It is no secret that relations between the former Comrades Race & Operations Manager (ROM), Ann Ashworth, and the Marketing & Communications Manager, Delaine Cools, were frosty at best and openly hostile at worst before, during and after the 2024 edition of the race.
The previous article in this series detailed the conjecture and supporting evidence that Cools had been promised the ROM (or General Manager) job and went out of her way to make Ashworth’s tenure difficult. In some circumstances, this appears to have escalated to outright sabotage.
Ashworth made it clear to the Board that she felt the work environment was toxic. Before the race Ashworth offered to resign on a number of occasions listing Cools’ toxicity and lack of support from the Board as her reasons. In one piece of correspondence that I’ve seen, Ashworth issues an ultimatum to her employers that it was either Cools or her.
If you were going purely on tenure, Cools with 14 years at the helm of Comrades’ communications, is an easy winner. However, if you went on competence, Ashworth would be the obvious choice.
Previous articles highlighted that Delaine Cools:
- Commandeered one of the sponsored Toyota Fortuners when she was acting ROM in the month between Rowyn James resigning and Ann Ashworth joining. She now uses it as her and her husband’s private vehicle and refuses to share it when required for official Comrades business.
- Used her position to censor and manipulate members of the media (including the author).
- Appears to have colluded with certain Board members to sabotage Ashworth and smear Ashworth’s name in the media.
- Was the source of several rumours spread within Comrades House and the CMA.
- Has a history of insubordination to her superiors.
This article will focus on the competence of Cools the Communication Manager rather than Cools the person.
What are Cools’ accomplishments during her 14 years at Comrades? In her own words, “When I arrived at the CMA 14 years ago, I also made contributions to this much loved race of ours and took the Comrades souvenir brochure from a ‘brochure’ style staple bound 80’s style publication to a 120 page purbound (sic) fully-fledged souvenir magazine which has grown into a 176 page magazine this year and bringing in advertising revenue too.”
Cools continues, “Given, not everything is perfect but we do strive to do our best. Hence, when I got here, media AVE’s for the Comrades brand stood around R120-million which I helped increase to R550-million annually within a short space of time by adequately catering to our media and ensuring that we added media facilities and a decent media centre for them to work in on race day. When I got to the CMA, it was shocking how the media were ‘herded’ into a container like cattle and this shoddy treatment led to poor reviews in the press, but thankfully, this has all changed now.”
However, like a prize fighter reliving past glories, Cools appears to have lost her zest for what serves Comrades best. This year accredited members of the press arrived at the media centre in Scottsville to find that nothing was operational and they had to use a personal 3G connection to get the live SuperSport race feed and follow the race on a laptop.
Later in the day, Cools was seen screaming at Tonya Swiegers in full view of the public, blaming her for the media centre mishap. Swiegers is a volunteer who took three weeks of personal leave to oversee her role as Finish Venue Convenor. The media centre has never been part of Finish Venue Portfolio but sits firmly within the scope of Cools’ responsibilities.
When it comes to Communicating with Comrades, most runners experience a “network unavailable” failure. The poor (or no response) to emails sent to the Comrades inbox has been a constant gripe of runners for many years. I frequently get people contacting me with messages like, “I’ve sent an email to Comrades about [something or other] but I’ve had no response. Perhaps you can help me…”
Another criticism is that the Comrades communications are just a ‘cut and paste’ from the previous years and, according the disciplinary hearing filed against Cools, it appears that any new content required a complete rewrite by Ashworth. On the technology front, whilst everyone else is forging ahead into the fourth industrial revolution, Comrades seems to still be cautiously negotiating the information age.
Francois Botha, who has provided me with some technical assistance in the past, sums it up nicely, “I do feel the actual PR team could get with the times. I’m pedantic and frustrated by simple things. If you promote the Comrades app on your blog, include links to the Apple AppStore and Google Play Store. Don’t make me go search for the app. If you post the list of best spectator spots on Facebook, don’t post an image with Google Maps URLs. Post the actual URLs in the body of the post. Simple things like that that show us you know how the internet works in 2024. It’s like the PR team is stuck in the 1980s when only print media existed. Lastly, send emails using a responsive design template. Most people read emails on their mobile devices nowadays. Don’t make me zoom in and then have to pan around just to read your comms.”
