How Comrades feat changed Gatebe’s life
Champ buys taxi with portion of his R1.1m bounty
Comrades Marathon champ David Gatebe, a former petrol attendant, has refused to let the R1.1-million he pocketed last year go to his head.
“A lot of things have changed in my life since last year. I now have a sponsored eight-roomed house and I bought myself a Quantum taxi to ferry learners for an extra income.
“I live better. I can afford certain things but I’m still the [same] old person. I’m still employed at the mine and I live between my old shack and my new house,” he said.
On Sunday, Gatebe, 35, will be defending his title on the 87km up-run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. He spoke to Sowetan yesterday on his return from a gruelling eightweek training camp in Dullstroom, Mpumalanga.
When Gatebe, a married father of two boys, was crowned champion for his recordbreaking effort, he had been living in a one-room shack in Sunrise Park township in Rustenburg, North West, surviving off a minimum-wage job as a sports clerk for Impala Platinum Mines.
It seems little has changed, if you don’t count the many motivational talks to pupils across the country and an appearance in the 100km World Championships in Spain last year, where he came 12th.
Gatebe has invested most of his winnings in his children’s education while his coach, John Hamlett, placed him in a programme where he gets financial guidance from auditor David Devontier in Potchefstroom. Devontier has also worked with 2015 Comrades winner Gift Kelehe, who is in Gatebe’s TomTom Club that will field eight runners in Durban.
“Money is a tricky thing. People can love you or hate you for it. I’ve had some long-forgotten relatives asking me for money. I politely reject them if I realise that their reasons are not good enough,” Gatebe said.
Hamlett interjected that he sometimes had to play
“bad cop” with Gatebe because of his soft nature.
“I applaud him. He has kept his head together. I’ve seen guys who go wild and think they are everything after winningaR30 000prize.”
Gatebe said his wife was not a big fan of running when he was starting out.
“We’d argue about something and I’d just put on my takkies and run to cool off. When I returned home she would shout at me for leaving the house in the middle of an argument. When I won I showed her the money and said, ‘look what my running has brought us’.”
For the first time, Gatebe’s family will be at the race to support him.
“It means a lot to me. Last year’s race was very long and lonely. It pained [me] not to have them there,” he said.
He plans to relocate his family from Kroonstad to Rustenburg after the marathon.
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