At a KwaZulu Natal Athletics KZNA (Board meeting) on 25 July, a decision was made to bar non-KwaZulu Natal residents from being Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Members.
The meeting seems to have had only this item on the agenda and the discussion, in what appears to be a flagrant conflict of interest, was driven by KZNA President and Comrades Board member Steve Mkasi. The other main contributors to the discussion were Deputy KZNA President Mandla Mngomezulu and KZNA Board Member Vusumuzi Dlamini.
From the lengthy meeting transcript of the 90-minute meeting which was provided by a concerned KZNA member, it appears that former Comrades Chairperson Cheryl Winn was invited to provide some context on CMA Memberships and was then asked to leave.
Athletics South Africa (ASA) Road Running Technical Chairperson, Sipho Shawe, was also invited to provide input. Shawe referred to Rule 5 (“The Eligible Athlete”) and Rule 10.1 (“The Eligible Athletics Club”) when he was given the floor. It is unclear how these relate to membership of the CMA as the CMA is neither a club nor are its members ‘athletes’ as defined within the ASA rulebook. From the transcript, it is also unclear whether Shawe supports the KZNA decision or not. Following his input he was also asked to leave. Shawe referred my queries to KZNA and ASA.
After some discussion Mkasi is recorded as saying, “And is there any different view Does that mean this decision is by unanimous consent?”
This resulted in a bit more discussion. In what appears to be a reference to the currently embattled Comrades Board, Mkasi said, “They are facing a serious problem that they have an influence. You would have seen on social media people calling for other people to join and they want to come to KZN and change the board of CMA and install other people. But I did not want to mention all of that. I don’t want to influence your views.”
There was no mention of the fact that the social media furore was over the maladministration caused by seemingly irrational and illogical decisions as well as controversies like Vanillagate which originate from the Comrades Board that Mkasi is part of.
At the 2024 event, just 20% of the Comrades field was from KZN whilst Gauteng had the largest number of entrants with 45%. No one in the meeting seems to have raised an objection to the decision to ban individuals from other provinces from becoming CMA members. Some comments verged on paranoia about Board meetings moving to Gauteng and other penophobia*.
* provincial xenophobia
At some point in the meeting a comparison was made to Two Oceans but the comments and statements made by Mkasi do not appear to be factually correct. Two Oceans allows any runner with a blue number in the half or ultra marathon to become a voting member regardless of the province or country in which they reside.
It is unclear whether this decision is legal or enforceable. The edict certainly appears to be in contravention of current convention, protocol and the Comrades constitution which reads, “The Board shall have a right to make a ruling on the application for ordinary membership of the CMA, provided that such a ruling is not based on religious or political belief, gender, nationality, ethnicity or race. The policy shall be to accept applications unless there is good reason not to do so.”
Whilst there were several references to the ASA constitution in the discussion, the CMA constitution seems to have escaped discussion. Since its inception in 1981, there has been no geographical restriction on membership of CMA.
The rationale for the change appears to be that KZNA views Comrades like a running club and are applying the highly controversial domicilium rule to CMA membership (which states that an athlete can only run for a club that is in the province in which they reside). However, the CMA is not a running club (and never has been) and is not made up of athletes but of members, only some of whom may be current athletes affiliated with provincial clubs.
Another major topic of discussion (and justification) for the change is that KZNA would lack jurisdiction over out-of-province CMA-members. Mandla Mngomezulu was recorded as saying, “How do we have control of taking a punishment or proceedings against any cheater of Comrades Marathon if that person falls outside of our jurisdiction? So the issue here is that should Comrades continue with the practice of accepting members which are outside of KwaZulu Natal or even ASA jurisdiction for that matter. We will always have a problem because as KwaZulu Natal Athletics, Comrades must be answerable to us. When their member, who may be coming from a different province or different country, breaches the rules of athletics, putting athletics into disrepute, we have no control whatsoever as a federation to that member, because that member falls outside of KwaZulu Natal jurisdiction … So with that alone, I am of the view that it is prudent that the members of Comrades Marathon Association should be limited to the domicile where the event is, so that the province of KwaZulu Natal will have a proper control in the event.*”
* Very minor edits were made to the original transcript for readability.
However, there would appear to be no such similar concern about KZNA’s complete lack of jurisdiction over several hundred KZN-based CMA members who come from the Community Marshals Portfolio. This group, rumoured to comprise 40-50% of the CMA Membership base, are neither licensed athletes nor members of KZNA-affiliated clubs. These CMA members are paid for in bulk and there is a large amount of evidence that they are bussed to the AGM and their votes used to secure the positions of four specific Board members.
The only piece of good news for the out-of-province Comrades enthusiast is that existing CMA memberships are not effected by this unilateral KZNA decree. However, how the R100 CMA membership fee would be refunded to those facing membership rejection (or whether refunds would be provided at all) was not discussed in the meeting.
In light of the upcoming Comrades Special General Meeting, the timing of the KZNA Special Executive Board Meeting and rushed decision appears to be devious. The KZNA resolution to ban CMA memberships from other parts of the country can only be interpreted as a desperate attempt to protect a badly compromised Comrades Board. It is understood that there are about 900 pending CMA memberships, and a significant proportion of these are from Comrades runners all around South Africa.
