MAHOKO, FERNANDES CALL FOR POSTPONEMENT OF BOXING INDABA

By Monwabisi Jimlongo

Lebo Mahoko and Manny Fernandes have called for the postponement of the planned two-day boxing indaba scheduled for the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth in two weeks’ time.

Boxing South Africa (BSA) announced late last year that an indaba was going to be held in Port Elizabeth from Thursday, 21 January until the next day to give an opportunity to boxing stakeholders to trash out issues, which continue to hamper the progress of the fistic sport.

The Eastern Cape, especially Port Elizabeth, is a hot spot with rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, which have cast doubt over the planned indaba. The get-together was supposed to have been held last year, but it had to be postponed because of the coronavirus.

‘‘We are waiting for confirmation. Currently, the easy answer is that we are still on. You must also remember that we are in midst of
COVID-19. For now we continue as normal though my inclination is that we might have to review because of the numbers of COVID-19 cases and the situation we find ourselves in,’’ acting BSA chief executive officer Cindy Nkomo said.

Both Mahoko of Dream Team Promotions and Fernandes, a boxing trainer from Johannesburg, believe that it won’t be wise to hold such an important indaba while we have rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.

‘‘Looking at the situation at the moment, it will not be advisable for us to go ahead with the indaba. I mean look on the indaba on its own, there is going to be a convergence of the whole boxing fraternity. If you have boxing people under one roof you run the risk of increasing numbers more than the govt is currently giving us in terms of the
regulations,’’ said Mahoko.

‘‘With regards to that aspect I agree it should be cancelled. Who’s gonna stay behind or who’s gonna be allowed in? Even if they do it virtually, you are not gonna have all boxing people under one roof.
It’s going to be a logistical nightmare even if we do it virtually. It’s really not worth it.’’

Fernandes, who trains boxers in Johannesburg, fully concurs with Mahoko on the possible postponement of the indaba.

‘‘PE is a hot spot. They should cancel this indaba completely until everything is sorted out, that’s my opinion. The whole country is
going through a bad patch now,’’ said Fernandes.