Keeping the flame alive in Mandela Day Marathon

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WITH the Olympic flame shining brightly this week on South Africa, once a pariah country that was socially, economically and politically an outcast of the world, and now on the winner’s rostrum bagging gold and silver medals, the spirit of global sport has reignited the Mandela Day Marathon next weekend.

Our return to the Olympic Games has been refuelling our passion to fast-track our post-apartheid dream of giving new meaning to the term “development sport” versus the status quo of old-styled, apartheid sport. Since the 1990s, sports federations have been harnessing budding athletes from marginalised communities and shepherding them into the fast lane of sports.

Twenty-two years later the likes of champion sprinter Wayde van Niekerk took heed of Mandela’s mantra to “turn adversity into advantage” and gallantly won a gold medal that shocked the world. His stunning, record-breaking performance brought a sense of patriotic vision to compatriots at home. We took to Facebook to celebrate this feat.

It was precisely Mandela’s aura that got the once-banned South Africa back into the International Olympic Committee, Fifa (football), IAAF (athletics) Fina (swimming), et al.

The Mandela Day Marathon is much more than a legacy race. It is a core package and programme of diverse events serving to unify us into a truly non-racial and nonsexist society.

We are not there yet, almost halfway, trying to scale the double hurdle while trying to blackball the demons of our divided past.

I believe that this extraordinary event brings athletes, road-runners, sports and lifestyle enthusiasts and followers from all over to this world heritage site deep in the heart of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.

They come fully togged with much more than a mission to win a medal embossed with the iconic face of a legend who shaped and shepherded our country from darkness into light.

They come on a pilgrimage to honour the spirit of a peace guru.

As a progressive government, we have nurtured this event to also showcase our progress towards social cohesion, socio-political legacy and to inspire our young and old citizens to strive for competitiveness, fair play, lifestyle change and social development.

More so, we wish to promote a brand so that our people will identify with a pristine and prestige project associated with Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s moral compass of integrity, fitness, family values, community spiritedness, camaraderie and healthy lifestyle.

This year marked the 54th anniversary of the so-called Black Pimpernel’s capture by apartheid secret police in Tweedie, near Howick, on August 5, 1961.

The Mandela Capture Site I revisited with my MEC colleagues and mayors from participating towns on the UN-declared International Mandela Day on July 18, is bound to be a splash of colour, pageantry and sporting excellence that will send a powerful message to the world that the legacy of our rainbow nation’s founding president will continue to embellish the famed five-ring spirit of humanity.

As the runners prepare to pay homage to Mandela, I am confident that the update and briefing I have received from the organising committee for Sunday’s road race on the entry statistics and logistics points to a record-breaking programme in which men, women and teenagers will demonstrate their sporting prowess to nail their names to the mast of the Mandela Day Marathon.

With time, and with the material support of our government and the private sector, our fledgling race will evolve and grow into a paragon of sporting programmes.

I am particularly pleased that women of all race groups, disabled men and women in wheelchairs, and intrepid women from Africa will be triumphantly running along a difficult terrain, albeit with spectacular landscapes.

From the 10km and 21.1km races to the gruelling Imbali-Howick 42.2km marathon, we are expecting more than 10 000 runners to collectively demonstrate their athletic stamina and patriotic vision.

Let me share Mandela’s motivation to get you into your stride for this unique family outdoor activity: “Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world.”

Nomusa Dube-Ncube is MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KZN.