After what was undoubtedly the worst organised Two Oceans in the event’s 55-year history, and the shambles that followed, it’s great to see (and be part of) a much needed turnaround. However, we are still not quite out of the woods and this year’s AGM will be an important checkpoint to hopefully cement in a return to runner centricity and good governance.
Investigations Still Needed
There is likely to be a lot of discussion over the various issues experienced at the trail, ultra and half marathon as well as allegations of incompetence, corruption and extreme opportunism against specific board members and staff. The primary focus of the interim board, of which I was a member, has been on ensuring that the 2026 race goes ahead.
Personally, I have pushed for accountability and that formal, transparent investigations are conducted into those implicated. Some headway has been made but, because of the timing, this will be a problem for the post-AGM board to deal with.
Some of the accountability issues that still need formal investigation are:
- How a contract worth several hundred thousand rands was awarded to Liezel Short (the previous TOM NPC vice-chair and close personal friend of Toni Cavanagh) without comparative quotes being obtained and at a substantial increase from 2024 costs.
- How a board member allegedly (a) was able to obtain around 150 half marathon entries to give to his friends, family and running crew, (b) sold half marathon entries from his home during the week before the event despite knowing that the event was heavily oversubscribed and in breach of the City of Cape Town’s permit conditions, (c) was able to secure his wife an A seeding in the ultra despite her not being a ‘good for age’ category contender, (d) was able to arrange for members of his running crew to upgrade from the half to the ultra despite them never running a qualifier marathon, (e) facilitated the capture of fraudulent qualification times for runners he upgraded to the ultra and (f) was able to obtain a stand at the expo that was not paid for where he sold donated goods.
- How the High Court case against myself was approved and instigated and whether costs should be recovered from the implicated board members. A number of board members resigned when they read about the court action in the Sunday Times and it appears that a small clique that I’ll call ‘Toni se Cronies’ proceeded to spend hundreds of thousands of rands of the NPC’s money without following due process. The total cost of the ill-advised court action amounts to over R750,000.
Voting in the new Board
At Comrades, the entire board is elected by Comrades Marathon Association members but the TOM NPC is constituted quite differently:
- Four members are appointed by Celtic Harriers (who are the race founders and owner of the Two Oceans Marathon brand).
- Four members are appointed by Western Province Athletics (WPA).
- Four members are voted onto the board by ordinary members.
This means that only the four ordinary members are actually “voted on”. The terms are for two years. Celtics have retained Glenn Muller and Krishna Patel and have added Sandiswa Ndlebe and Professor Armand Bam. WPA have yet to formally announce their appointees but the four current appointees are expected to remain (Chris Goldschmidt, Nombini Zaku, Achmat Jacobs and Julius Oosthuizen). Three of the four ordinary board member positions are up for voting at the AGM and there are seven nominees.
Ordinary members get to vote for these three positions. Most of the ordinary members are runners who’ve earned a Blue Number on the ultra, half or trail but it also includes former board members, staff who’ve served ten years or longer and each WPA running club is also given an ordinary member vote. There are expected to be somewhere between 150 and 200 ordinary members attending the AGM.
The Nominees
I should fully disclose an obvious conflict of interest here as, after serving on the interim board as one of Celtic Harriers’ appointees, I have decided to stand for the board as an ordinary member.
One of the nominees, Achmat Jacobs, is currently an interim WPA appointed board member. If WPA includes him on their list of appointees (which is expected) then he will fall off the nominees list.
There are some very strong candidates to choose from. The only nominee that I know well is Ian Benson (after writing this article ahead of his 40th Two Oceans ultra finish). Wietse van der Westhuizen is probably the most well-known figure amongst the nominees for both his popular training runs in the Western Cape and his running achievements at Comrades and Two Oceans.
The only person I would warn against is the 2025 WPA appointee and apparent ‘Toni se Crony’, Allan Ryninks. Ryninks resigned from the board in May along with most other appointed board members after being requested to do so by WPA and Celtic Harriers. Ryninks may have served the Two Oceans well in previous years but there are massive questions around his actions (or lack thereof), especially as he was head of the governance portfolio during Cavanagh reign of ignominy. I’ve covered Cavanagh’s lies and ineptitude in detail previously so there is no need to dwell on the topic. The best you say about Ryninks is that he was entirely ineffectual as a board member.
