Cyber Bully to you CMA (and the sad state of journalism)

If a politician were to claim that an election was rigged at a press conference, you would expect them to provide some proof. Should the politician continue along this line of rhetoric but fail to provide any proof they should be treated with disdain, derision and scorn by the media.

Our professionals in the media are no doubt familiar with the law of propaganda attributed to Nazi Joseph Goebbels (although it’s unlikely he ever actually said), “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”.

At a press conference called by the interim Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Board on 26 August, interim CMA Chairman Jeff Minnaar used the term ‘cyber bullying’ repeatedly and began proceedings by reading a press release entitled, “Comrades Marathon addresses cyber bullying and harassment.”

He specially referred to a nameless blogger out to destroy Comrades. At one stage Minnaar pled forgiveness for “getting emotional” about cyber bullying and, in all earnest, suggested that should the threat of cyber bullying not be addressed “this race is not going to see the end of the century” (although one would assume that this was one of many slips of the tongue from Minnaar and it’s more likely that he meant the 100th running of Comrades in 2027, not the year 2099).

READ MORE: Interim CMA Board says “No” to Transparency at Bizarre Press Conference

There are plenty of threats to the future of Comrades (mostly from within) but one can confidently say that cyber bullying would struggle to make it onto the top 10 risks to the future of the race. I would have expected even the most gullible of reporters to have responded to this claim with raised eyebrows and extreme surprise. If President Ramaphosa called a family meeting and announced that the biggest threat to the GNU, democracy or his future buffalo sales was ‘cyber bullying’, he’d be a complete laughingstock.

“Feeling offended when a spotlight is put on corruption, maladministration, sabotage and incompetence is not cyber bullying.”

Surely professional journalists would take more than just their complimentary post-press conference snacks with a pinch of salt? Surely the flippant dismissal of well-founded evidence of Comrades capture as “all lies and innuendo’ should be backed up with something more credible than a feeble verbal denial? Surely our mainstream television and print media would conduct some basic probing and verification to ensure that they do not just perpetuate the peddling of propaganda?

Sadly, if there were any ‘real’ journalism skills in the room it was not evident in the articles that followed. Here are the headlines (with bylines):

IOL: Crisis-ridden Comrades Marathon Association ‘taking a stand against cyber bullying’ (The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) has put its foot down against cyber-bullying after a tumultuous month for the organisation.)

The Citizen: Cyber bullies and infighting could ‘destroy’ Comrades Marathon, says Minnaar (If the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) isn’t able to stop the attacks it faces, the race is going to fold, its chairperson has warned.)

The Witness (frontpage headline): Comrades cyber bullies slammed (During yesterday’s media briefing, the CMA announced its intention to take legal action against cyber bullying, harassment and defamation)

The Witness: Our viewpoint | Social media bullies (“The idea that social media has the power to potentially upend an over century-old legacy should be preposterous. However, it is the dangerous reality.”)

SABC: Comrades Marathon Association takes a stand against online bullying

Scrolla Africa: ‘Cyberbullies could destroy Comrades Marathon’ (Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) acting chairperson Jeff Minnaar believes cyberbullies could destroy the famous race. )

During the press conference Minnaar repeatedly referred to a nameless blogger. There are not many running bloggers out there and there is just one who has recently written articles critical of Comrades. This running blogger is quite vocal. This running blogger is very active on social media. This running blogger is not hard to track down. You would have thought that at least one paid journalist would have made the effort.

READ MORE: Has the Comrades Marathon been Captured (and why Ann Ashworth was fired)

Sadly, once again you would be disappointed in the journalistic appetite and hunger for truth amongst those in attendance. The pursuit of proper journalism disappeared faster than the post-press conference snacks. The only newspaper that bothered to contact me after the press conference to hear the other side of the story was The Daily Maverick, resulting in this well-balanced article (and they were not even at the press conference).

Whilst populist politicians from Trump to Zuma continue to make outlandish and unsubstantiated claims about elections, there is a well-researched (if I say so myself) series of articles packed full of hard evidence and corroborated statements detailing actual vote rigging at the CMA. Have a read of Exhibit A and Exhibit B if you’d like to judge for yourself.

