Biggest indaba on cards

BOXING SA is planning to hold a major boxing indaba at a venue yet to be decided on a date in May to discuss some of the controversial decisions it has taken and also to plot the way forward for the sport.

The national governing body has seen its relationship with its licensee taking a strain after it introduced reforms without discussing them with stakeholders.

Some of the reforms introduced had to be withdrawn after licensees such as Johannesburg promoter Branco Milenkovic took the structure to court.

This after BSA announced that it was suspending two-year term contracts between boxers and promoters as they were discriminating against the fighters.

But Milenkovic successfully challenged BSA’s decision to court and won when he wanted to renew contracts with his boxers.

BSA later reduced the number of years for the contracts to 12 months but denied that it had been influenced by Milenkovic’s court victory.

The governing body also clashed with promoters when it revealed that it would take over the broadcast rights and distribute them itself to promoters instead of them negotiating with broadcasters themselves.

This has caused consternation among promoters with Milenkovic again taking BSA to court in a case which is still pending.

At the weekend local promoters met with BSA senior officials led by chief executive Moffat Qithi in Mdantsane and grilled the body about the implications of taking over the broadcast rights.

According to insiders, BSA allayed fears that it would rob the promoters an opportunity to cash in on the rights, insisting that it would continue with its present policy of deducting 10% .

While some local promoters are slowly siding with BSA on the issue, the structure feels the rest of boxing stakeholders in the country needs to be informed about some of the decisions taken.

BSA director of operations Loyiso Mtya confirmed that an indaba was being planned for May.

“But we are still not sure about the venue although Gauteng usually gets preference because of its central position,” he said.

BSA has not held an indaba for a while because of financial constraints with the last gathering being held in 2010.

However, the indaba was called by the then Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile to present and discuss the report by two commission members Dumile Matheza and this scribe he had appointed to conduct investigation on the turnaround strategy of boxing in the country.