By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Given a choice, the penniless National Professional Boxing Promoters Association (NPBPA) would install Sakhiwe Sodo as Boxing South Africa (BSA) board chairperson and throw Sifiso Shongwe to the scrapheap.
However, that’s impossible to achieve as Shongwe is Minister of Sport Zizi Kodwa’s preferred choice for the position and Tuesday’s announcement bears testimony to that.
At a virtual meeting held on Thursday evening, some NPBPA executive members, provincial chairpersons and secretaries resolved to take Kodwa to court following his decision to appoint Shongwe as BSA board chairperson.
The promoters cited what they call is a cooling period as the reason behind their decision to challenge Kodwa’s prerogative to appoint the BSA board and its chairperson.
And in a move that could best be interpreted as an attempt to sharply divide the new BSA board, the promoters declared that they wanted Sodo as board chairperson as they viewed him as the most experienced administrator.
“Apart from taking the Minister to court for his decision to appoint Sifiso as BSA board chairperson, we resolved that Mr Sodo is a perfect candidate for that position because of his experience,” a promoter who asked to remain anonymous said.
Interestingly, Sodo was nominated by promoters to serve in the outgoing board as he was a licensee at the time even though he didn’t stage a single tournament. And no cooling off period was ever discussed when they nominated Sodo.
Meanwhile, the promoters also agreed that each individual promoter would contribute more R2000 towards legal fees to challenge Kodwa.
Would not pay a cent towards this scheme or stokvel