The R400 000 could have gone a long way to help coach South Africa's future athletic hopefuls.
If you complete a 42.2km standard marathon, at sea-level, in five hours and 27 minutes you are, to be frank, not an athlete.
Nor would you, 27 minutes outside the Comrades Marathon qualifying time, be a runner either.
You are a jogger, plain and simple. And there is nothing wrong in that.
It’s a healthy hobby and many joggers go on to become runners – although being a true elite athlete is a dream for the vast majority of human beings.
And, if you are a jogger and wish to run the New York City Marathon, go ahead – and good luck to you.
That’s the same wish we would have had for the roughly 170 other South Africans who completed this year’s event.
However, the issue we have with you, Zandile Lorraine Mhlongo – a civil servant employed by state entity uMngeni-uThukela Water in KwaZulu-Natal – is that you used almost R400 000 of taxpayer money to do the oncein-a-lifetime trip.
ALSO READ: OPINION: Without enough support, South Africa will lose more athletes
You showed temerity in making a pitch for the sponsorship.
But shame on your bosses for allowing this egregious waste of public cash.
There are thousands of young athletes who would have relished the opportunity to do that marathon – and who would have done us proud, rather than finished at the back of the “mainly walked” category.
There are even Olympic-winning medallists who have toiled to bring our country glory and have had to rely on friends and family, as well as sponsors, to do so.
That R400 000 could have gone a long way to help coach our future hopefuls.
Athletics has, despite a lack of interest and support from both government and the private sector, been doing wonders for the image of South Africa abroad.
This despicable freeloading by our government entity leeches is an insult to all hard-working, patriotic athletes.
NOW READ: Ska Fela Moya: Organisers launch 2026 Comrades Marathon
