GC Mayor�s Marathon winners await payment
Naledi Lemogang | Thursday October 19, 2017 14:32
The event, held last month in Gaborone was marred by controversies after some athletes lost their routes along the race, in the end blaming the organisers for their misery.
Initially the athletes were scheduled to be paid this week, but the organisers have since postponed the payment date by a week. Some athletes reportedly met with the mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe on Tuesday to get an update on the payment of their prize money.
The mayor told Mmegi Sport yesterday that his office is dealing with the matter so that athletes can get what they have worked hard for. He said they finished compiling the report and that their wish is to submit it on Friday to the stakeholders (Choppies). He said the payments would be done starting next week.
“We did not want to take long time in crediting prize monies in the same time we also wanted to compile a good report concerning the event and submit it to our partners who are responsible for paying the athletes,” Thutlwe said. He said they wanted all the complaints to be settled particularly the issue that concerns the two female Zimbabwean runners (Tabitha Tsatsa and Samukeliso Moyo) who were querying after the race. The mayor yesterday confirmed that the two would not get anything because they did not follow the proper route during the race.
The mayor noted that they have communicated with one of the top athletes Onneile Dintwe to update other winners on the process of their prize money. He said the athletes must bear with them since they want to deliver a good report to Choppies.
The event was divided into the 5km, 10km and the 42km races. The winners of the main event (42km) are to pocket P50,000 while their second runners will get P30,000 and third position will walk away with P20,000 for both genders.
On the 10km, first position runners are to get P30,000 while those on second walk away with P20,000 with third position getting P10,000 for both men and women.