KZN’s popular Mandela Day Marathon threatened by fierce ‘ownership’ battle

The celebrated Mandela month has come and gone and taken with it a highly popular road race. The Mandela Day Marathon, scheduled for August 27, has been “postponed” indefinitely, KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) has announced.

The provincial body said in a media statement that “the event would have coincided with another 21.1km and 10km race held in Durban that is also a KZNA 10km Championships”.

Steve Mkasi, the president of KZNA, was quoted as saying we “inadvertently took our eyes off the ball”, announcing in June that the Mandela Day Marathon would take place.

“In November 2022, Athletics South Africa (ASA) passed a rule that there should be no other athletic event held on the same day with provincial or national championships or national or international competition,” Mkasi said.

“We therefore have no alternative but to postpone the event.”

Mkasi said the race organisers would meet all relevant stakeholders to work out the next suitable date for the Mandela Day Marathon.

TimesLIVE Premium has, however, learnt that the reason for the “postponement” goes much deeper than just the clash with the KZNA 10km Championships. We have it on good authority that there is a fierce battle for the "ownership" of the Mandela Day Marathon between KZNA and both Chief Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe “Mandla” Mandela and RHoM Investments (Pty) Ltd, the financial brokering company of the Royal House of Mandela (RHoM).

While KZN Athletics announced in late June that the race would return to the calendar having last taken place before the Covid-19 pandemic, a legal battle has since raged between the provincial governing body and Mandela’s RHoM.

KZNA were initially served with a legal letter at the end of June informing them they had no right to use the name “Mandela Day Marathon” because Mandela and RHoM are the “holders of ownership and proprietary rights vesting in the marathon”, which was “conceptualised by Chief Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe Mandela”.

KZNA, however, says the race was not conceptualised by the chief but was the brainchild of the ANC provincial government after the party’s regional meeting in 2011. It was initially discussed as a one-off race as part of the ANC’s 100 years celebration in 2012 but was adopted by the provincial government as a legacy project.

KZNA and the government will work together to have the race go ahead under a different name in December. For now communication between KZNA and Mandla Mandela and his lawyers has ceased.

—  Source

The race starts at Manayi Hall in Edendale just outside Pietermaritzburg — the venue of the last public gathering Nelson Mandela addressed before his arrest in 1962. The finish line is at the Mandela Capture Site outside Howick, also outside Pietermaritzburg, where the former South African president was apprehended by the apartheid police on August 5 1962.

Legal discussions between KZNA and RHoM have apparently failed to see them reach an agreement prompting KZNA and the provincial government to cancel the race, or at least to not hold it this month.

A source close to the matter told TimesLIVE Premium: “KZNA and the government will work together to have the race go ahead under a different name in December. For now communication between KZNA and Mandla Mandela and his lawyers has ceased.”

The Mandela Day Marathon has been described as one of the toughest 42.2km races in the country, but its popularity knows no bounds, as many runners look to test themselves there. The race has attracted international runners, with Ethiopian Sintayehu Legese Yinesu a regular and multiple winner in the full marathon.

Lesotho runners including Teboho Noosi, Mabutile Lebopo and Lebenya Nkoka and Zimbabweans Lyno Muchenwa and Winfred Mutiro have been regular competitors.

South African runners Ntsindiso Mphakathi and Sikhumbuso Seme have often earned top five finishes.

Previous female winners include Zimbabwean Chiedza Chokore, Ethiopia’s Selam Abere Alebachew and her compatriot Sofiya Shemsu Chegen and Loice Jebet Kiptoo of Kenya.

The race also includes half-marathon and a 10km events and a trail run that often took place on the Saturday before the road races on a Sunday.

Mkasi was not available for comment at the time of publishing.