First off, let’s give some credit where it’s due. KwaZulu Natal Athletics (KZNA) Vice President Mandla Mngomezulu is a masterful spin doctor, perhaps even surpassing his boss Steve Mkasi (the Surgeon General of spin doctoring), with this latest press release. If Spin Dr. Mngomezulu had written a press release for Manchester United after they were beaten by Tottenham Hotspurs last weekend, you would swear that United had won the game and were still in the title race rather than hovering just above relegation.
Unfortunately, it appears that the KZNA executive take their runners for fools. Fortunately, no one is buying their nonsense. I doubt anyone outside of the undemocratic Republic of Mkasistan would give much credence to anything coming out of the KZNA offices these days. However, lest there be any doubt, I’ve taken the time to dissect the document.
At the High Court hearing on 20 February, Judge Peter Olsen passed judgement on three items. He ruled unequivocally in favour of the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Members on the first item which was to confirm rule nisi that KZNA are interdicted from restraining CMA Members’ rights as members.
A rule nisi is typically issued after an application for an order is made, but before a full hearing has occurred. This allows the court to issue temporary relief while the legal process continues. However, the temporary court order becomes permanent unless KZNA can persuade the court to change or cancel it which they have failed to do. Essentially the rule nisi ruling means that KZNA has no right to exert authority over the CMA or its members for the foreseeable future.
If you read Mngomezulu’s statement on the second item you might be forgiven for thinking the judge had ruled in favour of KZNA against CMA Members:
“The Court declined to confirm the relief sought by these members regarding the CMA’s governance and regulatory independence. Specifically, it did not uphold the claim that the CMA may operate without oversight from KZNA, a regulatory body. The main issue, whether the CMA can regulate a sporting code independently of KZNA’s involvement, was not granted.”
Judge Olsen, as expected, made no ruling but rather deferred this specific issue to the review hearing which will be held in 12 to 18 months’ time (timing dependent on whether KZNA files their response to the CMA Member’s papers in time). It is highly unlikely that any judge will rule in favour of KZNA’s demands that an independent non-profit company (NPC) be placed under its authority. The Two Ocean NPC has no ‘residence restrictions’ and, should KZNA be successful, it would be problematic for national running series events like the ABSA Run Your City and Spar Ladies. Furthermore, there is already legal precedent for the independence of the CMA from Athletics South Africa (ASA) following the Alexandra Morozova versus Comrades Marathon Association case (#11447/22) in 2022.
The third item was whether a costs order would be issued against KZNA for frivolous litigation, nonsense arguments and wasting the courts’ time. Once again, as expected, Judge Olsen deferred this to the review hearing.
Explained attorney Mark Leathers who has been representing CMA Members on a pro bono basis, “They are such spin doctors making it sound as if we were unsuccessful in the last two items. All the court merely said is that the review court will be better poised to determine those issues and accordingly kicked the can down the road on those two issues to the review court.”
It should be noted that there have now been three separate court dates presided over by three different judges (Judges Mossop and Judge Olsen, and Acting Justice Khuzwayo) and they have all ruled consistently in favour of the CMA Members. Not one victory or concession has been achieved by KZNA and this is unlikely to change in the future.
READ MORE: KZNA Gets Another High Court Smackdown
Essentially, KZNA under Mkazi has decided to make a play for political control of the world’s largest and oldest ultra marathon and the rich purse strings associated with it. KZNA have failed to provide any logical or sensible argument for their attempted coup of South Africa’s most popular single distance running event.
Aside from a very creative interpretation of the judgements that were handed down by Judge Olsen, the KZNA document starts by suggesting that the review application was ‘filed belatedly’ by the CMA members: “A Court hearing on 20 February 2025 upheld an interdict maintaining the status quo from 14 August 2024, until the review application, filed belatedly in late January 2025 by members of the CMA, is decided.”
Leathers was quick to call this, “Nonsense.” He further elaborated with a more technical explanation, “1. The order given in August 2024 by Mr Justice Mossop directed that the review be filed within 30 days of the finalisation of that application, i.e. only within 30 days of yesterday. Accordingly, considering it is in terms of that order only due by 19 March, the end of Jan was actually early. 2. PAJA (The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act) requires reviews to be launched within 6 months of the conduct being reviewed. They took their resolutions on 7 August 2024 which means 7 Feb 2025 was the due date under PAJA and end Jan (21st when it was issued) is in fact also early.”
For those struggling with the legalese, the short answer is that KZNA’s ‘belatedly’ claim is an outright lie.
The KZNA statement also picked up on a passing remark made by Judge Olsen, “It bears mention that, at the hearing, the Court asked why the matter could not be dealt with outside of the Courts? KZNA has agreed with this notion since 14 August 2024 and continues to do so.”
