Gauteng Boxing Promoters Association (GBPA) will hold its fourth annual conference at an undisclosed venue at the end of this month, the association’s acting secretary Nomakhosi Maboya announced in a statement.

She said the four-day conference will begin from January 30 until February 3. This announcement has raised eyebrows because chairperson of the National Professional Promoters Association (NPPA) Ayanda Matiti announced in a media briefing attended by Boxing SA acting CEO Nsikayezwe Sithole in December that the provincial structure had been disbanded.

He said the decision was taken after a meeting between NPPA and some Gauteng-based promoters. Matiti further announced at the same briefing that they had appointed an interim structure, which must mobilise promoters in the Gauteng province in preparation for next month’s annual general meeting. 

“Everything was done in the presence of the acting CEO of BSA,” said Matiti, whose NPPA was elected in BSA’s conference in Durban in October.

When asked yesterday if BSA held a meeting with GPBA to inform them about their dissolution as per regulations, BSA chairperson Luthando Jack said: “We, as BSA, launched the National Promoters Association so that we put an end to provinces calling Boxing SA to discuss similar matters. Going forward the structure responsible for presiding over formation of provincial structures will be the National Promoters Association and no longer Boxing SA. We can come in when there is an appeal or dispute.”

Asked if BSA had written to GBPA regarding their dissolution, Jack said: “That is not our sanction; it is the sanction of National Promoters Association; so we are not supposed to write to them.”

Jack said the constitution was adopted by all promoters in Durban in October as an interim constitution. “It gives the National Promoters Association powers to constitute provincial structures in the country,” he said.

In response to this, Maboya said: “To this day we have never received any formal letter from BSA as the regulator advising us about this; we read about it in the newspapers; as far as we know we are the legitimate boxing body that deals with boxing matters in the Gauteng province.”

A former BSA board member who wanted to remain anonymous said: “We’ve been looking at the happenings and we have observed that Gauteng is doing well, especially where it is led by the Gauteng Promoters Association; they paid medical testing and licence fees for boxers during Covid-19 period; they look after veterans ... so why disband a model that is working instead of taking it to other provinces?”