Lifeline for Gauteng boxers hit by pandemic
Promoters association to pay for medicals key to relicensing
The Gauteng Boxing Promoters Association (GBPA) is helping struggling boxers in the province who missed out on action due to Covid-19 by paying for the medical examination they need to be relicensed as professional boxers by Boxing SA. The resolution was taken at its bosberaad last month.
Promoter Tshele Kometsi, chair of the GPBA, said once they received medical reports from doctors Solly Selepe, Steven Saad, Hillary Makudu and Busani Ngwenya, it will also fund boxers’ renewals.
Kometsi said that boxers will still have to pay R200 to Selepe and Saad for the general health examination. “Under normal circumstances this examination costs more than R200 but we negotiated with Selepe for the discount on his services and he gave us the R200 amount,” he said.
“Makudu will do the HIV/Aids test while Ngwenya will focus on the hepatitis B examination. We are doing this because we realised many boxers did not get fights last year due to Covid-19.”
He said 50 male and female boxers will benefit from the GBPA’s benevolence. “This money will be coming direct from our account. We are not sponsored and if there is anyone out there who would wish to help, they are more than welcome.”
Kometsi said the process kicks off on Saturday at the Hunters Gym in Selby, south of Johannesburg.
“We gave matchmaker Abbey Mnisi the right to select the 50 boxers from various stables in the province because he knows who are the active boxers who have been training and also have the potential to grow in the sport of boxing.
“We had a virtual meeting with him on Thursday. He did not give us names because we are not interested in knowing the boxers but are instead concerned with the number. “We did not want to be part of the selection because we did not want to
be seen [as] or accused of being biased or favouritism. GBPA and its members have no influence on the selection of the boxers. We chose Abbey because we trust him and he is the only BSA-registered matchmaker in Gauteng.
“He also has a good relationship within our province with boxing gyms and the professional boxers; he knows better who really needs support. Also between promoters there could potentially have been a conflict of interest around which boxers would be given help, so to neutralise that possibility we simply agreed to take a trusted third party recommendation in the best interest of boxers in Gauteng.
“As promoters we took our personal preferences out of it. We wanted the process to be fair to boxers in Gauteng.
“In this case it is not about which promoter boxers were contracted to and whether or not that promoter is a member of the association.”
Attempts to get comment from Mnisi drew a blank.
Trainer Pius Dipheko, who started the Save Our Boxing Forum, said: “We realised Covid-19 had a negative impact so we had a meeting about it. We then decided to meet Kometsi, who turned out to be in favour of the idea. He told me that there is money left in their coffers from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Games in 2018 which could be used to sponsor boxers. We are saying big up to the GBPA for this. Half a loaf is better than no bread at all.”