Lejaka hails Boxing SA’s ‘gritty’ fightback to financial integrity

For years, the story of Boxing SA (BSA) administration and governance has too often been written in the ink of financial disarray and bureaucratic stumbles, says CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka.

He said that watching from the sidelines, observers of Boxing SA could easily have been forgiven for expecting more of the same again in the previous financial year of 2025/26.

Lejaka announced two weeks ago that the regulator leapt back into the bracket of an unqualified audit outcome.

The outcome was puzzling because the regulator had faced ongoing scrutiny from the office of the auditor-general regarding governance stability, handling of historical forensic investigations, irregular expenditure and unresolved tax compliance issues such as tax outstanding and South African Revenue Service penalties.

Following previous board dissolutions and a R12m financial deficit, a newly appointed board chaired by Ayanda Khumalo and an executive team took office in late 2024 and 2025 to reform governance and rebuild credibility.

Previous Boxing SA leadership faced criticism for not enforcing debt collection under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). There were allegations of a promoter owing Boxing SA sanctioning fees and tournament fees.

Former Boxing SA chair Sifiso Shongwe’s board stipulated that no promoter owing fees would be relicensed for the period 2025/26.

“BSA made it clear that all promoters owing fees must pay 30% of their debt and make a commitment regarding the balance,” said Shongwe.

He said that the promoter met BSA and made arrangements to pay his outstanding fees, and that that was how he obtained his promoter’s licence.

During an exclusive interview with Sowetan, Lejaka mentioned three more promoters — Mamali, Sijuta and Premier League — that he said owed BSA money.

“We tried to collect the money … [but] the cost of collecting the money was going to exceed the benefit, and ordinarily you write off that money so that it becomes what we call a bad debt written off,” he said.

“What the board of BSA then did [was it wrote off the debt] as some of it came from the era of Ngconde Balfour [sport and recreation minister from June 21 1999 to April 28 2004].

“Why should Ayanda Khumalo be the one stuck with that debt?” Lejaka said.

He said there was more of the same recurring script: missed reconciliations, untraceable travel expenses and poor financial statement preparation, which routinely drew sharp rebukes from the auditor-general.