Balfour to head boxing board

Johannesburg - Sports minister Fikile Mbalula announced one of his predecessors, Ngconde Balfour, would head the new board of Boxing South Africa (BSA).

Speaking in Johannesburg on Saturday, Mbalula said Balfour, a former sports minister and, more recently, Minister of Correctional Services, would take over from Peter Ngatane.

Ngatane, the previous chairman, would remain part of the newly-appointed board.

“We are delighted that through a transparent and open process, we can now say the product has been delivered,” said Mbalula.

Muditambi Ravele, Thabani Khumalo, Mandla Ntlanganiso, Dumile Mateza and Nontstantsa Lebaka make up the rest of the seven-member board.

The previous board’s term was set to end on Wednesday, and the new executive would be faced with the task of resurrecting the embattled federation.

Mbalula said his ministry had met with the board to understand the challenges faced by boxing in South Africa and also stated that there was an urgent need to normalise the relationship between the BSA and the South African national Amateur Boxing.

The federation had made some steps in the right direction which started with the appointment of BSA chief executive officer Moffat Qiti earlier this year.

Mbalula said the new board should be given a fair chance to get the sport back on a healthy footing.

“We need fresh air regarding the board and we need men and women who can take us forward,” he said.

“We need to give them a chance and see what they can do.

“I suppose time will tell about their capabilities but it was tough task to appoint people as there were a lot of people who applied."

BSA had received copious amounts of negative media coverage in recent months for, among other things, refusing to give former world champion Dingaan Thobela a licence, and allegedly failing to pay money owed to the South African Revenue Services.

Mbalula lambasted the previous board for the way they had run boxing.

“The board did not do anything good," Mbalula said.

"It drowned boxing in the country. It was in the press for all the wrong reasons.

“It did not generate any sponsorship and they could not even meet because of squabbles, so it was not a coherent body.

“I tried to bring in people with authority in the form of Ngconde Balfour, somebody with political authority and otherwise with a vast knowledge in terms of sports and basically able to bring things under control.”

Mbalula also said the SABC did an injustice to the sport by not broadcasting boxing fights.

“We have expressed our concern on the issue of the public broadcaster as it was viewed as not doing justice for sport in South Africa and apparently not doing boxing any good,” he said.

“The time allocated to the sport of boxing was not conducive to attracting greater investment in the sporting code.”