“Do not judge me by my lipstick ...”

During her primary school years, Dikeledi Mbedzi loved boxing so much that she would sneak in at the house in Makwarela where former world boxing champion Phillip Ndou used to train.

At the time, women were not allowed to box, but she would not go home without punching the training punch bags. The passion faded and she trained as a nurse and is today a professional nurse at one of the local clinics in Thohoyandou.

Mbed­zi (32) of Makwarela participated in a fun walk organized by King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana, Phalaphala FM and the royal gardens at Nandoni as part of Heritage month celebrations. 
She completed the fun walk that was led by the king and other senior political and traditional leaders. The fun walk ended with a musangwe tournament

“I did not know that women were allowed to fight, but an announcement was made that women could take part. I saw these two women fighting and could see that they could not beat me. I whispered that they could not beat me and a woman next to me told me that she could beat the hell out of me!”

After the fight stopped, the woman challenged her and Mbedzi “beat her without any effort. I know myself. I am very powerful and could also fight against men,” she said. She said after the fight she had received many offers from promoters who wanted to give her an opportunity in the ring.
She added that she was still considering offers, but “with my profession, on the other hand, I could not make a fast decision as I need advice on how the two could work together.” 
She said that other women must not judge a book by its cover. 

“Do not judge me by my lipstick. I have a thing or two that I can do in boxing,” said the confident Mbedzi

Date:23 September 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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