By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Acting Boxing South Africa (BSA) chief executive officer Erick Nsikayezwe Sithole has revealed that they are going to respond to a slew of complaints after the regulatory body’s board meeting on Saturday.
Sithole was responding to questions from Ink Sport regarding an official complaint, which was laid against the use of an unlicensed ring announcer at a recent tournament.
Cape Town-based licensee Devon Currer wrote a letter to the boxing regulatory body complaining about the use of Sowetan boxing writer and a member of the BSA sanctioning committee Bongani Magasela as a ring announcer during a tournament promoted by Unleashed Combat Sport at the Union Sports Arena in Turffontein, Johannesburg, two weeks ago.
In the letter to BSA board chairman Luthando Jack, Sithole and the regulatory body’s chief operations officer Mandla Ntlanganiso, Currer said: “I am writing to officially lodge a complaint against the use of an unlicensed ring announcer at the boxing event held by Unleashed Boxing Promotions in Johannesburg on Friday 21st July 2023.
“As a duly licensed licensee under Boxing South Africa, I feel it is my responsibility to bring this serious matter to your attention and request a thorough investigation into this breach of regulations. The ring announcer referred to is Bongani Magasela whom I believe not to be licensed in any way as a ring announcer. Unfortunately, the use of an unlicensed ring announcer has raised significant concerns about the event’s compliance with the established standards and respect of the regulatory trademark.”
Sithole said on Friday: “We have a board meeting tomorrow (Saturday). The meeting is going to deal with all the issues and we will then issue a media statement about everything starting from the Boxing Awards.
“We are not going to isolate issues. We are going to reflect on everything including social media attacks to BSA and the management, defamation of characters as well. It’s not only Dev, there’s a number of people. There’s a cabal that’s been sending letters to the Minister (Zizi Kodwa). There’s a certain campaign going on.”
The complaint is called fairness… I hope they bring up the suspension of officials for not attending training sessions during the week when they cannot get time off work … How are they supposed to feed clothe and educate their children… bearing in mind you and your cronies just help yourselves to all the available finances at BSA