Times Of Swaziland: FEMALE BOXER STABBED TO DEATH! FEMALE BOXER STABBED TO DEATH! ================================================================================ BY CHRIS DLAMINI on 02/01/2018 08:43:00 MBABANE – A really bad year 2017 was for the country’s boxing. Just when they were still mourning the death of then unbeaten national champ Thanda Mkhatjwa, who was laid to rest recently, tragedy struck boxing once again over the weekend. This time, a female boxer, Delisile Msibi, from Malkerns Boxing Club founded by Zakhele Zulu, was stabbed repeatedly, resulting in her death. The incident is said to have taken place at Malkerns, Mangozeni area on Saturday night. Information from close sources was that she was allegedly stabbed several times by her boyfriend. “She was stabbed eight times, we hear but only the police can verify that. It’s really sad, shattering and shocking for us because we’re still trying to adapt to Thanda’s death. She was the future of female boxing in the country and this comes at a time when 2018 was the year we wanted to focus on women boxing,” said Swaziland Boxing Association President Pearl Dlamini when reached about the matter yesterday. Continuing, she said; “We don’t know if the boyfriend who stabbed her ruthlessly did it because of fear she was a boxer or it was the only way out. We trust in the law, otherwise we send our condolences to her family, boxers, sports in general and friends,” she said. Dlamini also confirmed that Msibi was a bright prospect for women boxing in the country who had also played in the past year’s National Championships. “She’s among those several few from Malkerns trained by Delisile Kunene but now that she’s gone, it’s a huge loss for us and sport in the country,” she said. However, Dlamini said they had not established the cause of the murder yet and referred questions to the police. It was also established that friends and boxing colleagues at Malkerns ganged up to go and protest at the Malkerns Police Station, demanding the arrest of the assailant as he was known. However, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Khulani Mamba confirmed there had been no arrest made by lunchtime yesterday. “Police are investigating the murder that happened at Malkerns and at the moment we can’t confirm how many times she was stabbed,” Mamba said. Efforts to get a comment from women boxing Coach Delisile Kunene proved futile but she had earlier confirmed they were at the police station to protest the non-arrest of the suspected assailant. Zakhele Zulu, founder of the Malkerns Boxing Club, said they were at a loss for words with the sad demise of the female boxer. “We are at a loss for words to say anything. As a club, we have heard the shocking news of the untimely demise of our active boxer/athlete. At this juncture, we humbly convey our deepest sympathies and condolences to her family, the boxing fraternity and the sports family at large. We have also observed that the sport of boxing has been hard hit in the past year through losing their notable sportswomen or sportsman. We will meet as a club to further engage the mother body (SWABA) for the purposes of extending our condolences to the family of Deli Msibi,” Zulu said. He added: “As a club, sifake ingubo emlonyeni as Malkerns Boxing was a force to be reckoned with on the development of women boxers and in the field play. Deli was very instrumental through the mentorship of Deli Kunene, who is her Coach.”