BSA to hire provincial managers

Johannesburg  - Boxing SA (BSA) is on the verge of appointing two provincial ­managers to ease Archie Nyingwa’s heavy workload.

Nyingwa currently operates in Gauteng, the Northern Cape, the Free State, North West and Limpopo.

The BSA provincial manager was meant to be overseeing ­licencees in Gauteng only, but also operates in the other four provinces as they have no representatives.

The rest of the country’s provinces have their own managers in charge of serving local licensees.

The Eastern Cape falls under Phakamile Jacobs and Mthunzi Mapitiza; the Western Cape is run by Mickey Klaas; KwaZulu­Natal is led by Les Andreasen; and Mpumalanga has its affairs run by Solly ­Matsomela.

Gauteng comprises 366 licensees.

This includes boxers, trainers, managers, officials, seconds, agents, promoters, matchmakers and ring announcers.

However, Nyingwa finds himself with the added burden of handling an ­extra 114 licensees from the four provinces.

BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka said the appointments would help the sport grow nationally.

“The BSA has taken it upon itself to appoint two new provincial managers to strengthen its footprint nationally and facilitate growth in other provinces,” he said.

“The BSA feels the absence of provincial managers in some ­provinces has a negative affect on the growth prospects of boxing in those provinces.”

Lejaka said each of the new managers would be responsible for two provinces.

“The thinking is to get two managers and then allocate two ­provinces to each,” Lejaka said, and added that final approval to commence the recruitment process would be agreed to by the board soon.

Nyingwa has been in charge of running the five provinces since 2015 after the resignation of former BSA chief executive Loyiso Mtya, who left following ­allegations of corruption, fraud and financial ­mismanagement of the boxing body.

“I’m happy with the new changes because the additional people will ease the pressure on me,” said the hard-working Nyingwa, who is often spotted doing his lot at designated BSA shows outside Gauteng as a tournament supervisor.

“I’m relieved because I will now be able to concentrate on overseeing Gauteng, a province where there are many tournaments and promoters.”