The Mandela Cup has been scheduled for October 9 to 14 at the Durban International Convention Centre, with an IBA Board of Directors meeting planned during the competition and the African Boxing Confederation (AFBC) on October 13.

Cameroon's Bertrand Mendouga was forced out as AFBC President last month only one year after being elected, following several problems at the AFBC African Boxing Championships in Cameroon's capital Yaoundé.

Nigeria's Azania Omo-Agege is serving as Interim President, and a full list of candidates is to be announced following "rigorous integrity checks", it is promised.

The Mandela Cup is set to feature competition in 13 men's and 12 women's weight categories, and has received backing from the Thembekile Mandela Foundation, founded by Nelson Mandela's granddaughter Ndileka Mandela, the organisation's chief executive.

Nelson Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa widely admired around the world.

He served 27 years in prison in his fight for racial equality before being released under mounting pressure on the apartheid regime in 1990.

Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and was elected as South Africa's first black President in 1994, remaining in office until 1999.

He died in 2013 aged 95.

As a youngster, Mandela was a keen amateur boxer, although there is no record of him fighting competitively.

Explaining his long-standing passion for boxing in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom Mandela revealed he respected the discipline and practice of the sport.

"I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it," he wrote. 

"I was intrigued by how one moved one’s body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat, how one paced oneself over a match."

IBA President Umar Kremlev underlined the significance of naming the tournament in Mandela's honour.

"We are immensely proud to be launching the African Boxing Cup named in honour of Nelson Mandela, a man who symbolised the indomitable human spirit and the fight for freedom and equality," the Russian official said.

"Mandela was very closely linked to boxing; despite he had never fought.

"This emphasises the core values of our sport.

"It doesn’t matter whether you just practice boxing or fight at the elite level, boxing gives you all it has."

Ndileka Mandela emphasised the importance of boxing to her grandfather.

"One of the things grandad spoke about with regards to boxing was, more than the sports itself, it taught him a strategy as both to attack and retreat, how one paced oneself over a match, and ones need to gauge the opponent’s move before striking," she said.

The IBA's 50 members in Africa have all so far remained loyal to the governing body despite its expulsion from the Olympic Movement and the formation of a breakaway World Boxing by officials disgruntled at the sport's direction under Kremlev.

The IBA has claimed its future outside of the Olympics lies in developing its competitions and "pro-style boxing".

Despite the governance issues and the sport being left off the initial programme, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed boxing will be at Los Angeles 2028.