Boxing SA probes bias claims against ratings boss

But despite complaints by insiders, committee chairman Willie Saayman insists he’s clean

BOXING South Africa (BSA) is investigating complaints against the chairman of its ratings committee, but Willie Saayman insists he’s clean.

The ratings committee is responsible for ranking the country’s top 10 male and female professional pugilists across the sport’s 17 weight divisions.

Sitting on that committee demands impartiality, says BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka.

Saayman is not licensed in any other organisation, although by his own admission he works exclusively abroad.

“I’m not biased,” Durban-based Saayman told the Sunday Times yesterday.

He says he has worked with friend and promoter Steve Kalakoda for decades. “I only do international matchmaking,” he said, pointing out that many of the fights on Kalakoda’s shows were international contests.

“If there are any local match-ups to be done, I don’t do it.”

Many of those foreign fighters, especially those from the Democratic Republic of Congo, are based in SA.

“I make sure that their medicals are done and that they get clearances to fight from their national commissions.”

The Sunday Times had asked Lejaka about Saayman after hearing claims by several licensees and other boxing insiders.

“We can confirm that we have received complaints about his involvement in domestic boxing activity,” said Lejaka.

“We’re looking into it because it’s a matter that we can’t leave lying down. This is not the first time,” he added.

“Remember, you need impartiality . . . The first thing that the [Boxing] Act says you may not be a licensee if you are a member of BSA and a member of BSA will be its board and its structures . . .

“The reassurance we got from him [Saayman] was that, ‘listen, I am not at all involved with South African boxing activity, the only work I ever do is international matchmaking that has nothing to do with South African domestic activity’.

“But again now there’s been very recent, very, very recent . . . probably just after the May ratings, complaints . . .

“We’ve got reason to believe that there are the footprints of the ratings committee member in the matchmaking and agency space in South African boxing.”

There have been questions about some boxers being included in the rankings despite having poor records, as listed on Boxrec, but Saayman countered it was not uncommon for the website’s data for Africa-based fighters to be out of date or incorrect. Saayman said he was willing to help local promoters where he could, and was always prepared to offer advice.

“Most of the time I arrange to help out fighters locally, I do it for nothing,” he said, adding he had a full-time job. “Boxing doesn’t make me a wealthy person.” One of the issues in local boxing is that locally based foreign fighters are being included in the ratings.

Lejaka said the BSA board had issued a directive that these boxers should be removed from the rankings.

Saayman insisted the practice had been in place before he returned to the ratings committee four years ago, having last worked there around the turn of the millennium.

“All we did was just add the country next to their name [on the rankings],” he said, adding they weren’t eligible to challenge for SA titles.