Siminkwe Bonco and Phiwokuhle Sbusiswe Mnguni added to the South African medal count since South African first competed in the Empire Games, which later became the Commonwealth Games, when they both won bronze medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England.
Bonco won a bronze medal in the middleweight (71kg-75kg) division as a losing semi-finalist against Cullum Peter (5-0) of Australia and Mnguni became the first woman boxer from South Africa to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, as a losing semi-finalist in the woman’s featherweight (54kg-57kg) class against Michaela Walsh (5-0) from Northern Ireland.
ILLUSTRIOUS HISTORY AT THE GAMES
South Africa has an illustrious history at the Empire games and Commonwealth Games since the 1930 Games in Hamilton, Canada, winning 37 medals, 15 gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals.
At the 1928 Olympic Games, held in Amsterdam, officials from the British Empire met and decided to hold their own Games every four years. These Games were to be in addition to the Olympics. The first Empire Games were held in 1930 in Canada, and from 1930 to 2014, South African boxers won 15 gold, nine silver and 11 bronze medals.
From 1930 to 1954 the Games were known as the Empire Games but in 1958 they were renamed the Empire and Commonwealth Games. In 1960 the Empire was dropped and they were known as the Commonwealth Games.
When South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961 because of politics, this country was no longer allowed to participate in the Games. However, after an absence of 36 years, South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth and in 1994, South African athletes could once again participate.
Five boxers represented South Africa in the 1930 Empire Games held in Canada. The 18-year-old flyweight representative Jacob Naude Smith, who the previous year had boxed as a junior, caused one of the biggest upsets when he scored a narrow points decision over Tim Pardoe of England in the final to win a gold medal.
The welterweight representative Len Hall, who was in America on business, attended the Games at his own cost. Hall, who represented Rhodesia at the 1928 Olympics and had earlier been advised to give up boxing because of a heart ailment, upset the critics with a win over Canada's Williams to take the gold medal.
The second Empire Games were held in England in 1934 and South Africa had seven representatives in eight divisions. Charlie Catterall overshadowed all the other featherweight entrants and was considered the outstanding boxer of the Games. Boxing with consummate skill in the final, Catterall was a popular winner over Jones from Wales.
Due to South Africa's reputation in amateur boxing, the team of six at the 1938 Games in Australia were expected to do well. Johannes "Johnny " Joubert won the flyweight gold medal after a bloody contest against Canada's J. Gagnon, having taken a count in the first round. Nick Wolmarans, later South African light heavy and heavyweight champion in the professional ranks, won the light heavyweight gold medal when he beat the hard-hitting Australian C. Overall.
With the intervention of the Second World War, the Games were not held in 1942 and 1946. The 1950 Games, held in New Zealand, attracted 42 boxers from England, Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia, Ceylon, Scotland and New Zealand to contest the eight divisions.
Johannes van Rensburg, known as "Smiler", was not yet 18 when he won the bantamweight gold medal after beating a 30-year-old veteran from Ceylon, Albert Perrera, in the final. One of South Africa's most decorated amateurs, Theuns van Schalkwyk, dominated the middleweight division and won the gold medal.
The 1954 Games were once again held in Canada and South Africa was represented in all divisions except flyweight. Featherweight Len Leisching was considered the best boxer of the Games and won the gold medal. In the middleweight class there were only three entries and Johannes van der Kolf was lucky to draw a bye, which placed him in the final. He beat Art Crawford from Northern Rhodesia to take the gold medal without much trouble. Light-heavyweight Piet van Vuuren won the gold medal in similar fashion when he beat Tony Madigan of Australia in his only fight in the final.
For the first time, South Africa entered boxers in all divisions at the 1958 Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Wales. Henry Loubscher won the light welterweight gold medal when he beat R Kane of Scotland in the final. There were 14 entrants in this division. Jopie Greyling won the welterweight gold medal when he beat the hard-hitting and unorthodox Ugandan T. Kawewe on points.
The captain of the team and one of South Africa's greatest amateurs, Grant Webster, took the light middleweight gold medal. Pretoria policeman Daan Bekker won the heavyweight gold medal after walking through the preliminary rounds and then scoring a convincing win in the final over Briton Dave Thomas.
After an absence of 36 years, because of isolation over the apartheid policies of the government, South Africa once again took part in the Games in 1994, which were held in Victoria, Canada. Unfortunately, for the first time in the history of South Africa’s participation in the Games, the 1994 team of six entrants failed to win a medal.
The 1998 Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with South Africa having six representatives. Flyweight Phumzile Mathyila, bantamweight Silence Mabuza, featherweight Siphiwo Nongqayi and lightweight Elvis Makama had little trouble getting into the quarterfinals.
Middleweight Danie Venter and light welter Isaac Tshuma were the only South Africans who failed to make the final eight. In the quarterfinals, Mathyila edged a nail-biting 16-15 decision over Ghana's Abdulai Amidu. Nongquayi was knocked out in the opening round by Lynch Ipera of Papua New Guinea and Mabuza was the next casualty when he was beaten on points by Malaysian Adnan Yusoh. Elvis Makama went down 13-18 to Giovanni Frontin of Mauritius.
In the semifinal, Mathyila never had a chance against Ireland’s Liam Cunningham, going down 8-21, but as a losing semifinalist he won a bronze medal and became South Africa's first medal winner since 1958.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, the South African boxers won a silver and two bronze medals in their best performance since the country’s return from isolation.
