South African sport has suffered another blow with the news that a female professional boxer Phindile Mwelase has died after failing to emerge from a two-week coma.
Mwelase, a light-welterweight, fell into the coma after a defeat by knockout to Liz Butler in a fight on 10 October in Pretoria.
The country’s ministry for sport announced on Tuesday that Mwelase had died at the Steve Biko academic hospital in Pretoria on Saturday and called it “a very difficult week” for South African sport.
Boxing South Africa, the national federation, announced Mwelase’s funeral would be held on Saturday in her home town of Ladysmith, in the eastern Kwazulu-Natal province, and said it “grieves at the passing of a wonderful and tremendous individual”.
It is the third death for a South Africa sportsperson in less than four days after the runner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was killed in a car crash on Friday and the national goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was murdered by robbers at his girlfriend’s home on Sunday night, which resulted in widespread anger as well as tributes from South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma.
