Mdu Khumalo – from street kid to champion coach
IT IS a big step from sleeping under bridges as a street kid to coaching the country’s national team at the world 100km ultra marathon championships. But Mdu Khumalo has made that journey in style.
His is a rags-to-riches tale even he would not have dreamt of not so long ago. But such are the rewards for agreeing to follow a different route, working diligently, and adopting a never-say-die attitude in pursuit of one’s goals.
At just 41 years of age, Khumalo is a successful businessman and a renowned running coach who owns his club – Phantane Running Club.
Back in May, he and his club hosted the Durban International Marathon which saw the who’s who of South African marathon running converging on the Kwazulu-natal coastal city looking to earn the honour of being crowned South African champion.
The race was a crowning glory for Khumalo’s organisational abilities, an affirmation – if anyone ever needed any – that his bad old days of struggling are long dead and buried.
For a man who himself could have long died, Khumalo has done incredibly well.
And now this, the honour of leading a sixman South African team of Craig Cynkin, Renier Grobler, Jonas Makhele, Bongani Mkhwanazi, Mahlomoloa Sekonyana and Zukile Willem that will contest the IAU World 100km Championships in Berlin, Germany next Saturday.
“This is a lifetime opportunity, and I am very honoured as I fully understand the history of our country. This is a huge responsibility to represent over 60 million people. I’m not going there for myself for the people of South Africa, and we are going there to bring them hope.”
Aaaah, hope, something Mdu once lost completely.
He looks back at where he comes from and admits that, though not a religious man, a big power has been at work in his life.
“You know, I am not a church person, but I believe God is there and I believe that every person in life has his own path. The path for me was not easy. But even though it had obstacles, they were manageable. I come from a very poor background. We lived in a mud house. We were a very, very poor family. My mother never worked.”
It was due to the abject poverty he grew up in that Khumalo found himself living as a street kid in Durban’s city centre as a teenager.
“I left school when I was in Grade 11 and went to live in town. Like all street kids, I inhaled glue and slept under bridges for one year and six months. I left home because food was a problem. We were a very big family, my mom had sisters and brothers and they all had children and we all lived in the same small household. Because my mother didn’t work, my aunts always gave food to their children while I went hungry. That’s why I left home.”
Life on the streets was hard.
“During the day things were okay because the town was busy, and I could beg for food or money. The problem came at night because you never knew what could happen. We used to sleep at the corners of the bridge because it seemed safe there. We didn’t worry about dangers such as snakes or any other creepy crawlies. I didn’t even think we could be attacked. I guess I was just young and naïve.”
That he returned home was because his mother found a public platform to help her seek for her son. “The introduction of Isolezwe (the Zulu newspaper) saved me. My parents had been looking for me via word of mouth. But with the paper they could put my picture in Isolezwe so that people who saw me anywhere could inform them. Someone spotted me and took me back home.”
Khumalo then got his life back on track by returning to school and he made the grade at Amazulu’s junior side where he bossed the midfield and earned the nickname “Vura” because, “I was like a busy bee on the pitch”.
He got into running following a chance encounter with the Comrades Marathon.
“My wife was feeding me so well I had gained a lot of weight and was playing Sunday League football with similarly fat men,” he chuckles. “And after one match, I was on my way home and I saw all these many people running. There were all kinds of people, some looked too fat and others too old. I found out they were part of the Comrades Marathon, and I thought if they could do it, so could I. So, I decided I had to do it, at least once, so that my children could be proud of me one day.”
He failed in his first attempt to meet the standard marathon completion for Comrades Marathon qualification. It was while working towards this goal that he “accidentally” became a coach.
“While jogging around trying to lose weight, I met these two Kenyan runners who were stranded in town. I helped them register for a race and afterwards took them in to have them live in my back rooms. I started taking notes on their training sessions and once I took them to Ndwedwe where they did a long run. They loved the place because they said it was like their home back in Kenya. They asked me to coach them, but I was reluctant because I knew little about running. But I then got in touch with a coach from their country who gave me tips and I merged what he gave me with my knowledge of football training.”
The Kenyans delivered great results and because they were calling Khumalo coach, other runner s wanted him to help them.
Given his love for the sport, he attended just about every running event all over Kwazulu-natal and Prodigal Khumalo, his home boy from Inanda, planted a seed in his head.
“He said to me, ‘Mtungwa why don’t you open a running club because I can see you are passionate about running?’ I then said to myself, let me bring something to the community where I grew up. I knew from experience that people didn’t have hope about life there. And I would like to believe that through the club we have helped changed that a little.”
No doubt his story has done much to inspire people from his home. After all, what street kid makes it as big as the man who counts the likes of Comrades Marathon gold medallist Sekonyana and national 10 000m champion Mbuleli Mathanga as his proteges.