Cheaters Still Prosper at Two Oceans
As head of governance, addressing cheating falls squarely in Ryninks’ remit yet he failed to act when a serial cheater (who has already been banned by Comrades) was reported by a committee member of Old Edwardians before the race along with extensive evidence.
The serial cheat, Anthony Naguriah, then proceeded to copy and paste his 2024 cheating tactics at the 2025 event by starting, disappearing for most of the race and then reappearing on the finish line. I reported this, together with substantial evidence to Ryninks who promised it would be addressed. Nothing was done and Naguriah is still listed as an official finisher*.
* I have subsequently found additional cheats by analysing the results data and, should I be elected to the board, will ensure that all allegations of cheating are properly investigated and dealt with.
I also reported a large number of other cheats to Ryninks (this was all before he and Cavanagh took me to court supposedly for jeopardizing the future of the event), most of which were sent to me by whistleblowers. This included bib fraud by a prominent Instagram influencer and her surgeon husband, Kelly and Neill van der Walt, which received a great deal of publicity at the time. The remaining cheats were more innocuous (mainly bib swapping) but the list does include another prominent Instagram influencer and one person who thanked and tagged a friend on social media for “coming through for me like a hero three days before the race” and that “next year I am coming back as myself.” Once again, promises made, promises broken – leading onto our next section.
Promises Made, Promises Broken
For some unknown reason, it takes a year to release the minutes of the previous AGM but they can be found here: https://media.twooceansmarathon.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/12102319/TOM-2024-AGM-MINUTES.pdf
Under ‘3.4 Medical’, the below was minuted:
A response to a later question from Ian Bocock highlights the seriousness of the problem with bib banditting:
The lack of action despite all the talk and promises speaks for itself. In fact I think that the only item that the previous board was successfully able to action was taking me to court.
Two Reports, One Very Unreliable Narrator
At the first meeting of the reconstituted interim board in July, Toni Cavanagh stepped down as chairperson under duress. This has resulted in two chairpersons reports for this AGM:
Cavanagh’s version of events: https://media.twooceansmarathon.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/11165547/Chairpersons-Report_Oct24-to-July-2025vs2.pdf
Interim Board’s version of events: https://media.twooceansmarathon.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/11165536/Interim-Board-Report-2025.pdf
Cavanagh has been caught out in blatant lies on several occasions so anything she pens must always be taken with enough salt to shut down your kidneys. Cavanagh has made more whoppers than Burger King but to give her credit the report is well written. Much like the author, the presentation layer is great but it lacks substance – and the moment you start to do a little scratching, the thin veneer of credibility falls apart.
You can read Cavanagh’s distort and decide for yourself but there is zero accountability or even acknowledgement for most of the problems that occurred. There are many notable omissions and stretching of the truth. If Cavanagh wanted to exit with grace she could have done so with a well worded apology but she’ll be remembered as the chair who almost destroyed Two Oceans.
One extrapolation that does need to be highlighted is the admission that it was the permit breach, not an alleged heat wave, that resulted in the half marathon route shortening and change in start times. After the 2024 board was caught out lying to the running public in the ‘digimag scandal’ it really is deplorable that the 2025 board continued with the blatant lies. And this is just one of many examples of severe lapses of integrity and truthfulness under Cavanagh’s leadership.
It sounds like Cavanagh is planning to attend the AGM to present her report and ‘set the record straight’. This should make for some interesting media coverage. I expect she’ll be light on facts and heavy on playing the same race and gender cards that she tried unsuccessfully in the High Court.
Even if Cavanagh does lay one last turd on the table at the AGM, the good news is that her ship has now well and truly sailed. Although a retiring board member is allowed to stand for re-election without requiring a nomination at the AGM, the intention to do so has to be made 14 days beforehand. As she sails into the sunset, I wish Toni many long hours in the woods and trust that she’ll add many more marathons to her Cavanaugh count.
