On a Tuesday evening in Ivory Park, Tembisa just two weeks before Comrades, aspirant novice runner Prince Ṋemuṱanzhela was relaxing with his family at home. Comrades training is hard work and Prince had trained hard. It was now time to taper and get the body and mind ready for a first journey between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
Prince was chatting to a friend while his wife Asnath was getting their two young children, a 12-year-old son and 4-year-old-daughter, ready for bed. Their eldest, a 19-year-old daughter, was also in the house. The relaxed atmosphere was shattered when two men with guns burst into the living room and started making demands.
Prince and his friend froze in shock and the armed robbers responded by shooting both men. Prince was shot through the right arm. He was lucky, the bullet went through his arm missing bone and arteries. His friend was not so lucky and was killed.
Prince’s wife had locked herself and the children in a bedroom. One of the robbers grew agitated and shot indiscriminately through the wall despite knowing that there were young children inside. Prince’s wife shielded the children but was shot twice and critically injured. She had to spend several weeks in hospital and was only released last week.
Whilst recovering, both mentally and physically in the hospital, Prince knew that his Comrades dream was over. Taking care of his wife and kids in the aftermath of a violent home invasion became his priority. But a wife always knows best and Asnath knew that what Prince needed was a 12-hour dose of the Ultimate Human Race to heal his body and rid his mind of the mental demons that were plaguing him. She insisted that Prince travel down to KwaZulu Natal and run Comrades as planned. Prince said, “She told me, ‘You need to prove yourself’ and insisted I go.” Prince’s doctor was happy with his recovery and gave the all-clear.
Prince has a lovely way of describing why he decided to listen to his wife and run Comrades even after being shot. Shortly after the ordeal he told a friend that he’s running Comrades because, “He wants a new mind.” I asked him about this and he explained, “I said to myself, ‘You’ve trained very hard and you’ve got a strong mind. Let me try to do it – it does not matter if I finish or not.’”
Prince is one of those people who makes a positive impression on everyone he meets. Born in Venda, he moved to the highveld 40 years ago and has been working as a security officer at the Irene Dairy Farm for the last 23 years. If you’ve ever visited the farm or bought milk there you will almost definitely have met and been greeted by the gregarious Prince (even if you didn’t know his name). All the regulars at the Irene Dairy Farm know Prince by name. Prince is one of those gems that every business dreams of having in a customer facing role. Your mood is guaranteed to improve when you visit the Irene Dairy Farm and are warmly greeted by Prince.
One of the people that Prince befriended was Morag Phillips. During the dark days of Covid lockdowns, Morag was suffering from the cloud of depression and estrangement from the human race that was afflicting most of us social beings. When restrictions were slightly relaxed, people in the Irene community were allowed to walk to the dairy ‘one at a time’.
Morag jumped at the opportunity for a, “Walk to the dairy for a bit of breather and some fresh air.” On the first walk she met Prince and they got chatting. The walk to the dairy became a daily ritual and Prince and Morag quickly became friends. Prince was the kind of positive influence everyone needed, Morag recalls, “He is such an incredibly positive person. If you ask Prince how he’s doing, his answer is always, ‘Hundreds!’”
Prince had just started running. During one of their daily conversations, Morag warned Prince about a dangerous area where there were reports of solo runners being robbed and assaulted. Prince looked concerned and a couple of days later asked Morag, “Would you mind running with me?” In retrospect, Morag realises that this was because Prince was worried about her running alone. They agreed to run together that Saturday and have been running together ever since, “He’s been keeping me going all these years.”
The small group calls themselves, “The Royal Runners” because of several regal connotations. Prince needs no explanation but Morag also means ‘princess’ in Scottish Gaelic and another member of the group, Sbu, is fondly known as ‘King of the Road’. In addition, the group treats each other ‘like royalty’ but Prince is the cornerstone that keeps the group going.
As for how he got started running, Prince said, “I used to run at school and decided that my favourite sport was running. I got motivation from one of my friends [Morag] – she said she wanted to run with me. She gave me motivation.”
Morag encouraged Prince to run a marathon, “She said, ‘You look good. You can do a marathon’. I said, ‘No, no , no.’ She said, ‘Yes, you can do it!’”. Sbu drove Prince to Mbombela for the Kaapsehoop Marathon for his first marathon.
After running Kaapsehoop, Morag upped the ante and told Prince, “‘You look good. You can run Comrades”. Once again, Prince responded “No, no, no!” but Morag was insistent. Her, “Yes, you can do it!” won the day and Prince entered Comrades. In between, Prince also ran the Om Die Dam 50k and the Irene 48k ultras.
Morag and her husband went down to Comrades to support Prince (as well as one of Morag’s sisters who was also running). Prince was quick to acknowledge the support from Morag as well as his running club, Irene AC, “I joined Irene two years ago. It’s an amazing club and very nice people – they encourage and support you as well. I had a terrible accident but they all said, ‘Prince go and you will finish’. I really, really, really appreciate their support.”
When you have faced the worst that humanity has to offer and have stared death in the eyes, when you’ve seen your friend die in front of you and when the mother of your children is callously shot in your own home it’s easy to lose faith in humanity. Luckily there is one place where everyone’s faith in humanity can be restored no matter what they’ve had to endure.
Prince lined up at the start of the 98th Comrades marathon as a wounded man. He spent 11 hours 48 minutes and 41 seconds healing. There was no one prouder to receive a medal that day. Violent crime is a terrible scourge that affects all South Africans. Prince Ṋemuṱanzhela could have been a statistic but instead he rose above and became an inspiration.
Afterword
Behind every great Comrades runner, there’s a great spouse… I thought this was a lovely insight. Comrades runners are tough but their spousal supporters are often even tougher: After Asnath was released from hospital, Morag asked Prince whether it was difficult for his wife to be back at home on the first night. Prince replied, “No, she’s much stronger than me.”
