Nkomo steps into hot seat as Boxing SA CEO
Lejaka resigns but leaves great legacy
Boxing SA must be commended for not looking beyond the organisation but giving the opportunity to one of its own, Cindy Nkomo, to occupy the vacant post of CEO.
Nkomo has served boxing with distinction as the director of operations since the BSA board employed her in 2017.
She took over the host seat yesterday but in an acting capacity until May next year when a permanent CEO will be appointed by the ministers of sport and of finance.
Former CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka, who was employed in 2016, resigned early this week. His five-year term was set to end next year.
Nkomo knows the ins and out, and the role players at BSA, having worked closely with Lejaka, whose administrative skills proved second to none.
Lejaka had to work twice as twice hard as anyone else to convince doubting Thomases who had issues with his appointment by then sports minister Fikile Mbalula.
Nkomo had also endured a baptism of fire at the boxing mother body, with those in the sport initially questioning her knowledge of boxing, just as they had Lejaka’s.
But she showed nerves of steel and knuckled down to the job given to her by the BSA board.
Her appointment as CEO yesterday made her the second female to occupy boxing’s highest office – the first was
Tumi Kekana, also in an acting capacity in 2009.
Nkomo’s appointment coincides with the commemoration of Women’s Month.
August 9 is the official Women’s Day. It is a tribute to 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 to protest against the extension of pass laws to women.
Said Nkomo: “I am obviously honored to have been given the opportunity to take this position and I don’t take this appointment lightly,” she said. “I will rely on the board of BSA and my office for support and guidance.
“But I want to thank Mr Lejaka for the support he has given me since I joined BSA in 2017.
“With his operational experience he gave me the leeway to drive the operations. His guidance has been a driving force to me and his patience when things did not move as fast I would have wanted them to did not go unnoticed.”
Nkomo requested the entire boxing fraternity to give her their support.
“This sport is theirs,” she said.
“One thing I learnt from Mr Lejaka is how important consultation is and I will take it with me.
“My gratitude to the operational team for all the work they have done.
“To all the stakeholders – there is going to be continuity from where Mr Lejaka left off.”
Regarding the resignation of Lejaka, BSA said in a statement attributed to chairman Peter Ngatane: “During his tenure, Mr Lejaka helped herald administrative stability, improved accountability and consolidated and sustained stakeholder relationship management within and beyond the boxing fraternity.
“He leaves behind an organisation that has qualitatively shifted from where it was, with a renewed orientation towards the primary necessity of building capabilities to centre boxing promotion and development as the nucleus of BSA.
“The board extends its gratitude to Mr Lejaka for his stewardship and exemplary service to the boxing community. We wish him success in his new journey.”
I don’t take this appointment lightly