Humorous Anecdotes, Observations & Accounts of Marathon Running & Agile Adventures.
Whilst most of the focus has been on the nominees for the seven available Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Board position at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), there are some other important motions to be discussed and voted for at the 30 November meeting.
Below are details of the CMA constitutional amendment motions, standard motions and consideration for the financial statements.
Continue reading “What’s on the agenda? CMA AGM on 30 November”
The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on 30 November promises to be a watershed in the renaissance of the event that has been mired in controversies resulting from a string of illogical and inexplicable decisions in recent years and is still reeling from well-founded allegations of corruption, maladministration and ineptitude amongst certain staff and Board members.
Seven of the nine elected Board positions are up for election. Both Board incumbents who were standing for re-election have been withdrawn from the ballot: Sweetname Nkibande because he was not eligible as he is not a member in good standing and Celi Makhoba for reasons unknown. Therefore it will be a CMA Board with a very different composition for the 2025 event.
Continue reading “14 Names, 7 Positions: CMA Board elections on 30 November”
After all the controversy surrounding Board level corruption, maladministration and incompetence, the announced list of Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Board nominees was eagerly anticipated.
The good news is that there is plenty of choice with 21 nominees for the 7 available Board positions including plenty of fresh blood amongst a handful of the usual suspects. I have grouped the nominees into three categories and provided some context below.
Summary: Three weeks ago interim CMA Chair Jeff Minnaar claimed that investigations into allegations of corruption, maladministration and incompetence against certain Board members and staff and were underway. However, key witnesses like former Chair Mqondisi Ngcobo and Race & Operations Manager Ann Ashworth have yet to be contacted. This raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the alleged investigations. The article also provides an unemotional list of the credible allegations against CMA Board members and staff.
One of the outcomes from the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Special General Meeting (SGM) held on 15 August was the passing of a resolution for the appointment of an independent committee to investigate the Community Marshals Portfolio, and to report its findings to the board, which report is to be published to members. Furthermore, it was agreed that the investigation was to be conducted by a retired judge.
Continue reading “Corruption, Maladministration & Incompetence: A Comrades Charge Sheet”
Despite being banned for life from being a Board member, Sokhela and her supporters on the Comrades Board appear to be using a loophole to keep her active in the affairs and operations of the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA).
On Thursday 29 August, the Heritage and Traditions Committee met, apparently to deliberate and determine this year’s Spirit of Comrades award winners. Sokhela was previously part of the committee and was in attendance. It is unclear how members of the committee are chosen as Sokhela has never run Comrades and has only been involved with Comrades for a fairly short time.
Continue reading “Zinhle Sokhela still sauntering around Comrades House after ban”
Board members are elected by votes cast at the AGM. All Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) members in good standing are allowed to attend and vote for Board members at the AGM. The annual membership fee in 2023 was R50. This was raised to R100 in 2024 along with the updated eligibility requirement on the Comrades website to be, “either a Comrades Runner or Comrades Volunteer before applying for CMA membership”.
The official reason for doubling the CMA Membership fee was ‘to cover increased administration costs and member benefits’ but unofficially it is also understood to be an apparent attempt to make the buying of AGM votes more difficult. In 2023 it cost an estimated R6500 to capture Comrades (130 CMA memberships x R50). If the same game plan is followed in 2024, the cost is R13000 – still a bargain for the unscrupulous to extend their malevolent influence on the largest and richest ultra marathon in the world.
Continue reading “How They Captured Comrades”
After the 2023 Comrades cutoffs cost several hundred runners their medal, some changes were expected in 2024. What was the net positive gain? 487 athletes converted despair to glory. These 487 would have been cutoff in 2024 had the times not been made more lenient. However, what is surprising, is that there is still resistance from certain members of the Board to make sensible adjustments to cutoff times.
What follows are details and in depth analysis of the who, how and what of cutoffs at Comrades 2024…
Continue reading “Comrades 2024 Cutoffs: A lesson in gun control”
Executive Summary: If you make the final cutoff at Comrades 2024 by 1 second you will need to run at a ‘slowest possible pace’ of 7:20/km to finish under 12 hours. If back-of-the-pack runners can run faster than this over the last split, it means that the cutoff is wrong and will result in Comrades runners losing out on a medal. Data analysis from the last Up run in 2019 shows that over 1000 Vic Clapham medallists and hundreds of last 10 minute finishers ran faster than this. Therefore the current cutoff is badly calculated and will rob potentially hundreds of Comrades runners of a medal.
The good news is that we’ll see runners on the field during the last minute before cutoff this year. The bad news is that we’ll still be a few hundred runners short of a full field.
After the cutoff debacle at Comrades 2023, the Comrades 2024 cutoffs were always going to come under scrutiny. When the original Comrades 2024 cutoffs were published, several people pointed out some serious potential flaws. It was encouraging to see that new Race and Operations Manager, Ann Ashworth, listened to the feedback and took them back for review.
Continue reading “Comrades 2024: Polly Shortts cutoff likely to kill the dreams of hundreds”
In writing my monthly marathon articles, I normally find that there is high correlation between the responsiveness of race organisers and the overall organisational quality of their race. When I get no response to my enquiries the alarm bells go off.
The organisers of the Durban City Marathon are the Durban City Multi Sport Club. This club seems to have successfully avoided leaving any digital footprint, with a Google search producing zero hits. The club had no entrants at this year’s Two Oceans Marathon and only three finishers at the last Comrades Marathon.
On face value this does not seem like the kind of club that would be given the organisation rights to the flagship marathon in South Africa’s third largest city. However, this is the club that most of the technical officials in KZN Athletics belong to. I am not sure if they have a club motto but if they do, I would not be surprised if it’s, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Things you do: A straw to suck up some delicious rain water (#CarryYourOwn KZN-style)
There was definitely something fishy with this race…
Continue reading “Durban City Marathon (Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink)”