Comrades runner Hlengani Mathebula didn’t allow accident to deter his need to give back to his home villages

When businessman Hlengani Mathebula tore his rotator muscle in his shoulder in a car accident last year, he feared he wouldn’t run again and it would hinder his efforts to contribute to his community.

Despite the recuperation time and interrupted training, Mathebula put in the work to recover from his injuries to run this year’s Comrades Marathon in 11:41:52. 

Mathebula was involved in a car accident in Hanover Park while on his way to run the Cape Town Marathon in October last year.

“I didn’t think post that [accident] I was going to run because you need your shoulder when you are running,” he said.

He said it took immense effort and a lot of mental strength to be able to wake up very early most days. He would run about 20km a day from Monday to Thursday, doing about 80km on average every week, and 20km to 30km over the weekend.

“It took a lot of discipline, but when you do this for a cause bigger than you, you always know that is a bigger task,” he said.

“I run to raise awareness around children in rural areas who do not have sanitary towels, books and shoes to be able to go to school.”

Clad in a Xibelani skirt, Mathebula runs marathons and races around the country to raise awareness and contribute to children in four villages in and around Malamulele in Limpopo through his Xibelani Foundation.

He found the Comrades tougher than usual this year because it was held in August, instead of June when the weather is colder.

This also meant he trained through winter to run in spring.

“The fact that the weather changed midway from hot to windy and then drizzling didn’t make matters easy. It was quite tough,” he said.

The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown also affected his consistency.

“This was my third marathon, I have not been running the Comrades for a long time. The first was in 2018 and my second in 2019.”

On top of that, “down runs [like the 2022 race] are always difficult because they are a bit tough on your knees”.

He made it — to applause from those who know him and the packed stadium at the finish line.

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