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Johannesburg - Boxing SA (BSA) chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka is upbeat following a successful strategy review session with the board last weekend.
The new board - appointed by former sports minister Thembelani Nxesi in November - is chaired by veteran fistics administrator Dr Peter Ngatane.
Lejaka, who has to give a progress report to the board and the sports department every three months, told City Press that the objectives of their workshop were to:
- Induct all board members;
- Create a common strategic understanding in respect of their mandate and operations;
- Articulate a clear agenda concerning the key areas of accomplishment that the board seeks to achieve within the next three years;
- Review the BSA 2015 to 2020 plan;
- Review the draft BSA 2018/19 annual performance plan;
- Conduct a final review of the handover report and integration of critical issues arising from the probe into the 2018/19 period; and
- Confirm the delegation of responsibilities among the board and the deployment of members to specific subcommittees.
Some of the confirmed subcommittees will deal with sanctioning and ratings.
Khulile Radu leads the sanctioning committee, while Andre de Vries is the new head of the board’s ratings structure.
Dr Robert Selepe was confirmed as the chief medical commissioner, a position previously held by Ngatane.
Lejaka said one of the most important outcomes of the workshop was the formation of a new subcommittee dedicated to resource mobilisation.
“We have realised that sponsorship is key. This committee’s main responsibility will be to raise funds,” Lejaka said.
The committee is headed by board member Gilberto Martins.
Regarding the issue of television broadcasting, which has been the sport’s Achilles heel for some time, Lejaka said the BSA was still fine-tuning its plan to have boxing matches broadcast regularly.
“We are working with the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to bring back the regular broadcasting of boxing events.
“We have been engaging with them since 2016.”
The SABC was the official broadcaster of last year’s BSA Boxing Awards held in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Following a promoters’ workshop hosted by the public broadcaster last year, a tender process was opened for organisers to submit tournament proposals.
The aim of the process is to have boxing tournaments broadcast live on SABC2 once a month.
Lejaka also revealed that BSA had sanctioned 24 tournaments in the three-month period that was under review in his report.