As the author writes independently without any remuneration or backing of a corporate legal team, you would expect that he would be extra careful that what he writes is true and defensible lest he find himself facing a defamation charge. You might also find that the author has held back certain pieces of evidence for exactly this kind of eventuality.

The author is happy to let the facts speak for themselves. However, he would like to take a closer look at bullying, both of the cyber and old school ‘big kid sucker punching the small kid’ kind.

I asked the interim CMA Board for their definition of cyber bullying which is, “Cyber Bullying includes the posting of social media publications, blog posts and other online content that threatens, harasses, embarrasses or targets another person.”. A quick google reveals that this definition comes from kidshealth.org. Maybe not the most appropriate point of reference for an organisation like Comrades (although there has admittedly been plenty of juvenile behaviour emanating from Comrades House recently).

I thought I’d probably get a better answer asking Chat GPT, “What is cyber bullying?” and I was right. The extract below shows the seven forms that cyber bullying can take on. My conscience is clean on all seven counts. I even asked the interim CMA Board to provide me with some concrete examples of cyber bullying on 30 August and have followed up several times without any examples being provided.

As we are talking ‘cyber’, I thought I’d exhaust the online options and check Wikipedia as well. They use the following definition, “an aggressive, intentional act or behaviour that is carried out by a group or an individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.” They elaborate that, “It is to be distinguished from normal conflicts between people of comparable power or status that often also occur online.”

Writing fact-based, evidence-laden articles spotlighting various acts of corruption, maladministration, sabotage and ineptitude is not cyber bullying in anyone’s definition of the term. I have yet to have had anyone, friend or foe, challenge me on the facts or dispute any of the evidence presented.

The Role of Online Criticism
Constructive online criticism is vital for promoting accountability. It shines a light on issues that might otherwise remain hidden, challenging those in power to act transparently and responsibly. For criticism to be effective, it must be fact-based and intended to improve, not harm. Unlike cyberbullying, which is personal and malicious, constructive criticism focuses on actions and decisions, enhancing governance and public trust.

Brent Janse Van Vuuren (Managing Director – Social Media 101)

Should there have been no actual cyber bullying, then surely if an organisation of the might and stature of Comrades called a press conference, invited friendly media from television and print, and then make a series of unsubstantiated claims without allowing those accused the right of reply (or even bothering to contact them ahead of the press conference to hear their side of the story), this would be the worst form of bullying imaginable?

Whilst no one was officially named, everyone knew who Jeff Minnaar was referring to when he talked about a cyber bullying blogger – I was tagged by several people in the comments during the press conference which was broadcast on Facebook live.

However, Isaac Ngwenya, the Board member most heavily implicated in corruption and maladministration, was confident enough to joke about kleptomania at the press conference and name individuals in an interview with eNCA afterwards, “The lies and the fake news, I always have a thing of looking at Stuart Mann as a Bell Pottinger* of Ann Ashworth and then to destroy the Board.”

* This statement is actual defamation and slander as it implies, without basis or substantiation, that the author has taken money to write knowingly untrue articles.

Wow, what a scoop this would have been for a journalist with just a modicum of curiosity and a pinch of investigative zeal. Imagine an organisation like Comrades blatantly lying in a press conference and then it turns out that they are the bullies. Now that’s a great story. Instead the public was treated to regurgitated copy and paste drivel.

Another person who was not named but was clearly referred to several times (and was also tagged in the comments) was former Race and Operations Manager, Ann Ashworth. For her own sanity, Ashworth decided against watching the recording of the press conference but did send a strongly worded letter to the interim Chair and acting ROM Alain Dalais which concluded with, “I seek either (a) written confirmation that the CMA intends to pursue allegations of defamation against me; in which case these issues may be fully ventilated in a court of law; alternatively (b) a written apology from Mr Minnaar confirming that I have not engaged in any form of cyber bullying; and that I have not made any defamatory statements against the CMA, its staff or its board members.  In circumstances in which I receive neither, I will consider initiating my own claim for defamation against the CMA.”

Dalais, who seems to have drawn the short straw in having to respond on Board matters, replied, “Please be advised that at no point during the CMA Press Conference on Monday 26 August 2024 did Mr Minnaar state or allude to taking any legal action against you. Mr Minnaar stated that cyber-bulling would not be tolerated, and that the CMA may consider legal action against anyone that is seen to be bullying any of the CMA Board Members or Staff.”

