By Monwabisi Jimlongo
With rumours of a planned court action against his appointment as chairperson of the board of Boxing South Africa (BSA) continuing to spread like wildfire, Sifiso Shongwe is taking everything in his stride and is not panicking.
Rumours of a planned court challenge against Minister of Sport Zizi Kodwa by some disgruntled BSA licensees and some members of the outgoing board started circulating a few hours after the seven-member board was announced on Tuesday morning. The new board is made up of Shongwe, Luxolo September, Sakhiwe Sodo, Nande Mheshe, Romy Titus, Princess Mangoma and Dr Mary-Gene Manthata-Setati.
It was rumoured that Kodwa’s decision to appoint Shongwe as BSA board chairperson was going to be challenged on the basis of a cooling off period. This is so because Shongwe is a former boxing promoter.
“The licence was renewed this year and we didn’t have tournaments. When I left ESPN in June this year, I submitted to BSA that I would no longer be working for the licence that was held under ESPN,” Shongwe revealed.
“Obviously, I was not a director at ESPN. I was operating by a power of attorney in the organisation. So when my employment terminated, I no longer had the power of attorney to act on behalf of the company.”
Shongwe added: “ESPN then wrote to BSA indicating that they wanted to withdraw the money that was kept in their account. Kenny (Mamosadi) made contact with me, asking me to confirm in writing and I did confirm with him.”
On the noise being made about a cooling off period, Shongwe said: “I heard people talking about a cooling off period. There’s nothing to speak about because I left the company a long time ago and we never had a tournament since December last year. I’m here to work and be respected for what I bring to the table.”
Ink Sport tried to get a comment from Mamosadi, who is the acting chief financial officer at BSA, but his cellphone kept ringing without being answered.
