WeeklySA_AdminDECORATED: South Africa’s crème de la crème of boxing show up to give final salute to fellow legend…
By Jacob Mawela
A throng of members of South Africa’s fistiana fraternity yesterday bid farewell to their departed fellow pugilist Dingaan “The Rose of Soweto” Thobela, along with his family, business associates, community and friends from far and wide.
Thobela’s Special Provincial Official Funeral Service at the Dlamini Multipurpose Centre, bringing together the who’s-who of the country’s boxing community ranging from prominent administrator, Dr Peter Ngatane and Thobela’s career-long trainer Norman Hlabane to legends Brian Mitchell, Gregory Clark, Jan “Kid Gavilan” Bergman, Quinton Ryan, Daniel Ward, Ditau Molefyane, Welcome “The Hawk” Ncita, Nika “The Sting” Khumalo, Cassius Baloyi, Job “Slashing Tiger” Sithebe, Peter Malinga, Khaya Busakwe, among others.
The late erstwhile prize-fighter’s family, father, Godfrey, mother, Maina Mahlangu, nine siblings and children, Dingaan Thobela Junior and Ntombi, were present resplendently dressed in black and red complemented by symbolic red roses. There too was Thobela’s friend of 42 years, Eddie Mutungutungu, as well as associates in the funeral undertakers’ sector. As was the Gauteng Sport, Arts and Recreation MEC Morakane Mosupyoe, songstress Khanyo Maphumulo.
In keeping with the official status of the burial, proceedings were overseen by a South African Police Services corps deployed to perform ceremonial protocols, which also involved draping the casket with the South African flag and escorting the cortege to Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg.
A sight to behold was the fleet of hearses festooned with images of Thobela on the side window screens – a fitting tribute to the sporting icon in his last journey.
Sombre as always such occasions routinely are, instead Thobela’s bustled with bonhomie – courtesy of a programme clearly intended to celebrate a national hero! At the front of the hall’s elevated podium, a white casket sported an Old Buck champion belt and a pair of boxing gloves on top of it
Whilst two TV screens located on the flanks flashed with Thobela’s flashback montages hobnobbing with the sport’s legendary celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Don King and other luminaries. On the side lines, familiar artist Labani Sirenje quietly toiled away, adding life to departed legend through a canvas portrait.
Conducting the ceremony’s programme with ease, radio present Thabo Mosia summoned onto the stage a plethora of speakers who included Mutungutungu, who reminisced over the halcyon days together childhood friend Thobela of hustling (including staging bioscope shows for the community’s children). He described his departed pal as “stout” (naughty in Afrikaans) and recalled how Dingaan’s dad would not tolerate the duo arriving home in tears from street brawls, remonstrating with them to fight back instead!
Another speaker, Ndivhuo Nemugumoni, read a tribute on behalf of Thobela’s parents which partly went thus: “This is a very painful experience considering that your passing was so sudden. We are left with so many questions and unspoken words. You were ‘The Rose of Soweto’ (to the world out there), but to us, you were an ambitious and humble boy. We called you our son, but you were raised and loved by so many people.
When I Godfrey your father discovered your talent and decided to send you to Bab’ Hlabane, we did not think you would be a three-time world champion,” adding how he was able to introduce and show them the ropes around running a funeral undertaking business.
In his tribute, Thobela Jr, a professional soccer player with Highlands Park FC, intoned: “As Dingaan Thobela, he was a father, as a ‘Rose of Soweto’, he was a hero. To his fans, supporters and boxing fraternity – thank you for shaping him!”
Representing the Gauteng provincial government, Mosupyoe described Thobela as having been an ordinary child raised by a Tshiawelo working class family, a boxer who – whenever he fought – rendered the whole of South Africa to standstill!
Another Tshiawelo homeboy, Terry Mokoena of ama-Grootman social movement, presented a huge canvas of the boxer to Hlabane to display it at his boxing club to the current crop of aspiring pugilists.
From the heights of being a peoples’ darling to the low of succumbing from undisclosed causes alone in his Mayfair apartment on April 29, the rumour mill posited that Thobela, who once owned a funeral parlour, was a pauper at the time of his lonely end – a narrative the Sowetan’s authoritative scribe, Bongani Magasela, who knew him better than most, dismissed forthright, whilst pointing out that he owned numerous flats and a farm.
Described as one of the most naturally talented boxers in the world, Thobela took the boxing world by storm when he won the WBO lightweight title in 1990 and followed up by capturing the WBA version of the title by defeating American, Tony “Tiger” Lopez in 1993. He later went on to become a three-time world champion when he claimed the WBC super-middleweight title against Glen Catley. His professional record read 56 fights; 40 wins and 14 losses.
Before following his heart and becoming an unbelievably phenomenal boxer, Thobela had qualified to become a teacher at the Soweto Teachers College where, among illustrious others, his classmates were Ntsie Maphike, who was to claim his own sporting fame as a defender for Kaizer Chiefs FC.
He is survived by his parents, his nine siblings, 14 children and nine grandchildren.
