It is not often that one comes across a boxing gym in Mamelodi.
Soccer grounds whereby kids chase after the pigskin are galore, but seeing kids trading leather in a boxing gym is very rare.
Be that as it may, the Mabetha Boxing Club in Mamelodi East has been in existence for 15 years now and its existence has remained obscured due to lack of media coverage coupled with financial and material support.
Mabetha Boxing Club derives its name from the owner of the facility Jan Mathole, whose middle name is Mabetha.
Jan Mabetha Mathole (65) was crowned Transvaal Amateur Welterweight Boxing Champ in the late 1970s in Witbank.
At that time Transvaal province comprised all regions including present day Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Gauteng provinces.
Mathole turned into a professional boxer in the early 1980s under the guidance of legendary Pretoria-based boxing trainer Don McLoughlin but since his professional career didn’t provide opportunities for him, he was advised by the late McLoughlin to concentrate on being a boxing trainer himself and groom up-and-coming youngsters.
He told Tshwane Talks that during his amateur days in the early 1970s he and his fellow boxers used to train at a gym that was based at the Mamelodi Stadium, which is today known as HM Pitje Stadium and that ANC/ Umkhonto We Sizwe operative Solomon Mahlangu was also one of the boxers there.
Their trainer was Tony Sikhu and the gym was known as Sponono Boxing Club.
“Don McLoughlin, at whose club I started working as a trainer, supported and encouraged me and I managed to produce some excellent boxers, including Stanley Mathe and Elvis Makana who carried the South African national flag at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games,” enthused Mathole.
“I started my own boxing club 15 years ago and named it Phoenix Boxing Club at the Bosman train station, but I relocated it to Mamelodi East soon thereafter and renamed it Mabetha Boxing Club after myself,” explained Mathole.
He now trains 60 boys and 5 girls from the tender age of five up to 16 years.
He told Tshwane Talks that one of his boxers Khaya Gabuza, won a gold medal at the South African Amateur Championship tournament in 2022 in the Light-Heavyweight division.
His own son Nakampe is also an amateur boxer in the flyweight division and has taken part in the South African Championship tournament in Cape Town as well as in Port Elizabeth in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
He trains his charges every day before and after school and also works with them on Saturdays and Sundays from 6am.
“Boxing is a one-on-one sport and teaches one to stand on their own and have discipline and respect; and it is my opinion that boxing is the number one sport as various training methods used in many sporting codes are derived from it,” opined Mathole.
“What hurts me is that I have been asking the City of Tshwane for a piece of land since 2008 whereby I would establish a fully-fledged gym with proper equipment and facilities,” he said.
“The World Boxing Council has promised to build me a proper gym but due to lack of land and delays by the City of Tshwane this hasn’t been possible,” lamented Mathole.
“I don’t have space to store the equipment that has been donated to me and some of it has to be kept outside the house where I live,” complained Mathole.
“The boxing ring ropes and canvas that were donated to me by boxing trainer Andy Ferreira some 15 years ago still stand out in the open in my yard and are gradually getting rotten as a result of exposure to rain and heat,” he moaned.