Karabo Mabilo
Vice president of Central Gauteng Athletics and member of Diepkloof Athletics Club
One of the hurdles is facing ‘athletic patriarchy’ and the heritage of ‘brotherhood’, which continues to see power and positions passed down from generation to generations of men
The story of how the athletic bug bit Mabilo is stuff for movie scripts. She met Moss Seabo, a total stranger, now a friend, limping after running a gruelling Soweto Marathon in 2015. Seabo invited her to join the Diepkloof Athletics Club (DAC) as a member, and after joining she was advised to run with the big boys and girls at big races.
Mabilo, 41, who grew up in Molapo, Soweto, and later moved to Kagiso, on the West Rand, never looked back.
To date her list of races includes seven Spar 10km Ladies Challenge, four Comrades, three Two Oceans Ultra, six Om Die Dam Ultra Marathons, two Loskop Ultra and one Soweto Marathons.
Because of her passion to uplift fellow runners she was thrusted into DAC’S administrative structures, becoming a member of the executive committee and a Soweto Marathon trustee board member.
In 2018, she was nominated into the board of Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) and on 26 March 2022, she was elected vice president of CGA, for the next four years in this maledominated sport.
Mabilo, a mother of two and a full-time Tax and Fiduciary Specialist at Absa, completed a Bachelor of Laws at Unisa. She is doing her articles tobe admitted as an attorney.