BEITBRIDGE Municipality’s 10-year-old Marathon held in June annually has this year been postponed to give way to a similar event celebrating Vice-President Kembo Mohadi’s legacy as perhaps the most senior politician to emerge from the country’s southernmost district.
Town clerk Loud Ramakgapola confirmed the postponement saying their event, themed Running Against Litter, will now be held on July 12 along the Harare Road.
“We have postponed to give way to Vice-President Mohadi’s similar event when our dates clashed,” he said.
“It’s to the town’s advantage to have two similar events because both will create movement that is important for business.
“We have communicated with the relevant sports bodies and we are in support of the Run for Hope marathon.”
For Beitbridge sporting or any events that draw crowds are welcomed with both hands for a town that is used to transient crowds.
The emergence of the marathon Run for Hope in honour of Mohadi has, however, been met with mixed feelings, with a section of the society saying another date could have been slotted instead of muscling out a traditional event.
Other Zimbabweans, most likely loyal to the ruling Zanu PF party, felt everything else should stop when a national leader’s event takes place in any area.
- Zinwa, BCC fight for control of treatment plants
- Corruption Watch: Get scared, 2023 is coming
- Zinwa, BCC fight for control of treatment plants
- Corruption Watch: Get scared, 2023 is coming
Keep Reading
Some running and sports enthusiasts felt both events were welcome because they increased their chances to run and have fun.
Earlier this year, as traditional in the last nine years, Beitbridge Municipality announced its event for June 21 saying being the 10th anniversary, it would be bigger and better.
Less than three weeks from the date, now a regular on the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) calendar as a national event, Mohadi’s marathon was announced that it would take place on the same date.
“Municipality of Beitbridge did not write to the Sports and Recreation Commission for its event to be sanctioned. NAAZ has just been holding these marathons without them being sanctioned by the SRC.
We applied for ours, we chose a date and it was approved,” said one of the organisers.
“If you are a reporter with national interest, you must know that such events involving national leaders come first,” he charged, refusing to share his name, which, however, was later sourced elsewhere.
A provincial executive of NAAZ, however, said the Beitbridge Municipality was well above board, but as usual, it could not come before Mohadi’s planned marathon.
“The registration of Beitbridge Mayor’s Half Marathon is well above board, but we decided it could not clash with Vice-President Mohadi’s event,” the official, who asked not to be named, said.
“It is not correct that it was not applied for because if you look at the NAAZ calendar, it is there. That calendar is with the SRC and pretending it’s not there is folly.”
Some Beitbridge residents claimed that there are Zanu PF loyalists in the border town who were not happy the 2023 local authority elections, won by the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change.
They said the same characters have been at the forefront of criticising the municipality’s activities.
“It’s sad that these are sore lovers who remain in an election mode throughout,” one councillor in the town said.
“They are against development, no wonder why they were chased from a function presided over by their president. They use cheap politics.”
When President Emmerson Mnangagwa went to Beitbridge to commission Xintai’s Palm River Resources, his security chased away all Zanu PF youths who tried to politicise the event.
All of them were fished out of a gathering of more than 2 000 people and asked to leave.
At the time of going to the print last night, it was not clear where registration for the Mohadi marathon was being done.
