Phikwe marathon runners up in arms over non-payment
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday July 28, 2015 13:27
Last year’s 42.2 km winner, Tabitha Tsatsa from Zimbabwe but based in South Africa, said failure to pay athletes discourage them from participating in future events.
“For some of us running is our profession and if we do not get paid it affects us. I have not yet received the money from last year and none of the organising committee member has communicated with me,” the 42-year old told Mmegi Sport.
The men’s defending champion, Nkosiyazi Sibanda (34), also from Zimbabwe said he had also not received his dues.
Sibanda said he had made attempts to engage the organisers about the prize money, but his attempts did not bear any fruit.
“The most painful thing is that they do not communicate with us. They have remained mum about the issue and so we don’t know what exactly is happening,” he said.
The marathon spokesperson, Kennedy Dudzai said the only athletes who were not paid are those who participated in the 15 km race. He insisted that athletes who won in other categories were paid. Dudzai further said the 15 km category winners were not paid because the marathon did not have enough funds as a result of limited sponsorship. Dudzai said the organisers have not received any formal complaint from any of the participants.
“However, I will check with the other organisers and if it is true they have not been paid we will pay them,” he promised.
Meanwhile, this year’s marathon attracted a paltry 600 participants compared to the anticipated 3000 athletes.
Only 164 athletes were competing, while the rest participated in the four-kilometre fun run.
Dudzai attributed the unimpressive turnout to failure to extensively advertise the event, the late launch of the marathon website as well as late registration.
He also acknowledged that athletes might have shied away from participating in this year’s event because of the surfacing allegations of non-payment to last year’s winners.
Selebi Phikwe Town Council and SPEDU were the main sponsors of the event.
“We were also assisted by companies like Orange Botswana, BCL mine, Welcome Cash and Carry, E Tourism Botswana, BURS, Motor Vehicle Funding, Metropolitan Botswana, AA Physiotherapy Clinic,” added Dudzai. Both men and women winners in the 42.2 km race received prize money of P20, 000, while runners up pocketed P10 000.
Athletes who finished third, fourth and fifth went home with P7, 500, P5, 000 and P3, 500 respectively.