It’s gloves off for boxing trailblazer
SA boxing ref beats the odds
Multi-award-winning boxing official Siya Vabaza Booi has established herself as a household name in the sport.
However, between society’s rules and the law itself, it took sheer grit to get there.
“I was born and bred in Duncan village, and East London is known to be the maker of boxing,” Vabaza Booi told Talk of the Town, adding she became hooked on the sport at “the tender age of six”. There was little option really. “I come from a boxing-mad family. My big brother Miyoyo and my younger brother Gabula went on to be SA and multiple world champions,” she said.
But the law at the time robbed Booi of the opportunity to become involved in the sport.
The Boxing and Wrestling Control Act of 1954 barred women from participating in boxing in any manner and it was only 40 years later that the law allowed women in South African boxing rings.
Nevertheless, Booi fought tooth and nail to become a boxing official.
“When I started, I wanted to be a boxer but unfortunately then the law did not allow it.
“So there was Mr Loyiso Mtya, he was my mentor. He smuggled me into boxing.
“He was going to have a tournament at uMdantsane Indoor Sport Centre. Everything was set. The late Les Muller walked up to Loyiso and asked ‘Where is your ring announcer?’
“He said, ‘She is here’, “But he said, ‘Loyiso we cannot allow women inside the ring. The Act does not allow us’.
“It took me something like six years to break down those barriers for women to be allowed,” she said.
It was in 1989 that she began fighting for her boxing career but it was only in 1994 when Boxing SA was restructured that the battle was won.
The now internationallyacclaimed referee has won several awards from the International Boxing Federation (IBF America) in 1997, World Boxing Council in 2000 (in Paris) and World Boxing Federation (WBF) in 2019 in Germany.
“I have been judging and refereeing international bouts in and outside the country.
“I have just got back home in Port Alfred [Sunday] night after a series of tournaments around the country in celebration of Women’s Month,” she said.
Booi said she had a productive breakfast meeting with the deputy minister of sport Nocawe Mafu in Durban last Saturday, “addressing matters and challenges faced by women in boxing”.