pretoria, led by board chair Ayanda Khumalo, who punched it off by emphasising the importance of meeting other boxing control boards regularly to overcome stumbling blocks towards growth.
BSA is faced with a spate of boxers sneaking out of the country to fight in other African countries without authorisation due to flawed regulatory systems.
Recently, the body was forced to strip East London boxer Asemahle Wellem of his SA super-middleweight title for continuously fighting in Tanzania without a clearance.
Wellem, who became the first SA boxer to lose the title in that manner in more than 50 years, sneaked out to fight in Tanzania in December, together with two other Eastern Cape boxers, Sihle Jelwana and Lusizo Manzana.
They were admonished but given a lenient punishment of community service, while their handlers were slapped with a three-month suspension and ordered to issue a public apology.
But Wellem again left to fight in Tanzania in May after taking a Tanzanian licence to underscore the role Tanzanian boxing control boards played in helping him to break BSA rules.
He continued his defiance by returning to fight in Tanzania in July, forcing BSA to suspend his licence and strip him of the title.
Despite the spate of transgressions by SA boxers, BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka insisted the body needed to play a parental role in dealing with the problem.
Lejaka said the engagement with the Namibian boxing board, which has also allowed SA boxers to fight in Namibia, was geared towards forging and strengthening relations with all boxing control boards on the continent.
“Our belief is that through these engagements, we will be able to exchange best practice measures while improving our governance and regulatory framework and create a safer environment for our boxers to pursue their careers without violating any regulations or being abandoned to fend for themselves while in a different control board jurisdiction,” he said.
Lejaka said BSA had already held similar meetings with control boards of Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana and Zimbabwe, which have the majority of their boxers fighting in SA.
“We are still working on broadening the net more to include other continental boxing control boards,” he said.
“In July, we hosted Malawian boxing control board chair Lonzo Simba and now we had three of the five board members of Namibia, with two of their full-time staff members to share common challenges.”
The engagements were aimed at holding a Southern African Boxing Convention to deliberate on issues of common interest.
“We hosted such a convention at the Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg in May 2018, attended by five different control boards, and we are striving to cast the net wider to involve other countries,” Lejaka said.
However, the challenge still lies with other countries having fragmented control boards, such as Tanzania where different structures are in place.
Daily Dispatch
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