The answer given by Senior Counsel, Advocate Cas Pretorius, also representing the CMA Members pro bono, was that the parties have not attempted resolution since August because they don’t believe it would be possible.
When I asked Leathers, “Has KZNA actually taken any steps to resolve this matter outside of the courts?” His response was definitive, “Negative – they have taken no steps at all.” It also bears mentioning that Leathers was elected as Vice Chair of the CMA Board at the AGM in November. As KZNA President, Mkasi holds a seat on the Comrades Board (which was made a non-voting position at the November 2024 AGM) but has chosen not to attend any of the CMA Board meetings since the November AGM.
During his judgement, Judge Olsen did however chastise KZNA for making illogical and nonsensical arguments during today’s hearing.
For those just jumping into this saga late, it bears reminding that the original request by the CMA Members to the High Court for an interdict against KZNA came after KZNA President Steve Mkasi attempted a hostile takeover of Comrades. Less than 48 hours before a Special General Meeting (SGM), KZNA issued a unilateral and undemocratic ‘locals only’ edict stating that only CMA Members who live in KwaZulu Natal can vote and participate at the SGM.
READ MORE: The Idiots Guide to the Domicilium Rule
The SGM was called by CMA Members to address the “Vanillagate” scandal, well-founded allegations of corruption, maladministration and incompetence against various board members and staff, and the inexplicable firing of Race Manager Ann Ashworth after what most named the best organised event this century. The CMA has operated since inception, for over four decades, without any restrictions (domicile or otherwise) on membership other than that one either has to have run or volunteered at Comrades to join.
READ MORE: Has the Comrades Marathon been Captured (and why Ann Ashworth was fired)
The various controversies and revelations of corruption at Comrades House resulted in a large number of new CMA membership signups. The timing of the KZNA ‘locals only’ edict was clearly meant to maintain the status quo and prevent the democratic process from taking place.
Furthermore, there is clear evidence that a faction within Comrades closely aligned to Mkasi, had paid for and bought over around 240 memberships from the controversial Community Marshals Portfolio. In previous AGMs, the bought members were bussed to the venue and given sheets of paper telling them who to vote for in Board elections. This ethically questionable practice has been publicly acknowledged by Comrades as the ‘most powerful voting bloc’ at previous AGMs.
READ MORE: How They Captured Comrades
Based on the timing and nature of the ‘locals only’ decree (as well as KZNA’s unwillingness to discuss or postpone their edict until after the SGM), the CMA Members were left with no choice but to go to court. KZNA now claiming that ‘they’d like to resolve this out of court’ is like Russia invading Ukraine and then saying, ‘we’re fighting for peace’. In both cases, it is 100% clear who the aggressor is and, where things now stand, the easiest and most cost effective route for KZNA would be to withdraw opposition ahead of the review hearing.
Conservative estimates are that KZNA has spent at least R500,000 on legal fees and court appearances to date – and this is before the review hearing which will add several hundreds of thousands rands more to the total. There is also a high probability that a costs order will be made against KZNA making this both a frivolous and expensive exercise in ego flexing from Mkasi and Mngomezulu. Unfortunately, it is the local athletes that will suffer.
Mkasi in particular is prone to emotional outbursts. After the High Court Application on 14 August 2024 in which the judge ruled in favour of CMA Members against KZNA to allow non-KZN residents to speak and vote at the CMA Special General Meeting, Mkasi told attorney Mark Leathers, “If these are the games you want to play and not be subject to the authority of ASA or KZNA, then the race next year will not happen.” This was interpreted as Mkasi declaring that he would unilaterally prevent the 2025 Comrades event from taking place although he later denied this.
One of the topics unsurprisingly missing from the KZNA statement is that the KZNA executive are operating without a mandate or approval from their members. The KZNA constitution requires that any expense over R200,000 is formally approved at a council meeting by the athletics clubs within KZNA’s jurisdiction. This appears to be one of a series of flagrant violations of KZNA’s own constitution and adds weight to the opinion that KZNA are operating as a law unto themselves.
Mkasi and KZNA have not even put this on the agenda at council meetings despite requests to do so from various clubs. When the issue was raised at a council meeting last year, the KZNA executive closed the meeting before the topic could be discussed or voted on. This came after the KZNA executive lost a vote on another agenda item and it was clear that, should they continue, they would lose the vote on spending more money in what outside counsel has called an “unwinnable court case”.
READ MORE: Constitution Flouted: More Bad Debts on the Way for KZNA?