Approval of new CMA memberships is on the agenda at the next Comrades Board meeting scheduled for 31 July. Whether the uncompromised members of the Board will show some principle, ethics and backbone remains to be seen.
As this is an item of public interest, I am happy to provide the full meeting transcript to anyone on request. Quotes used in the article are unedited and include errors from the voice to text software transcription.
Header photo courtesy CMA.
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Unbelievable! Definitely a conflict of interest here ! Maybe time to form a breakaway group & start afresh with people wanting to run with others managing without self interest thereby moving away from the politics! Sad day if this KZNA has its way. Surely there is a legal objection to this ?
Great article –
the reported reference by Sipho Shane to rules 5 and 10 that they want to enforce ……. Has some place for clubs and runners …. But….. they failed to enforce (at CMA at KZNA and at ASA ) rule 9 which would see Carla DQ’d and Hollywood KZN disciplined for ‘fraudulent entry and illegal club membership’.
The point is they seem to feel it’s ok to pick and choose what suits them
They, KZNA have DQ’d and CMA have runners for 2 years for incorrect qualifying times..
The CMA – The KZNA Board – the ASA Technical Committee (all in the latest KZNA meeting ) were informed of the rule 9 (and about 8 rule breaches) on 13 June FOUR DAYS after comrades but have done NOTHING in public and Hollywood have not been disciplined for illegally recruiting an athlete
This means the correct winners have NOT been given prize money or recognition
They have KNOWINGLY ALLOWED (implies condoned) the EXACT SAME rule they are now trying to apply to people who want to join CMA from out of province !!!
The VERY SAM Vice President of KZNA who wants to make this ruling on members outside the province in CMA, and the same person who as spokesperson goes onto TV and states there is a Zero cheating police. And that people will be named shamed and banned … plus additional provincial and club sanctions
Clearly only if it suits these guys – otherwise they just ignore as it doesn’t suit them to be incorrect
There is even an email in May from Comrades technical member explaining, at his request, in detail the situation of international runners in both elite and mass sections of the Comrades- but this is just ignored
It’s almost two months after Race and nothing is done on these failures/ fraudulent entries by elite runner / club
But then the very same people can suddenly call a KZNA board meeting to seemingly protect their positions on the CMA board …..
It’s disgusting, inconsistent, lacks integrity, honesty and ethics. That is a breach of the CMA constitution- but they don’t care do they ?
We need to see what CMA decides
The KZNA board meeting are quoting the ASA constitution but it’s not constitution it’s ASA rules and competition rules..
Apparently they don’t even know what they are talking about
As stuart says they ASA / KZNA have zero control over the community volunteers or any volunteers or suppliers who are not in possession of a licence or a contract!
Then all of these members also need to be turned down as the same principle should be applied – will it ?
It’s time all runners stood up CMA or Not and demand an investigation into these inconsistencies and abuse.
My wish is that a good thing musst not be tarnished… Let the high authorities make sound decisions that will benefit all lovers of the game (runners)
This looks like a looming legal confrontation.Time for a cleanout of the self serving individuals,and appointing competent leadership to act in the interests of the race,and the runners.Time for the sponsors to flex their muscles,and put an end to this nonsense.Comrades belongs to the country and the runners,not to a bunch of Hippocrates.
Ohhh this is wonderful news.
Comrades is on the same degradation path that the Duzi canoe marathon has followed.
Very sad state of affairs.
How will a legal process work to remove these self-serving people from KZNA & CMA – what will it cost and who will be willing to put up the fight and foot the bill?
Is it possible to win long term? It seems like the race management will always be infiltrated as long as the race is subject to athletics governing bodies and the relevant politics, which will always be the case?
Can someone please get the minister of sports arts and culture to give insight on this matter please.
Yes, I was about to say, get Gayton McKenzie to sort out KZNA/CMA & Duzi. He’ll do it swiftly & loudly. He’s still new & wants quick wins to gain everyone’s praise & trust, so I believe he’ll do the right thing, plus he doesn’t owe ANC or MK anything.🤞🏾
It would seem that the comrades marathon has been captured (for now). They sponsors will show their displeasure by withdrawing, the athletes will show their displeasure by not competing, and eventually, the event will collapse.
On a final note, I’m quite certain that a 1st year law student could ride a horse and cart through the CMAs latest decision.
Like e everything else in the country where there is a good piggy bank these individuals want to be in charge then plying their authority and raping and looting the piggy bank until it is empty and the place collapses. Then they want out blaming everyone else but themselves and at the same time demanding huge severance packages from an insolvent entity
After that they pop up in important positions of government and nothing has been done about their role in the collapse of that institution
Pretty hard to tell where this goes from here, but what should happen anyway is the KZN based runners need to do us all a solid. The next AGM (or SGM if it happens) would be well served by a huge contingent of locally based runners supporting and getting important issues of governance on the agenda and voted on. Maybe the larger clubs can have a friendly challenge to see who gets the most attendants there, might as well start planning for it now? Last time I checked, PMB is only about 85.9km from central durbs.
Good, well done, that you brought the attitudes and problems to the public’s attention and of course to fellow athletes. Thanks