These days it seems that provincial athletics unions are trying to outdo each other in idiocy. Athletics Griqualand West (AGW) take the early lead for Mampara of the Month Award by incorrectly disqualifying KHS Founders Half Marathon winner Onnalenna Khonkhobe, admitting that their senior race referee does not know the rules but refusing to rectify the situation and reinstate him as the race winner.
Onnalenna Khonkhobe is hot property in running circles. He is a rare and unique talent and has a personality that writes its own headlines. Most races would fight to have his winning smile on their start line and would relish the PR possibilities when Khonkhobe crosses their finish line in first position.
PR possibilities are few and far between in Kimberley, one of the smallest running communities in South Africa. Just 1% of the Comrades field (fewer than 200 entrants) hail from the Northern Cape. But on 16 May 2026, there was Onnalenna Khonkhobe at the start line of the little-known KHS Founders Half Marathon. Just over an hour later, Khonkhobe arrived at the school fields for a comfortable 1:04:13 victory. And yet if you look at the official results you’ll see that the ‘winner’ came in well over a minute later – Ambitious Masihleho in 1:05:37.
Khonkhobe made a mistake that many of us have done when travelling – he forgot his ASA license numbers at home. Fortunately, many years ago the administrators addressed this problem by introducing the concept of a temporary license. In fact in today’s verbose and convoluted 176-page ASA rulebook, rule 25.6.3 explicitly still states, “Temporary Licenses will be issued to unlicensed athletes to enable them to compete as individuals in sanctioned competitions; and to conditionally cater for licensed athletes who have left their licence number(s) at home.”
Khonkhobe is a professional athlete who follows the rules. He’s one of the most famous faces in road running but didn’t ask for any special favours. On race morning he quietly bought himself a temp license so that he could race legally. Imagine his surprise after crossing the finish line when confronted by Chief Race Referee Tahtaetsile Moremedi and being told that he was disqualified for “running in club kit with a temporary license.”
As I’ve already mentioned there are a lot of rules in ASA’s book but there is no rule preventing someone from running in club kit with a temporary license number. In fact there are no stipulations at all under the several pages of Section 24 that deals with ‘Clothing’ rules about licensed athletes running in temporary licenses.
On the contrary, the rules explicitly allow athletes to wear what they like provided they don’t break advertising or marketing rules. As per rule 24.9.1, “Club clothing to a specific design or colour is optional and not compulsory for licensed athletes at entry level participating as individuals in competitions as specified in ASA rules 1.1.e to 1.1.g.”
There is a lot of debate about artificial intelligence (AI) replacing humans. Therefore, it is good to know that AGW race referees are even better at coming up with hallucinations than AI engines are. For years AGW officials have been incorrectly disqualifying recreational runners for “running in club kit with a temporary license” despite there being no rule or stipulation to support this punishment. Protests have fallen on deaf ears. Whenever I’ve sent enquiries through to AGW in the past I’ve got crickets in response. It appears that AGW are a law unto themselves.
Whilst they don’t fear killing the sport that pays their salaries and keeps them in positions of power, fortunately there is one law that our over officious officials do fear – and that is the rule of law. Sadly, the only way to get action from these people (who should be serving the runners rather than acting like evil overlords) is to go the legal route. Enter Mark Leathers…
Here’s is Leather’s legal view of the matter, “What I am seeing below is that simply AGW is not prepared to accept any accountability for the sheer incompetence of the race referee on the day. Their own appointed technical official messed up to the point of gross negligence and there is no escaping that. The buck stops here with the AGW body who clearly are responsible for this mess through their appointed chief referee and are now deviously attempting to escape responsibility.”
Leathers lays down the law concluding, “The race organiser similarly is not prevented in law from taking the correct decision and still paying Mr Khonkhobe his prize money.”
I have received a series of emails between Nedbank Running Club Team Manager Nick Bester and Callie Hendricks, the AGW Office Manager. In the first message Bester points out that there is no rule preventing an athlete from running with a temporary license in club kit, attaches the relevant section of the ASA rulebook, a video of Khonkhobe winning the race and further cites World Athletics (WA) rules supporting his case (ASA were recently admonished by WA for incorrectly trying to restrict sponsored athletes for running in sponsors’ kit).
Bester concludes his email with, “I request to reinstatement Onnalenna Khonkhobe immediately as race winner and pay his promised prize money of R15,500 by end of the business day today after which legal action will be taken and ATHLETICS AGW will be responsible for the Legal Costs.”