I would advise everyone to take a read through the Interim Board Report. I am comfortable that this is an accurate account of events and it is very heartening that the majority of the interim board have chosen an approach of acknowledge, apologise and take accountability. Two Oceans hit rock bottom in 2025 but I’m confident in the competence of the Celtic Harriers and WPA appointees as well as the calibre of the ordinary member nominees so that 2026 will see a return to the dignity and status of my personal favourite ultra marathon.
Logistics
The 2025 Two Oceans Marathon NPC AGM is scheduled for 6pm on Thursday 25 September. Attendance can be online or in-person at Southern Sun Newlands, 7 Main Road, Newlands, Cape Town.
Although RSVPs have closed, advice from the Company Secretary is that all NPC members should be allowed to attend whether they RSVPed or not. I would encourage all Blue Number Club members to attend. However, if you have not RSVPed and still plan to attend, I would suggest emailing info@twooceansmarathon.org.za or risk delaying the start of the meeting.
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YOH, some board member was (allegedly) smousing entries out his “car boot”! whoo boy, this should be interesting.
Rogue runners will always be there if you have inflexible substitution methods. 2025 TOM subs closed 3 March – 5 weeks before race day, life happens. Swap entries out at expo as last resort, let new runner start at back (and charge them for it). Everyone is happy.
150 half-marathon entries, x 2024 price of R420 = R63,000, = Common Theft. And he wasnt just giving away but selling them! Ooh ouch – its so much the board may have a duty to lay charges.
Apparently they were invoiced and paid for (the timing of when the payments were made needs to be investigated as there are cases where people have only paid after the fact when they were caught out). It does need a full, transparent investigation. For a heavily oversubscribed, ballot selected race to provide a board member with a large number of entries for his own followers and to further his business interests would be highly irregular.
Hi Stuart
Out of interest, why is it not possible to have a substitution table at registration? A small admin fee and transfer of details shouldn’t be that onerous.
I understand this is more admin, but as you highlight, for the sake of safety and the medical staff, why not make this possible? I think that this is the only realistic way of minimizing the number of people running with someone else’s number.
Hi Phil, if there is a reason it could be for insurance purposes (but I doubt it and if everything is done correctly that should not apply). I suspect that it is a legacy issue that no longer applies with technology advances. Assuming that I am still on the board post AGM, I will bring this up.
I also agree that the problem of bib banditting will not go away so rather change the system to adjust to natural human behaviour.
I didn’t see in your still to be investigated, How Stillwater was awarded the contract to run the 2026 TOM event? Were you part of appointing them? They’re the agent for the main sponsor Totalsports. Is this not a conflict of interest? What about other companies who are able to do this, were they given the opportunity to submit their offer? What will your investigation reveal or are you skipping this one?
Yes, everything above board although the interim’s hand was forced. Nothing to hide here. The potential conflict of interest was noted and discussed (there are actually potential conflicts of interest with almost every partner due to the nature of the industry). There was a meeting with the City of Cape Town where they gave an ultimatum to the board that a staging partner had to be selected within 7 days or there would be no race. This was due to continual broken promises by Cavanagh’s board and previous boards. A press release was issued stating this and that everyone is welcome to submit proposals. Of the approaches, there were two companies that had the experience and staffing to organise an event like Two Oceans. Both had previously engaged with Cavanagh’s board. They presented to the interim board (two board members recused themselves as they had conflicts of interest with one of the companies) and the interim board voted. Stillwater was the successful party. I personally noted my displeasure at having a gun held to our heads for such an important decision because of the sins of Cavanagh and her board. You are very welcome to ask direct questions on this at the AGM.
I would also say that based on how quickly Stillwater have hit the ground running and the improvement in many areas, I am confident that the right selection was made.
I would like to suggest that the ultra starts at 6am and not at 515am for following reasons:
Cape town sunrise is approximately 715am meaning we run two hours in the dark which can result in some runners falling.
