Good Morning Angels: Jan Mathole’s 'Mabetha Boxing Club' dream finally comes true after 30 years

BACKGROUND: Jan “Mabetha” Mothole is passionate about boxing and children. He has been training young boxers, on his own steam, from his home in Mamelodi East, for the past 30 years. Jan not only teaches his athletes about jabs, blocks, knocks and footwork in the ring, but his approach is also to train young minds to be fit, focused, confident problem solvers. His boxers know “fists are for the ring, outside we use our mouths.” 

Jan operates the boxing club from home, in his spare time and with his own money - but this does not mean he is less of a coach than full-time coaches. One of Jan’s boxers, Elvis Makama, represented South Africa at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996! In fact, he was the boxing captain.

Jan has received support over the years from various players in the boxing fraternity and also his day-job employers. Instead of a garden, Jan has a full-sized boxing ring and a pavilion in his front yard. The boxing ring was a donation, the pavilion he built from donated steel, the gloves boxing kit and other equipment are all donations - which he locks away in his house after use.

Jan’s biggest dream is to have all of this in a proper boxing gym, that can be used by the Mamelodi and broader Tshwane community children. He believes that the proper structure would yield better results in the ring as well as in the classroom.

Jan has registered the Mabetha Boxing Club NPO, he has secured land from the Tshwane City Council, he’s had building plans drawn up, a logo designed. He just needs to clear the final cash hurdle, to make his Mabetha Boxing Club Dream a reality. And for this, he turned to Good Morning Angels

REQUEST FOR: Jan “Mabetha” Mathole and the Mabetha Boxing Club 

REQUEST FROM: Samantha Kruger and Herman van Schalkwyk from Spoor and Fisher 

ANGEL 1: Wendy Robertson, General Manager of EastPoint Shopping 

SPONSORING: East Point Shopping Centre and its owners, SA Corporate Real Estate will invest in Jan Mathole’s dream and vision for a community boxing gym in Mamelodi, by donating the R100 000,00 needed to build the Mabetha Boxing Club Gym building!  

ANGEL 2: The Good Morning Angels Fund NPC  

SPONSORING: The GMA Fund will donate R20 000,00 towards the Mabetha Boxing Club NPO for assistance with the transport of young boxers to and from their boxing tournaments.

ORIGINAL REQUEST: 

Good Morning,

The reason for my message is to assist a guy by the name of Jan Mabetha. He is the founder and owner of 'Mabetha Boxing Club' in Mamelodi East.  He is in urgent need of a training facility, boxing kits and a place to keep their equipment safe.   For some kids this is a sanctuary to stay off the streets.  He has some talented kids training with him and all they need is some help to get them to where they need to be.  Please see attached letter from Jan Mabetha. 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Samantha Gage Kruger