Sipho “Delta” Mukhithi’s boxing career is on hold after he sustained injuries in a vehicle accident on the N1 outside Polokwane in April.

Mukhithi told Limpopo Mirror that the accident happened when he was going back to Gauteng for training. According to him, the taxi overturned and there were fatalities. “I sustained a leg fracture and also broke my hand. I am very happy that I survived the incident. I spent a month in the Polokwane Provincial Hospital and another month at the Tshilidzini Hospital.

He added that the accident disturbed him so much and “I don’t think I will go back to the ring again. I’m also failing to accept my situation. Nobody from the boxing association visited me in hospital. Boxing was my life, and I was feeding my family through it,” said Mukhithi.

In 2003, Mukhithi knocked out Ntshengedzeni Netshivhera in the third round to win the vacant provincial middleweight championship. “My participation and love of boxing started in 1993 when we were playing with boxing gloves with other classmates at Ligege Secondary School at Duthuni. I realised that I was better than my peers. I then joined the Venda Amateur Boxing Association and turned professional in 2000. My dream was to see myself becoming a world champion, and now it is shattered,” he said.