COMRADES MARATHON – THE POSTPONEMENT BRINGS TO THE FORE THE STRUGGLES IN THE 1970s TO GET THE ORGANISERS TO ALLOW RUNNERS OF ALL COLOURS TO PARTICIPATE

The postponement of the Comrades Marathon for this year (2020) because of the Corona Virus pandemic and lockdown is a development that will sadly inconvenience most of the long-distance runners. The runners have trained for months on end and it is really an unhappy development for the registered runners who looked forward to participating and completing the event.

But, while we share a thought for the runners, how many of you would recall that the Comrades Marathon was only open to all long- distance runners of all colours, without any restrictions whatsoever, only in the late 1970s.

Researching through my files of articles that I had written during the period that I had worked for the Durban Daily News between the early 1970s to late December 1980, I found that the Comrades Marathon, organised by Collegian Harriers of Pietermaritzburg, was restricted to whites only, despite vigorous campaigns since the early 1970s for the event to be open to long-distance athletes of all races. Anti-apartheid sports administrators had campaigned for the event to be open to all athletes despite the negative attitude of the organisers and even some white runners. The Comrades Marathon at this time was organised for more than 55 years but yet the organisers never considered it sporting enough to allow black athletes to also participate in the marathon. Right up to the late 1970s, the Collegian Harriers resorted to restricting the event to whites only even at a time when some white athletes also called for the race to be open all athletes. Prior to officially allowing black athletes to participate, a number of runners of colour used to take part, from the back of the field, as “unofficial” competitors since the early 1970s. One of these athletes was Simon Mkhize of Pietermaritzburg. Non-racial athletic clubs and associations for their part used to organise their own events, open to all athletes, including whites.

The sports clubs that organised some events before the Comrades Marathon was open to all athletes were the Sporting Club Alberton Callies, which organised the Goldtop Callies road race between Kearsney on the North Coast to Durban; and the Moorton Athletics Sports Club of Chatsworth which had indicated in March 1975 that it would organise an all-race event between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in view of the racial attitude of the Comrades organisers.

In 1973 15 athletes belonging to the Natal Road Runners Association wanted to participate in the Comrades Marathon but the organisers, the Comrades Marathon Committee, said they had not yet applied for blacks to participate in the marathon. Mr D Palframann, who was the secretary of the Collegians Harriers at that time, said all athletes wishing to take part in the event would have to belong to clubs associated to the white South African Amateur Athletics Association. But this was totally rejected by the Natal Road Runners Association, whose president Rajendra Chetty, said their athletes should be allowed to participate without any restrictions. This “baaskap” attitude continued for a number of years despite campaigns by many anti-apartheid organisations for the event to be open to all athletes.

Mr Chetty even called on the Mayors of Pietermaritzburg and Durban to prohibit the Comrades from starting and finishing in their cities because of the racist attitude of the organisers. “The impression I gain is that the organisers of the event are afraid of making the marathon a non-racial race,” said Mr Chetty. “I think they want to keep it exclusively for whites. But this cannot last because the Comrades is known internationally and sooner or later they will be forced to change their racial attitudes. “The climate is now ripe for the event to be open. It seems the Government is more open than the organisers,” said Mr Chetty at that time in 1973.

Another non-racial sports administrator at this time, Mr S K Chetty, who was secretary of the South African Soccer Federation Professional League, said he could not understand the attitude of the organisers. “The more people of all races participate, the better it will be for race relations,” said Mr Chetty. But the Mayors – who were all white – Mr Ron Williams of Durban and Mr J S Manson Smith of Pietermaritzburg, said they could not interfere in the policies of individual organisations. Mr Williams said he could not stop the organisers of the race from his city. “I do not have the powers to refuse permission. I believe the club has a right to run its affairs as it wants to,” said Mr Williams. Mr Manson Smith said: “We will only embitter the race groups if we do such a thing. Multiracial events must be allowed to take their course.”

In 1976 there was greater controversy when the organisers allowed 20 African, three coloured and three Indian athletes to participate in the event out of a total of nearly 2 000 runners. The organisers prevented the three “Indian” runners from qualifying for the return trip prize to England to compete in the London to Brighton road race because they were not affiliated to the white athletics union. “There is nothing to stop the 20 black or three coloured competitors from winning the trip but not the three Indians, until their body is affiliated to the South African Amateur Athletics Union,” pronounced Mr Mick Winn, who was president of the Collegian Harriers at that time. But his attitude was strongly condemned by Mr Dhanpal Naidoo, who was president of the Amateur Athletics Association of Natal at that time. He had said: “I don’t why they invite unaffiliated athletes if they are not prepared to provide them with all the facilities. “As far as we are concerned, we are not interested in affiliating to them because we don’t believe in multi-nationalism.”

The Comrades Marathon truly became a non-racial event only after the advent of our new South Africa in April 1994. The organisers, no matter how much they would have liked to impose restrictions on the entry of black runners, found themselves in a new environment where they could not dictate the terms any longer. - ends subrygovender@gmail.com May 16 2020