A third date was announced this week for the annual race.
I really feel for the custodians and the organisers of the Soweto Marathon.
Most of the confusion around this year’s race hasn’t been caused by them. It has been caused by rogue members of the Soweto Marathon Trust who think they own the race.
Despite the majority of the clubs in Soweto (the real custodians) doing everything they can to ensure the race goes ahead, the people still hanging onto their positions in the Trust have exposed themselves.
While the clubs have created a non-profit company to drive the event forward, the people claiming the Trust owns the race (which is incorrect) have insisted it should be cancelled. They have even threatened to sabotage the race to ensure it doesn’t go ahead.
It’s like the story of King Solomon offering to cut a baby in half to determine who the real mother was because the mother would never agree to such a horrific act.
The real custodians of the Soweto Marathon would not call for the race to be cancelled. If they really cared, they would step back and give their baby to someone else before they allowed that to happen.
Another change to race date
However, as much as the Soweto clubs and the organisers have fought to ensure the race goes ahead, they slipped up this week.
With all the confusion being caused, runners are no doubt reluctant to enter because they don’t want to waste their money, and there are other races they can enter.
So, after the organisers announced this week that the date had been changed again, anyone who was sitting on the fence can no longer be blamed for not entering.
The first date announced was 2 November, but it was shifted to 30 November, apparently because the organisers were trying to avoid a clash with preparations for the G20 Summit.
But someone dropped the ball because it was later discovered that a Zion Christian Church gathering was being held in Nasrec on 30 November, so this week they shifted it again to 29 November.
It’s unclear whether the error was caused by the organisers or provincial body Central Gauteng Athletics, which must approved race dates, but either way, the announcement of the initial change was premature.
Adding fuel to the fire
As hard as the custodians of the race have worked to overcome challenges behind the scenes, with people trying to slice their baby in half, more fuel has been added to a fire that was already threatening to chase people away.
Unfortunately, with all the confusion that has already been caused, this might be the final nail in the coffin for the innocent infant that has done nothing wrong, caught in the middle between the real mother and those claiming to be the mother.
Hopefully people will retain their confidence that no more issues will create additional confusion, and they will still enter the race (entries are available on the Soweto Marathon website).
It will be a real shame if runners stay away, and the people who must accept almost all of the blame will be the ones claiming they want to see their baby die.
