Province takes boxing to a higher level
The right guidance within the boxing fratenity will enable us to produce champions in future.
Mpumalanga used to be among the best provinces after Gauteng and Eastern Cape by producing good champions in the field of boxing.
This was revealed during the provincial boxing indaba held at the Protea Hotel, Emalahleni, under the theme “Galvanising the future of boxing for the boxer” with the sole aim of sharing ideas on how to take boxing to another level in the province. Delivering her keynote address during the indaba, the MEC for culture, sports and recreation, Sibongile Manana, said it’s about time for this province to bring back the culture of boxing to communities.
“The gathering is similar to the indabas held in all the nine provinces as we are preparing ourselves to go to the national indaba on September 27 and 28. “As government we can’t be passive observers, we need to be involved in this type of sport. “This province only has one promoter and five boxing clubs.
This is unacceptable because we are known for producing champs of the likes of Lawrence Ngobeni,” she explained.
She went on and indicated that producing champs symbolised that Mpumalanga has a lot of sports talent, as it was also revealed that the first female judge in boxing, Lizzy Thela, hails from this province.
It was discovered that not having boxing promoters has had a bad impact in terms of sustaining boxers because most of them decided to go to other provinces such as Gauteng.
The indaba attracted lots of people from different corners of the province, including women who want to take part. Speaking to Mpumalanga Mirror, Busi Dube said the gathering was an eye-opener since she was interested in the sport.
“I’m a teacher by profession. I love boxing, so my aim is to take boxing to school so that we can start to develop the learners who love the sport at an early age. “I noticed that there were bullies in schools, we may never know if they are talented in boxing, but are using their skills in the wrong way. “I believe that if they get the right guidance, we may produce champions in the future and I’m glad that the department is finally paying attention to this sport,” said Dube.
The indaba was also graced by the presence of a powerful boxing champ, originally from this province, Lawrence “Superbird” Ngobeni , who successfully defended his title five times.