It is already cool in April so no need to start so early
The race is only 56km not 90km (Comrades) so everyone must be finish by 1pm if we start at 6am assuming the cutoff is 7 hours
Why can’t the timing be mat to mat to do away with the batch cheating and which is much fairer and professional
Hi Ebrahim, I think the issue is the pressure from the City to open the road again. At Comrades there is little impact with the road closures as there are lots of alternate routes but that is not the case with Two Oceans and some residents are ‘blocked in for the day’. Personally, I much prefer a single mass start rather than the wave starts we have now. However, once again the wave starts of just over 1000 runners per wave are there because of the City’s requirements on health and safety.
I think I missed it here, but why can NPC members only vote on 3 of the 4 Ordinary Board Member positions? Who is the 4th member and why?
The fourth is Ashraf Orrie (one of ‘Toni se Cronies’) who still was elected in 2024 and still has a year left on his term.
Why not name the board member who “secured” the 150 entries? In the other investigation bullet points, you name the parties.
No special reason, just the way it came out when I wrote the article.
Who is that board member?
One and the same Ashraf Orrie.
Hopefully that investigation is conducted, and the necessary actions taken whatever the outcome.
In your article you said that a few things need to be investigated, including “How a board member allegedly (a) was able to obtain etc…” and you did not name the board member. Now you have named him. Does this mean that investigations have confirmed that all the allegations made against Ashraf Orrie are true?
The allegations are all based on well-founded evidence and witness accounts, i.e. they all happened. Orrie needs to have a chance to provide his side of the story (I did personally have a long conversation with him prior to joining the board, he was not able to provide a rational explanation for any of the allegations). A formal investigation would need to be approved by the new board but, regardless of whether I am on that board or not, I think that the board would be in violation of their fiduciary duties if they do not do an investigation.
Excellent article Running Mann.
Good luck with your nomination tomorrow. I hope you get elected.
On a side note, I am a little disappointed with the apparent lack of performance of Allen Ryninks. Although I don’t know him that well, I have always considered him to be a person of integrity. Perhaps he would like an opertunity to respond.
We don’t need nice guys on the Two Oceans board but people with integrity and competence. Please BNC members, scrutinise the people who are nominated especially those without pedigree and those who have a conflict of interest in the procurement process.
Thank you kindly for a well written article Stuart Mann. We need people with integrity to keep sports clean and enjoyable. I hope the people that tarnished this event for selfish personal gains, are never allowed back, unless they pay back every penny that was stolen from us runners, wether we newbies or blue numbers.
Thanks again and regards. God bless 🙏🤲
Thank you for the article and well done on your election. I attended the AGM from my laptop and was not impressed. The race director’s report was long and tedious and went into details not relevant to issues. The chair did not allow reports to be adopted. Norrie moved that the reports should be rejected which I seconded in the questions box online. When the chair went through the online questions he ignored my action. The chair either did not see my note or deliberately ignored it. I took a screenshot. I am happy about the new board members. I am not happy with the composition of the board in terms of the nominations from Celtic and WPA. That must change. The lack of action from some previous board members contributed to the havoc. Some of them should also contribute to the costs of the lawsuit. I am happy that the race will continue. I have entered the race but not paid yet and I am wondering if I should run it. I am confident that some of the board members will have impact, but will it be enough to see truthfulness and sanity return?
Thanks for taking the time to attend and participate in the AGM. I would have been very happy to reject Cavanagh’s report. Chris G did cover this in a comment that there is no provision in the MOI to actually reject or accept a chair’s report (unlike the minutes and financial statements). It basically is what it is and hopefully the minutes reflect that a large number of members were unhappy with Cavanagh’s report and did not feel it was honest or accurate.
As for the WPA and Celtics appointees – there is only one from Cavanagh’s original board. All the others were brought in as interim board in July. The only other remaining ‘Toni se Crony’ is Ashraf Orrie. A full investigation into the large number of allegations against him needs to happen and, unless there are rationale explanations for this actions, he should be removed as a director. It does appear that he outright lied in his response during the AGM.