×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

IBF champ Tete living under shabby conditions

Manager Mla Thengimfene has denied treating his boxer and IBF champion Zolani "Last Born" Tete like a novice by making inadequate arrangements for his high altitude Johannesburg camp ahead of the defence of his title next month.

While Tete's training arrangements are sound - he is again training at Stanley Ndlovu's gym like he did before beating Japan's Teiru Kinoshita in July - his living arrangements leave a lot to be desired. The junior bantamweight champion, who comes from Mdantsane in Eastern Cape, is shacked up in an unfurnished room in an Orange Grove house in which the other rooms are inhabited by various other families.

Tete is staying with all three of his sparring partners - Thabo Sonjica, Mfusi Maxhayi and Bongani Silila - in a room in which their sleeping arrangements are single bed sponge mattresses.

A stench greets you from the gate of the dirty house, their room is littered with clothes, shoes and training equipment, and the size of the room is no bigger than a prison cell.

Tete, who defends his title against Paul Butler on March 6, sought to play down the fact that a world champion has to make do with such shabby arrangements by claiming there had been a misunderstanding.

"We discovered on our arrival a week ago that the place that we were supposed to occupy had been taken over by other people," he explained.

"We got this room through [trainer] Phumzile Matyhila. He knows somebody who trains at Nick Durandt's gym who also rents a room here. We thought it better that we occupy it because we are here already while waiting for our manager to come and get us out. Our manager will arrive tomorrow [today]."

But a source close to the camp disputed Tete's version of events, saying he knew nothing of alternative arrangements.

When contacted, Thengimfene said: "I don't know the place. They are the ones who chose it. I wonder why they misled me. But I'm coming to Johannesburg tomorrow to sort it out."