DA Paper Trail Puts Spotlight Back On City's Disputed R2.2m Boxing Deal

More three years after a leading boxing promotions agency demanded payment from the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality for a multimillion-rand sponsorship agreement, the company claims it has yet to receive a cent.

Instead, the council and Xaba Boxing Promotions remain locked in a legal battle over the disputed "partly oral" 2023 agreement to host a Heritage Day boxing tournament in KuGompo City.

The city also wants the default judgement, which led to the seizure of municipal vehicles earlier this year after the BCMM did not oppose an application, rescinded.

Ayanda Matiti, owner of XBP, claims to have entered into a “partly oral and partly written agreement” with the Metro, represented by executive mayor Princess Faku.

Matiti, a former Eastern Cape Youth League leader and now President of Social Democratic Movement, allegedly agreed to host his annual traditional National Heritage Day celebrations through his Annual Heritage Boxing Celebration in Buffalo City.

He claims that he initially wanted to host the event in Mpumalanga but representatives from the BCMM convinced him not to.

In his affidavit deposed at the KuGompo City High Court, Matiti said the celebrations were supported by organisations such as the SABC and SuperSport.

"This attracted the attention of the applicant who also wanted to participate in the celebration. The applicant (BCMM) saw the celebration as a vehicle that it can use to promote local tourism within its jurisdiction through the respondent’s advertising contract with SuperSport,” Matiti said.

BCMM was in turn to pay R2.2 million for the services to Xaba Boxing Promotions. This was in 2023.

The matter was brought to the attention of The Coastal through the discovery of letters written by BCMM DA whip, Anathi Majeke. She had written letters to BCMM council Speaker, Humphrey Maxegwana and municipal manager, Mxolisi Yawa demanding answers regarding the attachment of nineteen service delivery vehicles.

Majeke started writing to Maxegwana and Yawa as far back as January requesting answers how an oral agreement can be reached for a R2.2 million sponsorship without a written agreement or a competitive bidding process as contemplated in the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

“In light of the separation of powers mandated by the MFMA, on what legal authority did the Executive Mayor provide direct instructions to ‘arrange and finalise’ a commercial sponsorship?”

Majeke said she had not had an opportunity to have her questions tabled and answered in council, while councillors' questions, sent after hers to the Speakers Office, had been attended to in council.

"I submitted a formal Notice of Question on 20 January 2026. Council Speaker responded on 26 January 2026, declining to table or discuss the matter on the grounds that it was sub judice.

"On 27 January 2026, I pushed back, arguing that pending court proceedings do not override Council’s duty to investigate internal administrative misconduct and MFMA violations.

"By law, questions submitted by councillors must be tabled and responded to at the next council meeting.

"Yet, since January, the Speaker has continuously deflected. The DA escalated the matter to parliament,” Majeke said.

In his affidavit, Matiti said the Metropolitan Municipality approached his company to bring the celebration to Buffalo City. At that stage the plan was to host the event in Mpumalanga.

He said the problem with the current arrangement was that the applicant wanted to use the event for their purposes which they did but are now refusing to pay for services provided.

"The applicant seeks, among other things, an order directing the return of the movable property attached and removed pursuant to the impugned order. The immediate problem with this relief is that the applicant seeks to gain fruits of spoliation through a back door.

"The applicant was properly notified of the matter. It chose not to defend these litigations. When the application for judgement by default was made, the applicant was notified. Again, the applicant elected not to oppose default judgement application nor file an appearance to defend. The applicant was notified through Notices of Set Down dated 17 October 2025 and 6 November 2025,” he said.

"On or about September 20, 2023 BCMM requested our client to submit an invoice of R1.7m, though questioned but submitted on or about 21st September 2023. The event was flighted on SuperSport on October 1, 2023 and all the marketing and brand visibility due to BCMM was executed by our Client as per agreement. As a result, our client has suffered damages in the amount of R1.7m and exceeding,” legal representative Akhona Mafani wrote.

Responding to questions on Matiti and his company’s behalf, Mafani said a letter of demand was written to the municipality which was served on October 17, 2023 by the sheriff of the court. Two years later on August 27, 2025 – after the municipality allegedly failed to respond – summons were served to BCMM.

“To date, our Client has not been paid a single cent for the benefit afforded to the Metro which was willingly accepted by the Metro. In their Court papers (Founding Affidavit for the Rescission Application) the Metro gives various reasons which span from claiming the illegality of the agreement to stating that a decision was taken not to entertain any sponsorship agreement with our Client,” Mafani said.

He said their client is a privately owned company whose financial operational requirements, especially for tournaments such as the one in question, are wholly dependent on the client. Such tournaments are expensive and often need financial assistance in order to make them possible and commercially viable.

“Our Client in turn uses the platform it has with SuperSport in order to get into marketing deals and/or partnerships in order to claw back on the exorbitant expenses of putting together a tournament of the nature of the one in question.

"The non-payment by the Metro meant that our Client had to repay loans made as advances for the tournament out of pocket which put our Client into financial ruin since and to date.”

Mafani said Matiti had been speaking to other possible partners who wished to have the tournament in their provinces as a condition to supporting it. However, he said, Matiti was persuaded by the agreement with the metro to host in KuGompo City. “The matter is still ongoing, though the Metro as the dominus litis (master of the lawsuit) has not done anything to progress the matter forward since filing their Replying Affidavit on the 18th of March 2026, and we will now take steps to ensure that the matter is finally served before a Judge for arguments and judgment,” Mafani said.

Buffalo City Metro spokesperson, Bongani Fuzile, had not responded to questions sent on Wednesday (October 14) despite promising to “check with the legal unit and revert”.