Struggling Sanabo plans indaba but postpones national tournament - TimesLIVE

South Africa’s struggling Olympic boxing body is preparing for a national indaba aimed at digging a once-great sport out of the doldrums, but this week it postponed its national age-group championships.

Young boxers preparing for the cadet and junior championships scheduled for Kimberley at the end of the month were told it had been postponed to December.

The South African National Boxing Organisation (Sanabo) president Siya Mkwalo said they were forced to delay the tournament — catering for 13- to 16-year-olds — because the local organising committee had been established late and hadn’t received all the guarantees required from provincial and local government departments.

That unhappiness is justifiable, and we’re also not happy that it had to be postponed.

Coaches were unhappy, saying bookings had been made and fighters had been training hard. They said many boxers would be focusing on their end-of-year exams ahead of the rescheduled December 7-10 competition, and many in the Western Cape had already planned trips to visit their Eastern Cape families.

“That unhappiness is justifiable, and we’re also not happy that it had to be postponed,” said Mkwalo, adding he was confident the tournament would proceed as planned. “We did try to look at other avenues to save the tournament [dates].”

Mkwalo said Sanabo was planning a virtual indaba for November to try to find solutions to the many problems faced by the federation.

For one, the national senior squad was largely inexperienced after the previous members turned professional. But he indicated one issue that would probably be debated would be the inclusion of professional fighters to try to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Qualification for the showpiece is due to begin next year with continental competitions and the world championships, although there will be global qualifiers in 2028.

South Africa, which won more Olympic medals in boxing than in any other sport before isolation in the 1960s, has won no silverware since readmission. The last time South Africa had boxers at an Olympics was London 2012.

For Rio 2016, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) refused to accept continental qualification.

Ahead of Tokyo 2020 the then Sanabo executive failed to get a team to the African qualifying tournament, and for Paris 2024, nobody qualified.

The sport has also underperformed at the Commonwealth Games. In the three editions from 1998 to 2006, South Africa won six medals, but at the five events since then they’ve pocketed just three.

The four boxers at Glasgow 2026 failed to register a win.

But local boxers could receive extra action with the government planning to restart the South African Games next year.

A draft concept document says it wants to address issues like limited elite competition opportunities, fragmented athlete identification and inconsistent integration between academies and federations.

The stated strategic objectives include identifying future Olympic and Paralympic athletes, improving athlete monitoring, and strengthening transformation and rural athlete development.

While the document talks about national championships in each sport, the Sunday Times understands that the government was keen to focus on up-and-coming talent.

One source said the Games would be staged every two years.