While other provinces are capitalising on Women’s Month by scheduling sports tournaments in August, the Eastern Cape is going through a lean spell with no shows lined up for its female boxers.
With the province regarded as boxing’s hotbed, events such as tournaments dedicated to women are expected to form part of the activities.
However, the month is set to proceed without any women’s tournament, unlike in provinces such as Limpopo, which has already held its leg of the Women In Boxing Series — a Boxing SA programme catering to women boxing — a fortnight ago.
Award-winning matchmaker Luyanda Kana complained of finding his hands tied when he was forced to arrange bouts involving women due to their shallow pool.
This led to the inclusion of male boxers in tournaments that were exclusively designed for women.
“Boxing SA needs to look at this challenge closely because there is blanket inactivity for women boxers in the province,” he said.
But with Women’s Month again set to sail past without any tournaments scheduled for female boxers, the status quo threatens to remain.
Boxing SA confirmed that there were no scheduled tournaments involving women for the province, as the procurement process for the Women In Boxing Series was still under way.
The regulatory body’s chief operations officer, Mandla Ntlanganiso, argued that the series was not limited to August alone.
“Our posture is to spread the events throughout the year, and we are not married to August month,” he said.
However, a slew of women boxers have been crying out for activity, with the call reaching a crescendo in August.
Ntlanganiso said he was aware of the expectations for the series to form part of Women’s Month.
“The series must allow ample activity for our female boxing practitioners across the board.”
While women’s boxing is going through a death knell in the province, with its last tournament held in March when Asandiswa Nxokwana beat Monalisa Takane for the provincial junior featherweight title in Scenery Park’s KuGompo City, other provinces are punching above their weight to use the month for their fighters.
One of them was Matshidiso Mokebesi, who used the opportunity to become the new Limpopo lightweight champion by beating Raider Muleba in Thohoyandou to activate Women’s Month in Limpopo.
- Mdantsane rising star Siseko Teyisi has been nominated for the Youth Junior Sports Star of the Year at the 19th Annual SA Sports Awards.
The 22-year-old had a breakout year in 2025 when he defended his SA junior flyweight title twice before adding the IBF intercontinental and WBC Youth titles to his collection to emerge as a future world champion.
BSA appealed to boxing fans to vote for Teyisi to get the award to realise his potential as one of the boxing stars from the province.