Airing of Boxing SA’s misgovernance results in outrage

AFTER listening to Boxing South Africa’s presentation in Cape Town this week, the Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture members were highly incensed.

Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who was present for part of the meeting, was dumbfounded by what he heard and summarily dissolved Boxing South Africa (BSA).

It was the second time a sports minister had dissolved BSA in the past few months after McKenzie’s predecessor Zizi Kodwa did likewise.

Over the past few years, South African boxing has been bedevilled by a glut of evils which has gone unchecked. This prompted the portfolio committee chairman Joseph McGluwa to declare: “Boxing has died a long time ago. This is largely due to misgovernance at Boxing South Africa.”

BSA is the custodian of professional boxing in South Africa and the BSA Board is required by law to perform their duties as laid down by the South African Boxing Act. For many years, the appointment of BSA Board officials has become an exclusive privilege of the politically connected rather than qualified persons.

The misgovernance McGluwa referred to includes the Board’s wayward administration of its day-to-day duties, which are governed by law. For example, the Board must sanction tournaments and needs to do so a certain number of days before the event. Instead, often they act outside the law and sanction randomly.

Almost all officials who work tournaments require a licence. The law prevents the Board from licensing persons in bad standing because of outstanding debts. Yet there are licensed officials who are in debt to BSA.

The Board has to secure part of the boxers’ purses ahead of tournaments. There are specific time frames for this, but officials act outside the time frames, and in some cases, no purses or part thereof were secured at all.

Over time, BSA has banned people for various reasons. The banning prevents them from attending tournaments. Yet BSA officials gladly entertain banned people at events, even offering them VIP seats in full view of TV cameras.

These instances of misgovernance are just the tip of the iceberg and BSA’s record of expenses also caused an outcry because millions were spent on local travel and telephone calls.

It must be said the portfolio committee members who are drawn from various political parties were well prepared for the meeting with BSA. It seemed they had prior knowledge of national boxing’s ills, and each came out all guns blazing when given the floor.

“The days of BSA hiding behind the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture or the Sports Minister is now a thing of the past,” said one committee member.

McGluwa has called for a forensic investigation into BSA’s affairs. He said the situation at BSA is dire and needs urgent attention from the Minister, his department and the boxing fraternity. He said officials who had breached the law should be jailed.

“We must act to save the sport of boxing from the mess it is in. We want to take the sport forward. We want to see the consequences of the mess that has occurred and continues to besiege boxing in our country.

“Who is in jail? What kind of help do you need from the committee? The challenges will not disappear if we do not intervene now.”

McKenzie agreed with the committee that there is a need for a forensic investigation of BSA affairs. He has committed to revert to the Portfolio Committee in 21 days with a detailed action plan to resolve challenges at BSA.