/ 5 April 2004

Boxing officials face bleak future

Some commissioners and the administration staff of the dysfunctional Gauteng Provincial Boxing Control Commission (GPBCC) have been left pondering their future.

Their office has been closed down by Boxing South Africa (BSA), the mother body for all provincial structures.

Peter Ngatane, chairperson of the GPBCC, which was formed in 1999, has already been assimilated by BSA. It is unclear what will happen to his colleagues and the entire administration staff.

Ngatane was appointed by Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour during the formation of BSA in 2002.

Kenosi Mlabateki, who was employed as the CEO of GPBCC about five years ago, resigned in December last year.

But she was persuaded to stay on until the end of BSA’s restructuring process, which could leave her unemployed.

The GPBCC comprises Ngatane, M’Zwakhe Qobose, Boycie Mbha, Derick Watson, Shepperd Kiviet and Obed Molekwa.

Watson, the founder member of the GPBCC, is totally against the move to close down their office.

He said they were informed about the closure in a meeting last week but they requested to continue until the end of April.

Watson said some administration is still conducted at the commission’s offices at Nasrec near Soweto but the telephones are no longer working.

All other provincial structures are no longer operational. They were closed down some time ago.

The GPBCC is the only provincial commission that was still operational — probably because it is the busiest of them all.

All administration will in future be done by BSA at its offices in Midrand. But the agreement between BSA and provincial structures in January was that BSA will establish two regional offices in East London and in Johannesburg where a regional secretary and administrative clerk will be employed in each office.

Their jobs will be advertised and that terms of conditions of employment will be in terms of the public service regulations. The expenses of both offices will be borne by BSA.

The East London office will service the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State and the Johannesburg office will service Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and the Northern Cape.

People working in those offices will be known as service providers. — Sapa