Make of that what you will.

In Defence of the Running Mann

As we’ve established, writing fact-based, evidence-laden and corroboration-filled articles that are in the public interest is not cyber bullying. All articles provided the implicated the right of reply. Where replies were received, these were included within the articles.

In addition, the former CMA Chair Mqondisi Ngcobo, was given a courtesy pre-published copy of all the articles specifically asking, “If you believe anything is factually incorrect please let me know.” Providing a pre-published draft has been my standard policy when writing positive or negative articles to ensure that the content is factually sound. On rare occasions, I have changed the content when a fact is disputed or there is additional context that I am made aware of.

I published the articles on my blog and shared them on my social media profiles (as is standard for any article I publish). I do not share my articles to other Facebook groups, tag the official Comrades accounts or tag those implicated in any social media posts. As a rule, I do not comment on any posts made by the official Comrades accounts on social media.

I will occasionally make references to the Comrades articles and goings-on in other ‘regular’ posts – usually in a humorous and / or satirical way. A couple of examples are provided below.

To the best of my knowledge and understanding of what cyber bullying is, I cannot find any evidence or situations that would incriminate me as a cyber bully. I therefore plead ‘Not guilty’ to all charges.

On the other hand, I would like to lay some counter charges. The articles I’ve published include various cases of bullying (cyber and traditional) from within Comrades House and I have personally experienced and witnessed several forms of cyber bullying recently. Let’s take a closer look at the seven forms of cyber bullying and several ‘concrete’ examples of those that are applicable from the Chat GPT definition (#4, 6 and 7 are not relevant).

1. Harassment: Sending repeated, offensive, or threatening messages.

Wishing death and dread disease on someone’s wife and children, which was Dianne Reddy’s (Comrades Marketing and Communications Manager Delaine Cools’ sister) hope for my family, would be a clearcut and concrete case of cyber bullying.

Dorothy Doorasamy, Delaine Cools’ mother, left 29 comments on my blog site and several comments on my Instagram account accusing me of all sorts of crimes against humanity and sexual improprieties, the volume and nature thereof seem to clearly fit into this category.

2. Spreading rumours: Sharing false information to damage someone’s image.

This article provides several examples of staff member Delaine Cools deliberately spreading falsehoods and rumours. This was validated by corroborated statements from senior and very well-respected individuals within the Comrades structures. Although I chose not to use WhatsApp messages I was given access to within the articles, there are many conversations involving very senior Comrades stakeholders that further validate malicious cases of rumour mongering and outright slander.

In addition, one of the techniques I use when writing investigative articles of this nature is to contact someone and ask them, rather than to provide input which might compromise them, just to confirm whether an account is true or not (especially for those in a position where they could potentially be victimised). Conversations of this nature further confirmed that the situations described within the articles are a truthful and accurate account. Whilst I did not ask for any comment other than confirmation of correctness and accuracy, it was clear that in some cases serious psychological damage was done to individuals by the rumour mongering, gossiping and multiple counts of “sharing false information to damage someone’s image” that Delaine Cools stands accused of.

One would also say that accusing a person of racism without basis is likely to severely damage someone’s image and reputation. This is exactly what Zinhle Sokhela did to Ann Ashworth in her ‘Vanillagate’ WhatsApp. Although Sokhela was permanently voted out at the recent SGM and banned from ever again holding a CMA Board position, Sokhela has shown no remorse and is yet to apologise to Ashworth after accusing the former ROM of racism (and has not presented any evidence of racism or that specific racial groups were targeted for CMA membership).

3. Impersonation: Pretending to be someone else to cause harm or embarrassment.

One of the characteristics of cyber bullying is that it is usually anonymous. It is much easier to hide behind anonymity or a fake profile on the internet. Here we cover the curious case of Jermone Smith.

Jerome Smith popped up with some comments on Ann Ashworth’s public Facebook profile and, after being blocked, took his various accusations and insinuations onto Facebook groups that were discussing the various Comrades controversies. The Jerome Smith account was created around 2021 and is clearly a fake account. It has just one linked friend and none of the posts indicate that it belongs to a real person. There is also no breadcrumb trail of any runner or athletics administrator in South Africa named Jerome Smith.