You are only as good as your last Comrades – so let’s hold Cools to the same account. There are three* big deliverables for any comms manager at an event like Comrades: the race day media centre, the media guide / information pack and the race magazine. We’ve already established that the first was a failure, how did Cools perform with the other two?
* Actually there are four but Cools (by design or incompetence) appeared to have outsourced the writing of pre-race press releases to Ashworth.
The media guide provides a definitive resource to the media, commentators and race sponsors. It should be flawless. It’s an opportunity to impress. Speaking from experience, there’s nothing more embarrassing than publishing information you’ve sourced directly from Comrades, only to be told by your readers that it’s incorrect. You would also not expect to find errors in static, reusable tables like race distances over the years. Sadly, as the screen cap below indicates, a quick glance through the media guide exposes a host of rudimentary errors.
The media guide is about as visually appealing as a high school textbook from the 80s. Ashworth was on a mission to elevate every element of Comrades to a world-class standard and pleaded with Cools that, “[The media guide] is a symbol of the race and should be an asset prized by the office. As we have made significant advancements in the production of the event, introducing significant innovation and upgrades based on the runner experience, I would have hoped that this innovation and upgrade would have been carried through to the media guide rather than a cut and paste from the past 10-14 years of the race.”
Unfortunately, this polite suggestion was not just ignored but abhorred, resulting in Cools escalating matters with an email onslaught. Email battles are never pretty and it is usually a case of everyone looking bad in hindsight. However, Cools decided to employ a ‘scorched earth policy’ when she crossed the line by pulling a sponsor directly into the email argument. Despite there being several Board members on the CC list, not one admonished Cools for something that clearly violates all acceptable behaviour and breaches the CMA’s code of conduct.
ASIDE: MC Cools drops the mike
The renaming of Connaught Road to Comrades Road at Comrades House in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg on 9 May 2024 was a big deal media extravaganza. The type of event that a Marketing and Communication Manager dreams of hosting. Cools was on MC duty for the ceremony.
Just 40 minutes before the ceremony was due to start, Cools threw her hands up in the air and walked out of building saying that she “couldn’t take it anymore”. According to a source involved in the event, Cools “Left everything in a complete shambles. Zero shits given.”
Cools later excused her behaviour by saying she “Had a doctor’s appointment” and produced a doctor’s certificate as ‘proof’. However, she did not let anyone else in the office or those organising the event know of the appointment beforehand nor did she answer her phone. Several people have suggested that this is another of several examples of Cools’ deliberate sabotage.
Notably, Cools actions did not even raise eyebrows with Phumlani Ntuli in his capacity as head of the HR Portfolio. This is consistent with a large body of evidence that Cools was (and still is) able to operate with complete impunity whilst the actions and performance of Ashworth was under constant scrutiny and judgement.
The media guide was probably an ‘E minus’ if we were being kind and evaluating Cools on a Grade 8 standard, but what about the souvenir magazine? At least this was in colour but the same mistakes and lack of attention to detail were present. We have to give Cools credit for consistency as she carried all the same errors through (for example we’ve still got a distance of 97.3km for the 1998 race) but she managed to find a way to introduce a few new mistakes into the magazine as well.
Perhaps Cools could have used a proofreader? And here is where it gets very interesting. She was provided with the services of the meticulous Brian Jarmey-Swan who painstakingly went through every fact, figure and detail. Jarmey-Swan picked up all the errors I spotted and much more. However, Cools decided to completely ignore Jarmey-Swan’s input and could not even be bothered to wait for his feedback before sending the copy off to the printers.
