Never mind what any wordsmith waxing lyrically wants you to believe, the truth is that it is the sports ministry that will help revive boxing in SA.
Boxing is in the hospital ward and licensees are disgruntled. They may become rebellious if they are not afforded the appropriate platform to ventilate.
Sports minister Nathi Mthethwa – through Boxing SA – must organise a boxing convention where he will officially introduce the new seven-member board of BSA to licensees. That gathering, which has not taken place since 2011, is the only platform for licensees to appropriately chart a way forward in boxing.
A convention will usually take place a day after the annual awards. The BSA awards were scheduled to take place early this year but Covid-19 put paid to that special day in the calendar of local boxing. There were suggestions that the awards be held virtually.
The country is now on lockdown alert level 1 and it was announced that gatherings of 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors are permitted. So Mthethwa and BSA must move swiftly and announce dates and venues for these two events. There is also a dire need for licensees to establish national associations – boxers, trainers, managers, promoters and ring officials – that will, in turn, elect office bearers who will be the only ones that engage BSA on issues.
By right these associations should have long been established in all the provinces with chairpersons forming the national structure. In a normal world the minister would be expected to choose BSA's seven-member board from that national association.
Boxing also needs a spokesperson. That move will enable the CEO to focus on policy matters and getting sponsors back to the game instead of dealing with operational matters, which should be handled by a director of operations.
Mthethwa must also appoint a permanent CEO in May next year. Cindy Nkomo is acting after Tsholofelelo Lejaka resigned a few months ago with only a year remaining of his five-year term. Whether it is Nkomo or a new CEO at the helm, that is immaterial. The fact is that person will need to be officially introduced to licensees. That is how a professional organisation is run.
The outgoing BSA board was not presented to the licensees. They, too, did not take it upon themselves to meet licensees. Lejaka was also not properly introduced but at least there was a press conference to announce his appointment. His departure needs to be interrogated because it seems that CEO position is cursed. Not one CEO finished their five-year term.
Soon no administrator will want anything to do with boxing because the impression is that licensees are such a confused and divided bunch who are out to assassinate characters. Think about this – this country will not have a representative in boxing at the Olympics next year.
It’s all in Mthethwa’s hands now.
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