Former SABC head of sport Webster Mfebe told mourners at the funeral service of Dumile ‘Phesheya Phaya’ Mateza, who passed away aged 62 after losing a battle with cancer on Tuesday last week, that the iconic commentator was a mobile library.
Mfebe added that Mateza, who was laid to rest in Johannesburg on Friday, was not only a sport commentator, he was a visionary as well.
Kareedouw-born Mateza, a former acting chief executive officer of the then South African National Boxing Control Commission (SANBCC), was a versatile sport commentator on both SABC radio and TV.
“He had a larger than life personality in the broadcasting fraternity. Razzmatazz as he was popularly known to some of us was the son of the soil, husband, father, brother, friend, colleague, prolific reader, researcher, mobile library, historian par-excellence, linguist, intellectual, visionary, mentor, patriot, consummate broadcaster and professional,” Mfebe said.
“His versatility in broadcasting a multiplicity of sporting codes was simply impeccable, unparalleled and unrivalled. As a doyen of boxing in South Africa, there’s no doubt that boxing was his major love. Dumile was, among other things, synonymous with boxing itself which unfortunately in terms of broadcasting exposure still remains a poor cousin of sporting codes like rugby, cricket and soccer despite it being a sporting code, which is very popular among certain sections of the previously disadvantaged communities. As a result, many boxing promoters have perished and some are hardly coping. May the untimely death of Mateza give birth to the timely rise of boxing exposure.”
Mateza, a one-time Boxing South Africa (BSA) board member and one of the most knowledgeable sport commentators, commentated in no less than seven sporting codes.
