Zizi Kodwa will have to beat red tape to get boxing back into schools

Sport minister Zizi Kodwa is keen to get amateur boxing back into schools, but warns there is much red tape to cut through. 

Fisticuffs numbers have been dwindling over the years and it’s not uncommon for fighters to arrive at tournaments to find there are no opponents in their division.

Fewer amateurs also means fewer professionals, but getting boxing back into schools could help turn the sport around. 

“It [boxing] must not be an extra mural [sport]. It must be part of what was called physical education,” Kodwa told TimesLIVE.

Amateur boxing was South Africa’s richest source of Olympic silverware until isolation in the 1960s, with 19 gongs, placing it well ahead of athletics and swimming.

It was overhauled by athletics at Sydney 2000 and by swimming only at Tokyo 2020, but since readmission at Barcelona 1992 no South African boxer has won more than a fight at a Games.

Even at the Commonwealth Games only one fighter, Bongani Mwelase, has won a gold medal.

“I'm quite enthusiastic about how best to make sure school sport has all these elements of sports that are popular in our country.

“It must find a way in a policy, That's why it has been a bit of time to convene that policy indaba. There's a lot of misalignment now.

“The policy sits in one department, the implementer is another department and therefore [it’s] disjointed. These are the issues, at a legislative and a policy level, I'm dealing with.”

Boxing was banned from schools in the 1960s amid perceived safety issues, but these days many people argue it teaches discipline to youngsters and also helps to keep kids off the streets.

Kodwa said successful sports benefited from strong systems at school, like rugby.

“If we are to build any sport it must start from school. It must be at school level as a foundation.

“One of the successes of rugby, they've got a very good school sports system and there are lessons to be learned from them.

“That's why I was talking to Safa [the South African Football Association], for example. I said don't be afraid, don't be shy to say to rugby, ‘can we learn something from you?’.”