The following day Bester received an effusive reply from Hendricks. Amongst the waffle, Hendricks concedes that there is no official rule that should have resulted in a disqualification but could give a few politicians a run for their money with the trite, “We acknowledge your reference to the ASA rule regarding temporary licenses. However, the matter before the officials on race day related to the application of race and competition procedures at the event, which were dealt with by the appointed technical officials and race management at the time.”
This seems to suggest that AGW give their race referees free reign to make up the rules as they go along. Furthermore Hendricks tried to deflect from the real issue – that the legitimate winner is being denied his rightful earnings – by stating that since Khonkhobe did not object to the disqualification within 30 minutes of finishing he cannot do so now.
However, this appears to be factually incorrect. In a reply email to Hendricks, Bester calls this “a solid lie”. According to Bester, Pio Mpolokeng (Onnalenna Khonkhobe’s manager and coach), “Went immediately to the chief race referee because he heard there was something wrong. This was done within 30 minutes and Pio Mpolokeng and I went to Pulani [Pharasi], the race director and she did not want to listen to anything that Molokeng was saying.” Essentially, between Pharasi and Moremedi, they denied Khonkhobe’s right to submit an appeal.
In further irony, Nedbank Kimberley were one of the main sponsors of the event and this sordid scenario places any future sponsorships within the province at risk. Nedbank’s marketing manager and head of sponsorships has been made aware of the situation and will no doubt be very cautious when considering any future engagements with AGW.
In disputes of this nature, it is sometimes easy to forget that there is a human being prejudiced. It’s time to give the real winner of the race, Onnalenna Khonkhobe, the floor. Khonkhobe explained that he’s been an elite athlete for seven years, is very well versed with the rules and has “never seen such unfair behaviour from ASA technical officials in my life.”
Khonkhobe continued, “I am very disappointed. I ran very hard to earn some prize money and did nothing wrong according to the rules of ASA. I will never go to a race in that province again. I will use my talent and entertain spectators in all the other provinces in South Africa.”
The impact of losing the first placed prize is a big one for an athlete like Khonkhobe, “I must use my talent to earn a living and to give publicity to my loyal sponsors – Nedbank, Nike, Biogen, Thirsti and NMI so that they keep paying my monthly salary. I was looking forward to earning that R15,500 deserved prize money but in vain because of the mistakes of incompetent ASA technical officials.”
Our professional athletes deserve professional administrators and officials.
Recently, athletics officials have had a lot to say on non-issues but get all coy and quiet when questioned on genuine problems. I contacted AGW president, Thato Setlholo, to get a statement but got brushed aside with, “The federation and hosting club are busy with the dispute. At this stage I will not issue premature statements before we finalize the whole matter.”
I continued to probe with, “But are you not concerned that your referees are making up their own rules?”
Setlholo remained coy, “I think you want my opinion on a matter that I’ve just indicated is under investigation. Please respect our process and give us space to investigate without any pressure.”
I responded with, “I think I am asking a President to show leadership. I am planning to publish an article tomorrow on this topic.”
The short conversation concluded with a “Good night” from our sleepy president.
Questions to the AGW Office Manager, Callie Hendricks, went unanswered and unacknowledged. Just another day of unadmonished amateurism from South African athletics officials. However, if AGW do decide to challenge their illegal application of the temporary license rule in court it will cost them a lot more than the R15,500 that they owe Onnalenna Khonkhobe.
If truth were to be told, they probably have already paid out the prize winners money to the runner who actually came second. The piggy bank is now empty.
I hope Ambitious Masihleho and other prize winners are supporting Onnalenna’s case.
If I were them, once it’s confirmed the DSQ was incorrect, I’d repay the difference between prize money earned and what I received, as I did not actually earn and deserve it. It’s not just officials who need to act honourably, athletes must support each other in fairness, too, as next time they might find themselves on the wrong side or an erroneous decision.
Must be hundreds of runners each week in club colours and temp licenses. Imagine all of them getting DQd and not being able to claim their vitality points. Civil unrest in the suburbs.
Unbelievable! Integrity is something sorely missing.
The officials mentioned and pictured in this article deserve no legal mercy whatsoever.
Stupidity knows no bounds, corruption is real…
Fire the incompetent bunch
Based on the latest “rules manufacturing”, I think ASA must revisit the whole process (re-publish updated rules or re-train officials).
Same as SA politicians, appointed in top positions but less litteracy and more stupidity and sturborness.
I advise that Nedbank Running Club take legal action ASAP to ensure that justice is done to the true winner of the race🏆. Anyone can make a mistake. Learn from your mistake and move forward. It is as simple as that.