The SA National Boxing Organisation (Sanabo) will field the biggest number of boxers in the eagerly anticipated Steve Tshwete series scheduled to punch off in KuGompo City in November.
The series, which was announced by sports minister Gayton McKenzie at a boxing indaba in KuGompo City in February 2025, has encountered bureaucratic red tape, with officials battling over the format it should follow.
Initially planned as a league, Boxing SA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka said it had since been changed into an elimination series with losers getting bundled out of the competition.
However, while Sanabo’s role in the series has been muted, its president, Siyabulela Mkwalo, revealed that the country’s amateur boxing body would contribute the biggest number of boxers.
“We will have 10 boxers from each province,[comprising] five males and five females, concentrating on Olympic divisions in a league format,” he said.
Sanabo would use the series as part of preparations for Olympic qualifiers for the games scheduled to be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
“This is why we are focusing on Olympic divisions because we want to use every opportunity to keep our boxers active to be ready for the qualifiers,” Mkwalo said.
Sanabo will field 90 boxers from all the provinces, while BSA will only select 49, with each province fielding three divisions involving two male and one female weight class.
“This will equate to six boxers from each province pitted in an elimination format, with losers going home,” Lejaka said.
He said plans were at an advanced stage to announce promoters for the provincial tournaments with a focus on those at a development level and still new in boxing promotion.
“We want the series to also serve as an apprentice to young and rising promoters who have just started in the game.”
McKenzie’s department has already advanced R1m to each province to cater for the tournaments, with BSA expected to decide on the boxers’ purses together with selected promoters.
Sanabo’s boxers will receive prizes on completion of the series following an amateur model adopted by the International Boxing Association (IBA), whose relations with the International Olympic Committee soured and finally ended for its failure to disclose the source of its lucrative prizes paid to its athletes.
Each province will have its specially designed boxing kit bearing its colours, with amateur boxers having vests in addition to shorts.
Lejaka led a series of meetings involving Sanabo head honchos and provincial confederations which will serve as service providers as per government-funded programmes.
“We have already concluded meetings with other stakeholders, including government officials, so we will move on to the operational stage, which will involve the appointment of promoters,” Lejaka said.
McKenzie said the series in honour of the country’s first sports minister, Steve Tshwete, would add a much-needed punch to the revival of boxing in the country.
He said the series would punch off in KuGompo City by December, though Lejaka said operational matters could even bring the launch forward to the end of November.