Analysing the comments and posts from Jerome Smith (I have uploaded the comments and original posts of several ‘Jermone Smith specials’ here), ‘Smith’ is clearly someone who has access to inside information at Comrades House and strong links to KZNA. The prime suspect would therefore be the current President of KZNA, Steve Mkasi, who sits on both the CMA and KZNA Boards. This suspicion of Smith’s true identity being that of Mkasi was shared by several other former Board members of both CMA and KZNA. However, Mkasi has denied the link, “I have no idea who Smith is or what he does.”

Interestingly, on a disastrous and rambling interview on Newzroom Afrika where sports bulletin host Vaylen Kirtley had to interrupt Mkasi several times and eventually had to cut the interview mid-sentence as the show hit the top of the hour, Mkasi was just starting to talk about, “The only thing that I can find that is grand scale corruption is the abuse of resources by staff members who were in charge of the CMA to book friends and family into hotel rooms”. Jerome Smith is the only other ‘person’ to have ever mentioned this.

Mkasi does admit using the fake Jerome Smith account as his source, “That comment came form the post on Facebook by the same ‘Jerome Smith’. So I asked the CMA about the rooming list and there were eye catching names in line with the post of Smith but the majority of what was said on that post I couldn’t verify.”

What is clear is that the content contains information that only two people within the CMA would originally have known about – Ann Ashworth and Delaine Cools. It seems unlikely that Ashworth would troll herself leaving just one option as to the origin of the leak.

As for the allegations themselves, I have followed up on several of them like the ‘hotel fraud’ accusations and they have all proven baseless. Shaun Meiklejohn is a former winner and the man with the most sub-7h30 finishes (32). It is normal practice to honour an accommodation request from a legend of this status and everything was done openly and above board. Landie Greyling was one of the officially announced ‘Comrades influencers’ and her contract with the CMA includes accommodation.

On the other hand, if one digs a little deeper into the hotel bookings, it paints the implicated in an even worse light. The staff member responsible for doing the bookings (who reports to Delaine Cools) ‘messed up’ and did not book enough rooms. This resulted in a scramble and extra work just before race day to try and ‘make a plan’ for everyone.

Ashworth, together with multiple Comrades gold medalist Kerry Koen (who was responsible for the elite water tables), sacrificed their shared room at the official Durban-based race hotel which meant the major inconvenience of having to travel all the way to Umhlanga for a shower before the start of the race after pulling an all-nighter. Whilst all the other staff members shared rooms, Delaine Cools spent four luxurious nights in the hotel with her husband.

There is another Mkasi connection to Jerome Smith. After the race Mkasi made a threatening phone call to Cuan Walker accusing him of starting up front with the elite athletes and not in the correct pen. Mkasi cited an alleged complaint that Walker and Ashworth’s husband had been seen starting from within the elite start batch. Walker had a charity CC seeding and his starting mat time is in line with other runners from the same batch. David Ashworth started in A seeding and he qualified for this with a sub-3 hour marathon at the Ethekwini Best of The Best Marathon. David Ashworth finished Comrades 2024 in 6h15 in 71^st position. That either Walker or Ashworth cheated to get elite seeding is just more baseless allegations designed to cause harm and embarrassment.

Mkasi responded to my question about his investigative call to Walker, “I called Cuan to establish facts and he clarified the truth to me. The reason I called him was because he was a Road Running Commission member at the time hence my concerns about him being mentioned on that text.” Walker subsequently resigned his KZNA Road Running Commission position as a direct result of Mkasi’s accusatory call. Looks like Walker is another victim of bullying.

On David Ashworth, Mkasi said, “I’ve never said anything about David and cheating save to mention that he was accused that the elite athletes grew under his management. That’s not cheating,”

5. Exclusion: Deliberately excluding someone from online groups or activities as a form of social bullying.

My experience with exclusion for saying ‘the wrong things’ goes back to 2020 when Delaine Cools unfollowed my social media accounts (both from the official Comrades profiles and her personal accounts) after I wrote an article about Comrades not refunding entry fees during Covid (the article was largely supportive of Comrades’ stance but did criticise the poor communications).

