Boxing Promoters taking Zizi Kodwa to court over BSA Accounting Authority appointment

Boxing Promoters taking Zizi Kodwa to court over BSA Accounting Authority appointment

The legal battles between the National Professional Boxing Promoters Association (NPBPA), Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture Zizi Kodwa, and Boxing South Africa (BSA) are far from over.

The NPBPA had earlier challenged the appointment of the newly appointed board and are now challenging Kodwa’s decision to appoint BSA's Acting CEO Manda Ntlanganiso as the Accounting Authority.

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NPBPA Chairperson Ayanda Matiti says they are now approaching the courts again to challenge this latest appointment.

''We have now interfaced with this development of a Boxing Accounting Authority. We have written to the minister for your ease. 

''We gave him up until yesterday [Wednesday], because you must ask who doesn't want this thing, we even said we can meet with you - suggest time and date, so we agree on something that is amicable that will be long term,'' said Matiti.

Ntlanganiso, previously a Director of Operations at BSA was suspended by the previous board but the mandatory 90 days passed without ever being called into a disciplinary hearing and he also won his case at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

 But when the new board started its term for a day before they were interdicted, they reinstated him and placed him as an Acting CEO.

Matiti says Kodwa got the wrong advice on his latest move.

 ''In the process of receiving boxers from abroad, he says boxing shall happen. We have told the minister that he is wrong, what is it about the minister and being protected?

''We respect the minister but we are dealing with his actions,'' added Matiti.

Boxing is the only sport in the country that is governed through an Act of Parliament, BSA is a regulatory boxing body that reports to the Minister of Sport and has its budget under his department.

NPBPA is merely a sub-committee of BSA, but Matiti says what they are challenging is the contempt of court.

''We are not fixated in persons, we are saying why is the minister in contempt, and why is the suspended director of operations is in contempt and why did he stay in office beyond that order?'' concluded Matiti.

It’s still not clear when this matter will go back to court and decide on the merits of the case where the NPBPA was challenging the processes that led to the appointment of the new BSA board.

Matiti says they will not keep quiet around this matter until the court outcomes are respected.