Marathon cancelled after millions not paid to winners

While the winners of 2024’s controversial Mpumalanga Marathon, Tadu Nare and Jobo Khatoane, will probably never see the R1m prize money promised to them, race director Caleb Lekhuleni is facing criminal charges for his failure to pay the athletes.

It is understood a case against Lekhuleni has been opened in Mbombela.

Ethiopian Nare and Khatoane from Lesotho, won the women’s and men’s races, respectively, but are still waiting for their financial reward of R1m each, touted as the biggest prize for a marathon, surpassing even the Comrades ultra-marathon which saw winners Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn each pocket more than R870,000 last week. 

It was reported in 2024 that Nare chose to forgo an appearance fee of R750,000 at the Sydney Marathon in Australia to take part in the Mpumalanga Marathon, hoping to lay her hands on the promised R1m prize money.

Athletics Mpumalanga president Paul Bester confirmed that the organisation has opened a case against Lekhuleni, a former employee of the National Lottery.

“There is a case at this stage opened against Caleb because he is not coming to light with the payments,” Bester said.

“We are waiting for the law to take its course now. I must also give detailed feedback to ASA [Athletics SA] this week because they have to discuss that again.

“But at this stage, we are all waiting and eager to see what’s happening because Caleb is coming with excuses from Sars [SA Revenue Service]. We opened a case, and that’s where we are at this stage,” Bester said.

Lekhuleni could not be reached for comment; however, ASA president James Moloi said they would not reconsider staging another Mpumalanga Marathon until the matter is resolved.

This year’s event was set to take place on November 29 with distances of 42.2km, 21km and 10km, but it has been cancelled after ASA flagged a poster advertising the event on social media over the weekend.

“Mpumalanga athletics told us that they are taking them to court and the matter is there,” Moloi said.

“We have a case number and everything, so we can’t approve that [the marathon] while it is in court.” 

Moloi conceded the staggering prize money was suspicious from the beginning, but added that, going forward, marathon organisers will have to put money into provincial athletics before they approve the event.