Remember the past or stay in wilderness

IN 1975, the sport apartheid policy of South Africa was relaxed to allow participation but no social interaction.

This created a gap for eight coloured athletes to become the first South African blacks to participate in the Two Oceans ultra-marathon.

They were John Korasie, Dolf Dampies, Jan Erasmus, Johannes Johannes, Manie Smith, Jakob

Rooi, Chris Davids and Jannie Carolissen.

From an anti-apartheid activist point of view they were considered sellouts, even though not one of them understood why they should not participate. They just wanted to run and test their stamina against white athletes.

The curiosity to discover white people was also a factor.

Some of the athletes who ran that year have died.

Smith still stays in Matjiesfontein, Carolissen is out in Riebeek West and the remainder live in the Paarl/ Wellington area.

Forty-three years after participating in the Two Oceans they have still not been invited back to this great sporting event.

This boggles the mind. Many would say that these athletes sinned by running with whites.

In those days the racism was so bad that we had to run in pairs to help each other. The attitudes of whites were blunt.

We could not run in a white “bus” in the race. It was only the UCT students and Celtic Harriers who allowed us to run with them and in the race Dampies was helped by the now-famous professor, Tim Noakes.

Carolissen, then 14 years old, was paced to a world record by the older Korasie.

The others went through hell.

They ran with no assistance.

I believe the Two Oceans marathon organisation should reimburse these athletes for pain and suffering.

If we don’t understand our history, we shall remain in the political wilderness and repeat the same mistakes.