Dispute leads to name change for Mandela marathon

THE Pietermaritzburg High Court has ruled that KZN Athletics may not use Nelson Mandela’s name in the annual marathon scheduled to take place next Sunday between Hilton and the Mandela Capture Site in Howick.

This follows a successful interdict by umgungundlovu District Municipality, owners of the intellectual property, preventing the athletics body from “hijacking” the race.

In accordance with the court order, KZN Athletics has changed the half-marathon’s name from Mandela Day Marathon to “Hilton to Capture Site Half-marathon”. All race promotion material with Mandela’s name has had to be removed, costing the athletics body thousands of rand.

The district municipality also did not want the race to continue due to a pending court case.

In 2018, a member of the Hammarsdale Athletics Club approached the court claiming to have come up with the race idea back in 2011. He said the district municipality and the athletics body had stolen his idea. An agreement was reached between KZN Athletics, umgungundlovu and the Greater Edendale Athletics Club that the member would form part of the organising committee.

Two years ago, while organising the race, the Greater Edendale and the Hammarsdale Athletics Clubs failed to see eye to eye and a dispute erupted. The teams headed to court, but the Nelson Mandela Foundation advised that the matter be settled out of court.

With the relaxation of Covid-19 regulations, and a pending court case, KZN Athletics saw an opportunity to host the 2022 race. This infuriated umgungundlovu, which threatened court action should it continue.

Last Wednesday, umgungundlovu District Municipality spokesperson Brian Zuma said KZN Athletics had no right to host the race and distanced umgungundlovu from the organisers.

“The desperation to persist with staging this race no matter what, as demonstrated by the organisers, leaves a lot to be desired,” he said. “We will not sit back and fold our arms when a project that we have grown so much over the years gets hijacked in the manner that it (has).”

Although elated that the court had ruled in its favour on Thursday, umgungundlovu did not wish to engage further. It said a media briefing had been scheduled for tomorrow.

KZN Athletics vice-president Mandla Mngomezulu said they have had to honour the court order. “The name change does not change the spirit that the race enjoys of running in the route where our late first democratic president walked after delivering his last speech before his arrest,” he said.