Explained Jarmey-Swan, “I’m sure that the misrepresentation of the SA Runner Statistics on page 23 of the Souvenir Magazine was a case of deliberate sabotage because having proofread the document twice over a weekend and pointed out the error first thing on the Monday morning, I was told that it was already printed so ‘too bad’… So why was I asked to proofread it when it had already been sent to the printers?”
However, Cools is an experienced saboteur who knows how to cover her back. In the aforementioned email battle with Ashworth, Cools claimed, “Thanks for looking over the Media Guide. Brian Jarmey-Swan did as well and was impressed with the stats, facts and details contained in it”. How does Jarmey-Swan see the situation, “A devious way of covering her own back because she asked me to confirm by mail that I had proofread the Souvenir Magazine for her [after she had already sent it to the printers].” This was done after Ashworth requested the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against Cools.
Whether Cools is grossly incompetent or merely vulgarly insubordinate is debatable. What is irrefutable is that she is a lousy communications manager. Jarmey-Swan again, “There was a similar process with the media document where I read one version then was presented with a further update a couple of days later. It turns out that Ashworth asked for the inclusion of additional information which was not done and the document was sent to print before I had finished proofreading it.”
Cools has been accused by various sources of deliberately sabotaging Ashworth. Although the 2024 race was heralded as a massive improvement from previous years (and 2023 in particular), the one big issue to hit social media after the race was congestion at the finish. Whilst a lot of people complained, others were confused with the furore and said that one could just have used another completely uncrowded path and avoided all the congestion.
This brings us to the biggest and possibly most sinister mistake in the 2024 souvenir magazine, an incorrect version of the finish area map was included which omitted the third public entrance/exit and had information in the incorrect place. This would undoubtedly have added to the confusion and congestion. There were also reports that signage that was supposed to direct people to the parking areas went missing on race day.
Whilst accusing Cools of deliberately removing finish area signage that could lead to crowd safety issues would be totally unsubstantiated, there are eyewitness reports that Cools removed the ‘dummy board*’ from the entrance to the VIP area and media gantry and shouted at the security guard so that her family and friends could enjoy the prime viewing spot over the finish line.
* This is a mannequin affixed with an actual accreditation armband so the security knows who to allow in.
When Ashworth spotted a host of unaccredited gate crashers in the media gantry and behind the finish area she confronted the security guard on duty, “When Ann asked the security guard why he let people into the finish area, he then pointed at Delaine and said that she told him to allow people into the finish area. I overheard this.”
ASIDE: Cools versus Ashworth – A race day comparison
Ashworth gave up her hotel room and pulled an all-nighter on the Saturday before Comrades. On race day, Ashworth drove ahead of the front runners to make sure everything was 100%. Ashworth avoided the ‘blazer brigade’ and television cameras on the finish line but was spotted all over Scottsville, supporting her team and proactively sorting out whatever needed to be done. As an example, I received this unsolicited comment from a friend the day after the race speaking about the congestion at the finish line, “The bridge to reach the cars was totally grid locked. In the chaos of this a voice shouted out, ‘Please use the other route around these tents to get out!’ And with arms enthusiastically waving and directing, there was Ann, in the thick of it all, managing the flow of people.”
On the other hand, Cools spent a comfortable night with her husband in the Elangeni hotel on the Comrades account while the rest of the Comrades staff shared a room with a colleague. We established that after absconding from the responsibilities of the media centre, Cools practiced some primal scream therapy, unleashing her wrath on volunteer Tonya Swiegers. Cools‘ “Shout, shout, let it all out” session clearly did the trick and put her in the right frame of mind to spend the afternoon relaxing in the VIP section after bullying a security guard to get her friends and extended family access.
Cools is obviously an expert in time management skills if she’s able to spend quality time with her loved ones and extended family on race day whilst most of the Comrades staff (and some members of the Board) are flat-out busy. This was much to the chagrin of the Race Organising Committee (ROC) volunteers who were hard at work, “On race day she [Cools] had her whole family on the media gantry. None of her family help with anything at Comrades but her sisters and mom were on the finish line.”