When writing about the Comrades cutoffs debacle in 2023, I was blocked by the Comrades Twitter (now X) account. Ironically this happened on the same day that Chair Mqondisi Ngcobo phoned me to apologise for the behaviour of Comrades staff.

During the same period, former CMA Chair Cheryl Winn posted a message on Facebook supportive that the cutoff issue was acknowledged and that an apology be sent to the runners impacted. The result was that she was immediately locked out of her @comrades.com account.

READ MORE: Winn blocked by CMA losers

There is apparently a pattern here. Norrie Williamson was notified that Cools used her friendship with the editor of the Witness to get his column removed from the paper after he wrote an article slightly critical of Comrades and, according to Williamson, he and other journalists have been removed by Cools from the Comrades media list after publishing articles critical of Comrades. Williamson was directly told by Cools that he would be granted media accreditation, “As long as you only write nice things about us.”

Why We Must Not Silence Critical Voices
Silencing criticism stifles dialogue and progress, allowing wrongdoing to go unchecked. Critical voices hold power to account, challenge the status quo, and ensure leaders/boards remain responsive to public needs. Suppressing these voices risks creating a culture of fear and compliance, where issues are hidden rather than addressed. By protecting the right to speak out, we foster a more informed, engaged, and resilient society where truth and accountability thrive.

Brent Janse Van Vuuren (Managing Director – Social Media 101)

Comrades is heralded as the great leveller in South African sports. It’s an event where runners from all demographics and backgrounds come together once a year to participate in ‘the ultimate human race’. Unfortunately, censorship seems to be pervasive within the organisation.

These days most of the Facebook posts from the official Comrades Marathon handle are switched onto, “ComradesMarathon limited who can comment on this post.” Exactly who is and is not allowed to comment is unclear. However, Delaine Cools is the only person within the CMA who has the log in information for the Comrades Marathon social media accounts.

When the Spirit of Comrades Awards nominations were announced many people stated that they would be nominating Ann Ashworth for an award, the messages were quickly removed and the commenting turned off.

There are many more examples of runners being censored and ignored. Comrades runner, Ikes M Bar, posted a comment on one post that said, “We all love this race… that is why it’s so important that it is run by capable people… and that ethics and governance should matter even more.” No prizes for guessing what happened next. This resulted in this frustrated reply which was also quickly removed, “My now deleted comment… why? You’re a disgrace if your only reaction to simple statements is to delete them.”

This comes after a plea and a promise during the cyber bullying press conference for runners and concerned parties to engage directly with Comrades, “If you ever have a problem with anything that the CMA does, we are here. We are open for you to sit down and talk to us and we can resolve the problem within. We don’t need to solve the problem without.” Experience has proved otherwise for the average runner who has tried to engage with the CMA.

“I plead with the public and the proletariat, if you’ve got a problem come and speak to us, not to anybody else out there.”

Jeff Minnaar in a SABC interview after the cyber bullying press conference.

Conclusion

As the father of teenage daughters, I am very aware that cyber bullying is both a real and relevant problem. An organisation like the Comrades Marathon Association has a civic responsibility not to trivialise a genuine issue because some of their Board members are affronted after getting called out for dubious behaviour.

Cyber bullying amongst adults appears to be a very rare occurrence, with the sub-category of cyber stalking being the predominant form of cyber bullying impacting adults. So we have one of three possibilities in this case:

1.      This is a groundbreaking reference case where a small group of individuals have proven that the pen (or should that be keyboard) is mightier than the sword and have cyber bullied the Comrades Marathon Association to a breaking point.

2.      The interim CMA Board was lying through their teeth about cyber bullying and the seriousness thereof to the future of the race at the press conference.

3.      The interim CMA Board are so out of touch with reality that they really believe that they are the victims of cyber bullying and that this issue is a bigger threat to the future of the race than corruption, mismanagement, sabotage and incompetence.

Fortunately the running community is far more discerning and far less gullible than the average journalist. Option 1 does not seem likely, neither option 2 or 3 bodes well for the future of the race.

Header photo courtesy Comrades Marathon Association

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