No birthday joy for Malingas amid the lockdown
For the first time the famous Malinga boxing brothers will not be together when one of them celebrates a birthday.
Blame it on the coronavirus, which has seen the government put in place a lockdown, preventing people from moving around the way they used to.
Former SA, IBO and WBU welterweight champ Sibusiso “The Destroyer” Malinga celebrates his 48th birthday tomorrow. He is the eldest of the three sons of late top trainer Jabulani Malinga, who died in 2013.
The other two are Thamsanqa and Vusumuzi. Thamsanqa was known as “The Hammer” and held the South African lightweight title while Vusumuzi, who was nicknamed “Marvellous”, was the SA bantamweight champion.
Sibusiso retired in 2006, with Thamsanqa ending his career in 2017. Vusumuzi quit the sport in 2014. They have their own gym, JD Malinga Boxing Club, named after their father.
Birthday boy Sibusiso’s and 43-year-old Thamsanqa’s duty in the gym is to train boxers, while Vusumuzi, 41, manages the boxers.
Said Sibusiso: “There will be no coming together this time, it is the first time this happens to us. We have to respect the lockdown. I will be with my family at our house in Dawn Park, with my wife and two kids.”
The family house is in Katlehong, east of Joburg, where unmarried Thamsanqa stays with his two children and the boxers’ mother, Ria. Vusumuzi, who is married with two children, has his own house in Vosloorus.
“This disease is scary and when we are told to stay at home to prevent it from spreading, we have to do what we have been told by our government. We have also stopped going to the gym,” said Sibusiso.
“The coming together was instilled by our father. We always brought our families together when one of us was celebrating his birthday and even when it was our parents’ birthdays.
“We never stopped coming together even when our father passed on. Our mother advised us to continue doing all the things that our father taught us [when he was alive].
Sibusiso explains further: “Being together has kept us close; and it has also helped our wives and children to understand and appreciate being this one big family.”
Vusumuzi said: “We will send a cake to Peter [Sibusiso] to celebrate with his family.”
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