Larry Wainstein’s Boxing5 Promotions has entered the fray, writing to Minister of Sport, Zizi Kodwa, asking him to appoint an interim board of Boxing South Africa (BSA) as the court case brought against him by the National Professional Boxing Promoters Association (NPBPA) drags on.
The NPBPA successfully interdicted the installation of the new board comprised of Sifiso Shongwe, Luxolo September, Sakhiwe Sodo, Romy Titus, Princess Mangoma, Nande Mheshe and Dr Mary-Gene Manthata-Setati in December.
And because of that, not a single tournament has been held in South Africa this year. Instead, tournaments have been postponed left, right and centre.
Already preparing to stage a tournament on Friday, 8 March, Boxing5, through its lawyers Mnyaka Inc, has given Kodwa less than two weeks to appoint an interim BSA board or the promotional outfit will be forced to approach the High Court.
“Therefore, we respectfully request that you exercise your authority to appoint an interim board comprised of individuals with expertise in sports management, governance and finance on or before Wednesday, 21 February 2024, failure to do so will lead to an urgent application to the High Court to seek alternative relief,” the letter dated 8 February 2024 said.
The letter further proposed to Kodwa to appoint an interim sanctioning committee while still thinking about what to do with the idea of appointing a caretaker board.
“As you may be aware, BSA has been facing significant challenges in recent months, including allegations of mismanagement, financial irregularities and a lack of effective governance, the interim board may also be tasked with conducting a thorough review of BSA’s operations implementing necessary reforms to address any deficiencies with the organisation,” the letter said.
“The absence of the BSA board leads to an unjustified limitations of various boxing stakeholders and Boxing5’s right to their trade, occupation or profession freely as regulated by law as provided in Section 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, thus having adverse impact on socio-economic rights of the stakeholders. The absence of the board prohibits promoters from carrying out tournaments as this act requires a sanction from the BSA board, therefore leading to substantial loss of income as promoters cannot carry out tournaments without them being sanctioned by the board. It is prudent to note that Boxing5 as a BSA registered promoter in terms of 7 (1) (c) of the Act schedules these tournaments months in advance, therefore could not have anticipated the removal of the board.”