Cools is not averse to doing favours for friends and family. One of the less popular moves Ashworth made was to apply international rules on seconding and route access to elite athletes. This brings Comrades in line with international standards. Prior to Covid, team managers of South Africa’s large elite clubs were given special route access on race day and could provide special seconding and support for their athletes along the route. This resulted in an unfair advantage against athletes from other teams and particularly for international athletes.
Whilst I can understand these elite manager’s frustrations at losing these privileges, the introduction of elite tables along the route and removing special access rights, levels the playing field (especially for international athletes). Despite Rowyn James revoking these privileges in 2022 and 2023 (prior to the introduction of the elite water tables), certain elite team managers still managed to make it onto the route with full access and the strong suspicion is that they got a little help from the race office. This year Cool’s aspirant Comrades Chair-in-waiting, Zinhle Sohhela, was reported to be driving the route with media accreditation stickers which could only have come from one source.
Ann Ashworth gave the Board an ultimatum – it’s either Delaine Cools or me. When given a choice between competence and ineptitude, most would pick competence. When given a choice between the ethical and the unscrupulous, most would pick the ethical. When given a choice between energy, enthusiasm and innovation versus a slothful, stagnant, error-prone saboteur, most would choose the former.
The Comrades Board are not most people. They had the chance to take the event into the 21st century and build toward the 100th running of Comrades in 2027. [Note: I have self-censored the next sentence as it seemed to be distracting from the core message / immense body of evidence and was allowing the protagonist to play the victim with friends in the media.]
Perhaps the difference between Ashworth and Cools can be summarised in how each chose to spend the last Sunday before race day. Ashworth was up before dawn and devoted the entire day to working with the rest of the Comrades staff and volunteers on final race day preparations. On the other hand, Cools (according to her Instagram account) had a “Sunday funday” at home baking “Gooey, chocolatey, yummy” brownies for her friends and family.
Maybe Cools shared some of her brownies with Board? Maybe this tipped the scales in her favour? Ann Ashworth was a professional amongst an ensemble of amateurs. It was never a fair fight and unfortunately Cools and the gang have won. Those must have been some damn good brownies.
Follow Running Mann:
Wow, just wow! Unbelievable.
What I would like to say is that I know Tonja Swiegers. A non runner who is totally in love with the Comrades. She eats and sleeps Comrades. She is so passionate about Comrades. How dare Delaine crap her out! What a disgrace Delaine is to Comrades. I am flabbergasted. Sorry Tonja that as a passionate volunteer you get shouted at for someone else’s lack of work ethics. .
I can can’t believe what I just read. This is CMA failure exposure. The article and series has detailed evidence of failure. Publishing of false information and the safety of the finish line with wrong map of parking and how this race happened by luck instead of planning is sickening.
I think it’s more ‘Ashworth or the rest of CMA’ (besides the informants) rather than ‘Ashworth or Cools’.
Ann never had a chance against those CMA members, if cools (deliberate not using a capital letter for cools) was sacked there would have been another to rise to the occasion. Corruption always runs deep especially when more than one is involved (no one wants to be outed and always more wants a piece of the pie) that increases the rot.
Well done Stuart 👏
I really find it hard to imagine why a senior member of the CMA (Cools ) would want to sabotage her own race. What are the reasons for it? It’s line making a hole and sinking your own boat.
Apart from trying to perpetuate an act of jealousy against those who were intent on making the event a success, I can see no reason for it, especially as you have written that she likes to claim the credit for other peoples success. Perhaps the answer is that she needs some professional help regarding her mental health.
The facts, evidenced in hard copy and irrefutable evidence shows that Cools is just another party not there to serve the CMA or the race but for her own personal enrichment.
Such incompetence and sheer arrogance would not be tolerated in any company so why the CMA still employs such incompetence is a question the board seriously needs to answer.
Arguably the best ROM ever is worked out but yet gross incompetence from Cools seems to go unchecked?