THE chairman of the Boxing South Africa board, Ngconde Balfour, insists Dumile Mateza's involvement with SABC Sport during Nkosinathi "Mabhere" Joyi's International Boxing Federation minimum-weight title fight against Katsunari Takayama last Friday was a once-off arrangement.
Balfour said Mateza did commentary on the fight last Friday after the public broadcaster had asked the Boxing SA board for the veteran commentator's release.
It was felt during the tournament that having Mateza as a commentator might constitute a clash of interests as he is also a member of the BSA board with Balfour, Peter Ngatane, Ntambi Ravele, Mandla Ntlanganiso and Nontsasa Lebaka.
"We expected people to raise questions over Dumile's involvement with SABC Sport and I would like to clarify this matter. The SABC does not have a boxing commentator and they asked if we could release Dumile just for last week's tournament and we agreed to that," said Balfour.
Mateza did the commentary with former International Boxing Organisation bantamweight champion Silence Mabuza.
"We told Dumile after discussing the SABC's request that he would do the commentary just for that tournament. We also made it clear to him that his commentary would be confined to the actual action and not on anything else," said Balfour.
Asked what would happen should Mateza want to continue with boxing commentary on SABC Sport, Balfour said: "Dumile will have to choose between being a BSA board member or an SABC Sport commentator.
"He will definitely have to resign from the board if he wants to become a boxing commentator again."
Mateza commentary once-off
THE chairman of the Boxing South Africa board, Ngconde Balfour, insists Dumile Mateza's involvement with SABC Sport during Nkosinathi "Mabhere" Joyi's International Boxing Federation minimum-weight title fight against Katsunari Takayama last Friday was a once-off arrangement.
Balfour said Mateza did commentary on the fight last Friday after the public broadcaster had asked the Boxing SA board for the veteran commentator's release.
It was felt during the tournament that having Mateza as a commentator might constitute a clash of interests as he is also a member of the BSA board with Balfour, Peter Ngatane, Ntambi Ravele, Mandla Ntlanganiso and Nontsasa Lebaka.
"We expected people to raise questions over Dumile's involvement with SABC Sport and I would like to clarify this matter. The SABC does not have a boxing commentator and they asked if we could release Dumile just for last week's tournament and we agreed to that," said Balfour.
Mateza did the commentary with former International Boxing Organisation bantamweight champion Silence Mabuza.
"We told Dumile after discussing the SABC's request that he would do the commentary just for that tournament. We also made it clear to him that his commentary would be confined to the actual action and not on anything else," said Balfour.
Asked what would happen should Mateza want to continue with boxing commentary on SABC Sport, Balfour said: "Dumile will have to choose between being a BSA board member or an SABC Sport commentator.
"He will definitely have to resign from the board if he wants to become a boxing commentator again."
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