Highlands Boxing Club head coach Lance Gibson has written an open letter to Minister of Sport Gayton McKenzie demanding an investigation into Mpumalanga’s R300m sports budget after 29 local boxers missed the national championships.

To get four team members to the South African National Boxing Championships in Cape Town, the Graskop club had to wash cars, host braais and collect donations, while a boxer from Middelburg was so disheartened he hung up his gloves.

After the South African championships, Lowvelder reported that two young fighters, Arion Fraser and Dylan Roets, were crowned national champions, with Roets earning the Best Youth Boxer award. “We are a small club in Graskop, and boxing does not receive the same recognition or support as other sports like rugby and soccer,” said coach Nicole Fraser. “Winning two national gold medals proves that talent can come from anywhere with the right guidance, hard work and determination.”

The road to Cape Town was anything but easy. As a non-profit club that relies on donations, Highlands faced a major setback when anticipated funding assistance failed to materialise just days before the championships.

‘Junkets over athletes’

Gibson said: “While 29 of Mpumalanga’s finest boxers were shattered and left behind at home in early July due to so-called ‘budgetary constraints’, an astonishing R31m of taxpayers’ money was somehow found to fund a massive entourage of 19 officials and 56 delegates to the Fifa World Cup.”

“How is it justifiable to rob our hard-working athletes of their national championship dreams under the guise of ‘no funds’ while officials enjoy luxury trips abroad?” he asked.

“When we desperately reached out to our MSC president for intervention and leadership, we expected an ally for our athletes,” Gibson said. “Instead, we were met with a bitter betrayal – discovering that the president himself was part of the very group that accompanied the minister.”

“Our athletes bleed dedication, sweat, and passion for this province, yet they are sidelined while officials fund their own junkets,” he added. “This hypocrisy must be challenged. Sport is for the athletes, not for self-enrichment and free-loading trips.”

Call for investigation

In his open letter to McKenzie, Gibson wrote: “I am writing this open letter as a concerned citizen, a dedicated boxing coach, and an advocate for the youth of our province. I am reaching out to you because the current state of sport administration in Mpumalanga, specifically within the Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation (DCSR) and the Mpumalanga Sports Confederation (MSC), is actively destroying the dreams of our athletes.”

“Our recent experience attempting to participate in the SANABO Youth and Elite Championships in Cape Town is a damning indictment of the incompetence and lack of transparency plaguing our local sporting authorities,” he wrote.

“We submitted our comprehensive concept document as early as November 2025,” Gibson stated. “By May 25, we provided a final team list of 33 delegates. We were met not with support, but with obstruction. Keke Mofokeng (DCSR) quoted us a ‘flabbergasting’ and entirely unsubstantiated transport figure of over R500 000 for the team, claiming they were ‘out of budget’.”

“This figure was a farce. We independently secured quotes for 33 return airfares at just R128 000. Despite our good-faith efforts to reduce our delegation from 33 down to 22, and finally to 15, the DCSR refused to disclose their actual remaining budget or provide a transparent path forward.”

“Butini Ngoma (DCSR) ultimately ceased all communication, refusing to take our calls, effectively leaving 29 of our team members, talented boxers and coaches, sidelined and devastated.”

“When we escalated this crisis to Linda Zwane, president of the MSC, pleading for urgent intervention, we were met with silence,” Gibson added. “It is disheartening to note that while our athletes were facing an administrative wall, Zwane was reportedly too busy fraternising with his entourage at the Fifa World Cup to step in and assist.”

“While the officials abandoned our youth, our community did not,” he said. “To ensure that just four of our team (two coaches and two boxers) could make it to Cape Town on July 7, the people of Graskop scrambled to save what they could. Through a massive grassroots effort, friends and family from Graskop, Pretoria, Canada, and the UK rallied together to raise R27 000 to cover the essential costs of flights, accommodation, and meals.”
Despite this ordeal, athletes Fraser and Roets showed true grit and went on to clinch double national gold, succeeding despite the system.

“Minister, we cannot allow another year of administrative negligence to stifle our sporting talent,” Gibson wrote. “We are tired of ‘budget constraint’ narratives that vanish when funds are actually needed, only for money to be clawed back by the Treasury due to departmental underutilisation.”

“We are calling for an immediate investigation into the allocation of the R300m sports budget for our province and for accountability from those who choose their comfort over the future of our children.”

An enquiry was sent to the Mpumalanga sport department. A response was not received at the time of publication.