Based on the fact that the KZNA executive are operating without a mandate and that it is highly likely that the vast majority of KZN running clubs would not support further court expenses, it remains to be seen whether the members of the KZNA executive will be held personally liable for additional wastage on legal fees as well as the expected costs order against them. Mkasi and his running club, Phuma AC, already owe KZNA R386,000 from a costs order resulting from a court case he instituted and lost against KZNA in 2014 before his rise to power.
READ MORE: Time for Mkasi to “Pay Back the Money” to KZNA?
The KZNA statement concludes with, “KZNA would therefore like to assure all members, clubs, and stakeholders that it disagrees with the inaccurate social media “reporting” on the matter and reaffirms its stance on defending all regulatory structures.”
As the assumed source of allegedly “inaccurate social media “reporting”” I thought I’d send through a set of questions and clarifications to DJ Jazzy Mngomezulu. The questions are listed below:
Hi Mandla,
With regards the yesterday’s KZNA media statement issued in your name, I have the following questions:
* Do you consider yesterday’s result a victory for KZNA?
* Will the KZNA exec be asking for a mandate to continue opposing the CMA Members?
* Do you have any comment about the KZNA exec being in contravention of your own constitution having now spent well over R200,000 opposing this matter?
* Do you agree with the sentiment that, should a costs order be granted, that the KZNA exec should be held liable in their personal capacity as no council mandate was obtained to spend KZNA funds on this legal matter?
* Can you clarify exactly what KZNA has done to try and settle this matter out of court?
* Will KZNA attempt to recover the R386,000 owed to it by Steve Mkasi/Phuma AC to try and offset some of the court costs incurred?
* Can you provide a comment why only one female athlete (with a very slow 3h08 marathon time) was selected for the SA Marathon Champs held last weekend?
* Based on the above, do you think it’s fair to say that the current KZNA exec has failed to develop female distance athletics in one of the largest and most talented athletics provinces?
* Can you comment on why Jenna Challenor, the female winner of the race, was not selected for the KZNA team?
Regards,
Stuart
The terse reply I received from Mngomezulu is below:
Dear Stuart, thanks for the questions.
The KZNA's position is that:
1. You have already written an article about the same matter and posted on Facebook without seeking KZNA's version, (write {sic} of reply) why now?
2. KZNA is answerable to Clubs/Counsel, therefore questions of this nature can be answered to Clubs or credible media that subcribe {sic} to a reporting code and fall within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. At the moment we are not aware of any media house you are representing neither aware of any Club in KwaZulu-Natal you represent. On the above premises we are unable to answer your questions.
3. Lastly but not the least, KZNA will hold a media briefing during the course of next week where all media will be invited, your media house, if any, is welcomed to attend.
Kind Regards
READ MORE: Another Victory for CMA Members against overbearing KZNA
Well at least I wasn’t accused of cyberbullying or being a ‘Bell Pottinger’ this time. And I didn’t even ask what the disgraced Zinhle “Vanillagate” Sokhela was doing sitting next to Steve Mkasi in the courtroom.
I thought I’d shine the last blast of limelight on Spin Dr. Mngomezulu to allow him to close out his set in style and show off his 180° flip-flopping skills on the turntables. His media statement claims that KZNA, “reaffirms its stance on defending all regulatory structures.” Remember that the core of KZNA’s argument is that they want to limit membership of an independent body (the CMA non-profit company) to KZN residents. One of those standing for CMA Board positions at the November 2024 AGM was Gauteng resident Brenda Marolen.
I was therefore rather surprised to see a message from Mandla Mngomezulu popping up on my Facebook feed supporting Marolen ahead of the election, “I wish you good luck my friend. Congratulations for the nomination.”
Apparently, the myopic “locals only” objective is worth hundreds of thousands of rands to defend in court from the already stretched KZNA budget but it’s largely insignificant if one reads the personal comments of Mngomezulu. Clearly our resident Spin Doctor has applied a very literal interpretation of the Hippocratic oath.
I quickly questioned Mngomezulu on his apparent cognitive dissonance. Unfortunately the post was removed before I could copy his reply to me but essentially Mngomezulu said that he was, “Commenting in his personal capacity and was showing Ubuntu to a friend.” Ubuntu is fantastic, Ubuntu with common sense is even better.
Marolen was ultimately successful in her election to the CMA Board. Thankfully, after several years of controversies and inexplicable decisions (and despite KZNA’s attempted coup), the Comrades Board is now in harmony. How long we’ll have to put up with the discordant cacophony from Mkasi, Mngomezulu and the rest of the band of KZNA charlatans remains to be seen. Unfortunately, I’ve got a feeling that we’ll need to keep the earplugs in for a little longer.
Follow Running Mann:
Congratulations on another excellent article on this “Comrades Capture” debacle. KZNA must withdraw and stop this disgraceful behaviour. We support you and the new CMA board all the way.