Boxing SA has saved some face for the sport by rectifying a decision by match supervisor Phakamile Jacobs who furnished ring announcer Carol Tshabalala with wrong information in East London on Sunday.
SuperSport presenter Tshabalala announced that Phumelele Cafu was the new SA flyweight champion and had won that title from Jackson Chauke by a majority decision, on information she had been given by Jacobs.
Jacobs gave Tshabalala the wrong winner after reading the score of the last judge, which was 115-113 in favour of Cafu. The first two judges declared the 12-rounder a draw at 114-114, which was a fair decision based on the closeness of competitiveness. That is where BSA provincial manager Jacobs should have stepped in and rectified the mistake.
The regulations are clear that in such a situation the champion – Chauke in this case – retains the national title by a majority draw. The BSA has since taken the necessary corrective action.
“Boxing SA would like to acknowledge the error of judgment by the fight supervisor to declare Phumelela Cafu as the winner of the South African flyweight title on Sunday at the East London ICC during the Xaba Boxing Academy tournament. The fight was supposed to be declared a majority draw, and in a majority draw two of the three judges agree that neither boxer won,” BSA said in a statement.
Jacobs had the power to immediately correct the verdict. The board is not saying anything regarding actions against Jacobs. In a normal world a man of his stature, who has served boxing for more than three decades, would have been called to account.
Trainer Damien Durandt said: “I am relieved. However, I still believe we won the fight but the important thing is that Jackson retained the title.”
BSA COO Mandal Ntalnganiso, who attended the tournament, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Acting CEO Nsikayezwe Sithole said: “I need to sit down formally with both the COO and Phakamile to check what went wrong. The purpose is to make sure that provincial managers still understand regulations. Going forward we will recommend a refresher course for provincial managers to make sure such [a thing] does not happen again.”
In the earlier version of this story, we intimated that SuperSport presenter Carol Tshabalala had made the wrong call, whereas it was Jacobs. We apologise to Tshabalala for this oversight.
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