MANDELA CUP CHANGED MY LIFE, SAYS LESOTHO BOXER
Lesotho’s Retselisitsoe Kolobe now owns a taxi cab and will soon be living in his own house.
The gold medal he won in the 2024 inaugural Mandela African Boxing Cup tournament in Durban, South Africa, has transformed his life beyond his normal expectations.
He outpointed Botswana’s Kobamelo Molathegi in the final minimumweight bout to pocket $5000 prize money from the International Boxing Association (IBA). The organisation staged the tournament in conjunction with the Africa Boxing Confederation and the South Africa National Boxing Organisation.
“The prize money helped me a lot, I now have a taxi cab and building my own two-bedroomed house in a place called Ha Pita,” says the 24-year-old Kolobe who made his international debut in 2022.
While Kolobe is delighted he owns a taxi, he says at times it interferes with his training schedule.
“It’s a challenge to me now because when the training time comes I’m supposed to be transporting my clients so I cancel the gym work.”
Construction work on his personal house is still in progress.
“I’m very happy I’ll be sleeping in my own house, I thank the IBA so much for the prize money in Durban. I can’t believe that I’m now doing taxi cab business.”
Kolobe is a member of LP Boxing Club, and he started boxing in 2016.
“One of my village friends encouraged me to venture into boxing,” recalls the entrepreneur whose burning ambition is to become a world champion.
Kolobe’s gold in Durban enabled Lesotho to finish fifth overall and the second-best placed Southern African nation behind Mozambique. The country floored other top Zone 4 boxing nations such as South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.