Kwanele Zulu won silver after losing in the welterweight final against Australia’s Daniel Geale. Light heavyweight Danie Venter and flyweight Lubabalo Msuthu were beaten in the semifinals, to be awarded bronze medals. Venter was well beaten by Nigeria’s Jegbefumere Albert and Msutu lost by a wide margin to Lechedzani Luza from Botswana.
The other representatives, Phumzile Matyhila, Kgotso Motau and Ludumo Galada, did better than expected, with Matyhila and Motau losing their second bouts in the competition, while Galada was considered unlucky in losing his third fight 31-30 to Lesotho’s Ezekiel Letuka.
A team of nine boxers represented South Africa at the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Australia. South African only won two medals, but welterweight Bongani Mwelase was in outstanding form as he went on to take the gold medal and flyweight Jackson Chauke won a silver medal.
Mwelase became the first South African to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games since 1958. He won his first three fights inside the distance and in the final he beat Vijender Singh of India on points after putting a standing eight count on him in the third round. Mwelase won 33-26 in a convincing performance.
Flyweight Jackson Chauke won three fights on his way to the final but was well beaten by England’s Don Broadhurst with a score of 37-24 and had to settle for a silver medal. Bantamweight Bongani Mahlangu won his first bout on points but was beaten 34-20 by Akhil Kumar of India in the quarterfinals.
Ashley Dlamini was completely outclassed with a score of 51-33 by Sharif Bogere of Uganda in his first fight in the featherweight division and middleweight Thanduxolo Dyani also lost his first fight when he was stopped in the third round by Herbert Plinio Mabombo of Mozambique.
In the light welterweight class, Goodman Zanempi was eliminated after losing his second fight 27-18 to Mark Hastie of Scotland and middleweight Sivuyile Dingiswayo lost his first fight to Chimwemwe Macfer Chiotcha of Malawi when he was stopped in the third round.
Light heavyweight Tshepang Mohale won his first fight but was eliminated in his second bout by Tony Jeffries of England, who stopped him in the second round. Heavyweight representative Sean Santana was beaten in his first fight by Hanreet Singh of India when the referee called the match off in the fourth round.
The four SA boxers who took part in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October 2010 failed to win a single fight. There were high expectations for Lebogang Pilane (48kg), Papish Baloyi (56kg), Siphiwe Lusizi (69kg) and Masana Manganyi (91kg), all experienced fighters who had won national titles.
Their performance in India came nowhere near the achievements of their predecessors. The results in New Delhi were a huge disappointment. Light-flyweight Lebogang Pilane was beaten 6-4 by Duke Micah from Ghana. Bantamweight Papish Baloyi was pipped 2-1 by Revocatus Shomari of Tanzania. Welterweight Siphiwe Lusizi was knocked out in the third round by Mujandjae Kasuto from Namibia, and heavyweight Masana Manganyi lost 10-2 to Scotland’s Stephen Simmons.
Six boxers were selected to represent South Africa at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 25 July to 2 August 2014 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) Precinct, with the finals in the SSE Hydro.
They were Siyabonga Sonjica (56kg), Thulani Mbenge (69kg), Siphiwe Lusizi (75kg), Luvuyo Sizani (81kg) and Pathiswa Thingana (75kg), the first woman representative.
Glasgow 2014 was the first time that women’s boxing was included on the sport programme at a Commonwealth Games. Female athletes would compete in the flyweight, lightweight and middleweight categories. Medals would be fought for over four rounds of two minutes. Female boxers would still wear head guards.
Male athletes in 10 weight categories fought for a medal over three rounds in a “knockout” bout format across eight days of competition and were fighting without headgear in accordance with a rule change made by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) in 2013. The bouts would be over three three-minute rounds.
South Africa’s boxers performed better at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow than their predecessors had done in India in 2010.
The team of six won only one medal, a bronze, but four of them went beyond the first series of fights – four more than in New Delhi, where all South Africans were eliminated in their opening bouts.
Welterweight Thulani Mbenge won three fights in Scotland before dropping out in the semifinals. He lost to Scott Fitzgerald of England but received a bronze medal.
In his first three fights, he beat Eon Bancroft of Guyana, Henry Tyrell of Samoa and Kenya’s Rayton Okwiriall all on 3-0 decisions.
Bantamweight Siyabonga Sonjica won his first fight against Manju Wanniarachchi of Sri Lanka but lost on a controversial 2-1 decision to Sean McGoldrick of Wales in his second bout.
Middleweight Simphiwe Lusizi stopped Imrod Barthholomew of Grenada and won 3-0 against New Zealander Eric Finau before being eliminated 3-0 by Connor Coyle of Northern Ireland.
Super-heavyweight Paul Schafer won his first fight when he beat Samoa’s Paddy Leuii 3-0. But he was eliminated in the second series when his fight against Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba was stopped in the second round because of a cut that made it impossible for the South African to continue.
Light-heavyweight Luvuyo Sizani lost in his first fight to New Zealand’s David Nyikam, who won 2-1.
In the women’s division, South Africa’s Phathiswa Thingana was eliminated in her first fight; beaten by Canadian Ariane Fortin in the middleweight class.