Remembering Mathebula’s WBA victory

During a colourful boxing career that spun over a decade, from 1971 until his unceremonious exit in 1983, Mathebula became one of the many young black South Africans who went on to become young pioneers and role models for those who came after them.

The Mohlakeng-born boxer belonged to a breed of young and talented sportsmen and women whose ambition was to inspire others and hoist the youth of the country’s townships to greater heights.

Besides the odds being stacked heavily against him, the slugger soon made the apartheid Nationalist Party government stand on its head when he became the first black South African boxer to win the World Boxing Association (WBA) flyweight title. Mathebula snatched the title by beating South Korean world-title holder Tae Shik Kim with a TKO in Los Angeles, USA, in 1981.

Even though he brought honor and glory to the then segregated South African boxing fraternity, the Nationalist Party government refused to recognise him as the country’s first world boxing title winner. Mathebula’s status as a black person in SA was turned into a political game by the South African governing authorities.

This was during the height of apartheid in South Africa and all contact sporting activities between black and white people were barred by law. Despite being the holder of the prestigious WBA title, Mathebula was treated no different from the many other black South African citizens who had no relevance in the eyes of the apartheid rulers.

But to the thousands of black boxing fans around the country, Mathebula’s win was a victory that reverberated through every township and farmland around the country. He was instantly regarded by thousands as a “hero”.

In a society deprived of quality civic and political leadership, sportsmen and women who become successful in life have no problem filling that vacuum. And Mathebula soon fitted both the image of a successful sportsman and a leader in his chosen sport.

His victory elevated his status in the boxing fraternity both locally and internationally. Beating the South Korean also had a psychological effect on many black South Africans, who regarded their oppression under apartheid as another “opponent” to be defeated.

Township legend has it that following Mathebula’s WBA win, boxing clubs around the country grew in leaps and bounds. Scores of teenage boys enrolled at informal boxing academies. Suddenly, the art of boxing was seen as an instant stepping stone to resilience and greater things in life.

The standard of the sport was celebrated in every backyard in every township as the sport was hailed by trainers and aspiring amateurs as the sport that can instill discipline in some of the township’s wayward youth.

And while many young white youths were conscripted into the national army at the age of 18, young black boys in the townships and rural areas were joining boxing clubs from as young as 15, to build and nurture their self-esteem and step into the shoes of their boxing heroes.

Peter ‘Terror’ Mathebula was the South African flyweight boxer and former WBA title holder who instilled these values in the country’s youth.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

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