The hair and beard have gone grey, but his massive left hand still looks like it could pack a ferocious punch. Indeed, when Elijah Makhathini gives rowdy patrons a stern look, they know better than to argue with the boss.
Popularly known as “Tap Tap”, the former SA super-middleweight champion is in good form, running a general shop and liquor store at Habeni, just outside Eshowe, on the North Coast.
“When I retired, I had already started building this shop,” Makhathini beamed proudly when the Sunday Tribune caught up with him this week.
The pride of Stanger also has two wives and 18 children.
“What can I say, I am a Zulu man and proud of it. My children have grown up well and some are working in Gauteng, while most of them are all over KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
Makhathini’s shop walls proudly display various pictures of him with his Old Buck Belts, a throwback to the 1970s, when he was regarded as one of the country’s finest and most courageous boxers.
“Those were the days, hey. I am glad that I retired when I did, because I can still talk and remember all of my fights properly,” he said, referring to the warriors who go on for too long and pay the price later in life.
“This sport, you have to fear it, but also be fearless,” he said, reliving his glory days.
Makhathini was born in Stanger, nearly 69 years ago.
“My grandpa used to sit in the yard, telling us how boxers in his time used to tie a bag to a tree and then stuff it with old corn cobs to train.”
And so, at 13, Makhathini tied his own bag to a tree, before throwing the first tentative “taps” at the bag.
And the story behind his nickname: “I was working on the railways in my first proper job and my role was to measure out the distances where we had to lay down the rails.”
On weekends, the workers used to relax and sport was central to their entertainment. There was gambling and football, and, of course, boxing.
“I had already turned professional and was going to fight in a match. One of my colleagues asked me how I was going to win the fight,” he said.
Stick
“So I drew the ring on the ground with my stick and I tapped down on the spot where I would knock the opponent out.”
When Makhathini entered the ring for that fight, the same colleague was sitting at the ring-side and he chirped: “Hey, don’t forget the tap tap!”
From then on, the name grew to become a legend, especially in black sporting history in South Africa.
At his peak, Makhathini was a formidable foe and proved too good for Americans, Billy Douglas and Willie Warren (twice) in 1974.
When he knocked out Jan Kies in 1976, he became the first national (black and white) middleweight champion.
The victory was especially poignant for Makhathini.
“We had never been allowed to fight white boxers before, so to be given the chance to fight – and beat – Kies, I felt like a real hero to my people.”
Makhathini had sequels with a few of his rivals, including Doug Lumley, who had the better of him twice.
“I knocked him out twice in the first fight, so I never understood how I lost,” he said.
Makhathini had already endured 67 amateur bouts before turning pro in 1971.
“I knew I was ready, so I had nothing to fear in the ring. I was a man, and I was always prepared to take a punch.”
And he could certainly give them, too.
“This was the finisher,” he cheekily reflected, as he nudged his left fist dangerously close to my face.
The legendary leftie bemoans the modern trend of rushing promising boxers to the paid ranks.
“Why?” he challenged. “What does a guy with 10 fights know about himself or about boxing? They are breaking these boys and it is sad to see.”
He also lamented the lack of a functioning KZN amateur body, because this was the lifeblood of the sport in his heyday.
“There were always fights, at Curries Fountain, in Stanger, all over. But now they see a bit of promise and they think the boys are ready for the next level.”
Makhathini holds higher regard for the Eastern Cape.
“They seem to have their house in order and most of our good fighters are coming out of there,” he said.
Makhathini resigned from his job on the railway lines in 1974 and opened up his first shop in Stanger.
“It was hard to train properly and have a job, but because I was my own boss in the shop, I could train twice a day,” he said.
Makhathini had numerous wars in the ring, but one of his favourite tales involved the Charlie Weir bout of 1979.
“Weir was supposed to fight someone from overseas, but the guy got injured the week before the fight,” he said.
By then, Weir’s promoters had already sold out the venue and were loath to cancel.
“The fight was on a Wednesday and my promoter came to me on the Friday before to offer the fight to me. Even though I wasn’t scheduled to fight, I always kept in good condition,” Makhathini said proudly.
He asked how much was on the table and his manager told him R10 000, which was a larger fee than he was accustomed to as a black man.
The going rate for him then fluctuated between R3 000 and R8 000. It is a far cry from today’s multimillion-rand purses.
“They actually short-changed me, because they were going to pay the overseas fighter R40 000,” he lamented.
“That was the way things were in those days, but I decided to take the fight. It was still good money, after all.”
Makhathini knocked Weir out in three rounds, taking great pride in his tactics.
“I was usually a slow starter, because I would sometimes let the other guy punch himself out,” he said.
The same tactic, sometimes referred to as the “rope-a-dope”, was used successfully by Muhammad Ali against George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle”, he said.
Makhathini still takes great pride in the fact that he was never knocked out in 16 years as a professional.
And he also laid claim to popularising the trend of having an entourage for his ring entrance. “I see the boys doing it now, but I started that in this country.”
Makhathini had done it on a smaller scale against an overseas opponent, but he really rallied the troops for his national title fight against Daniel Mapanya in 1978.
“He was being spoken of as my successor, but he hadn’t even beat me. So I took it upon myself to teach him a lesson.”
Taking a leaf out of history, Makhathini was accompanied to the ring by a mini army, all dressed in Zulu regalia.
“If you know your history, you will remember that Shaka had an entourage with him when he went to reclaim cows from the madman who kept stealing them from the tribe,” he explained.
Just as Shaka brought back the cows, Makhathini duly delivered, with a seventh round knockout.
Although his 69th birthday is coming up next month, Makhathini says there is still plenty of life in his bones.
“I always tell people to come here, so we can share a drink and some stories.”
And if, like this scribe, you get lost on your way to Habeni, the locals will point you in the right direction.
They are all familiar with the colourful road that leads to the “Tap Tap”.