Boxing board member goes academic

Boxing SA board member Sakhiwo Sodo, who also serves as chairperson of its sanctioning committee, graduated with a masters of education degree at Walter Sisuslu University last week.

“I enrolled for a master of education degree at Walter Sisulu University in 2018 and it was a long, tough and lonely journey,” said Sodo, 63, who has previously worked for government as district director in OR Tambo from 2005 to 2015. 

“I remember one day when my study had come back from the examiners and I had to make some corrections that had to be presented to professors at Walter Sisulu University and I did not sleep; it was until the next day in the morning and I was to present in the afternoon,” he said.

“I am excited to have graduated but credit goes to my supervisors who gave me their critical feedback on my work and I am truly indebted from them, and also to my wife and kids. Glory to the higher power for helping me to make it.”

Sodo said BSA chairman Luthando Jack knew when he appointed him to convene the boxing heritage that he studied a heritage-related discipline.

“The archives, basically, are about preserving our heritage in a form of document. The story of boxing that we are seeking to preserve, that we want to extract through engagement with boxing legends, is part of the study,” he explained.

“If this heritage is not preserved, it means re-inventing the wheel instead of referring to documents that were developed. The worst thing is that since 1994 there is not a single document to tell that story; remember we had been in an era of non-racialism in sport. All that is not preserved."

Sodo said he has already written a 162-page dissertation titled A critical assessment of the effectiveness of transformation in the archives of the province of the Eastern Cape, SA.