By Ron Jackson

One of South Africa’s top boxing officials and fighters Alfred Buqwana died on Tuesday, He Was 79.

Many boxing fans remember Alfred Buqwana as an excellent referee and judge, but it could be forgotten that he had an outstanding professional career as a featherweight from 1962 to 1975.

Born on 12 October 1941 in the then then Orange Free State he won titles in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions as an amateur.

Known as “Kid Bassie” he made his professional debut on his 20th birthday at the historic Bantu Men’s Social Centre in Eloff Street Extension in Johannesburg, winning on points over four rounds against Wilbert Sithole.

He was a busy fighter, competing mainly at featherweight, losing only four of his next 22 fights at venues in Soweto, Durban, Pretoria, Springs, Benoni, and Port Elizabeth.

On 28 September 1968 he met Victor Tshabalala for the vacant Transvaal featherweight title at the Sharpeville Stadium in Vereeniging, winning on points over ten rounds.

The Transvaal title was quite prestigious at the time, and he made successful defences against Tshabalala in a return match, Absalom Gule (ko 10), Andries Moloi (w 10), and Caswell Juqula (pts 10), before losing the title to Solomon Ramafikeng on points over 10 rounds on 4 April 1970 at the D.H. Williams Hall in Katlehong.

He remained unbeaten in his next four fights before regaining the Transvaal featherweight title on 20 February 1971 with 10 round points win over Andries Moloi in a clash for the vacant title.

In his next fight he was outpointed over eight rounds by of the legends of the South African ring Nkosana “Happy Boy” Mgxaji,, and then in August 1971 he once again lost the Transvaal title when Meschack Mncube outpointed him over ten rounds.

On 1 December 1973 he challenged Mgxaji for the South African junior lightweight title at the Mdantsane Stadium in East London and lost on points over 12 rounds.

Mgxaji would go on to become one of the great fighters in South African boxing in a 101fight career.

After this loss, his career began to slow down, in fights against Victor Mpiyakhe (W 6), Joseph Tsotetsi (D 6), Reggie Hilmer (W 6), Tsietsie Maretloane (L 6) and, in his last fight on 30 August 1975 at the Jabulani Amphitheatre in Soweto, he won on points over four rounds against Louis Mbokazi to finish with a record of 44-14-11: 3, losing only two fights inside the distance.

He was trained by Theo Mthembu at the famous Dube Boyz Club.

After retiring from the ring, he became a ring official and acted as a judge and referee in the region of 200 fights.

The highlight of his career was when he was one of the judges at the IBF/WBC/IBO heavyweight championship fight on 8 June 2002 between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee.

Alfred received the President Thabo Mbeki’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was also honoured by the Gauteng Provincial Boxing Control Commission in 1999.

I have known Alfred for many years and always admired this slim and trim referee’s movement around the ring and will miss our many chats at tournaments.