The Gauteng department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation has noted with disappointment the cancelation of the Soweto Marathon which was due to be held in November this year. MEC Lebogang Maile says this decision will have a negative impact on the execution of other pending projects and service delivery in general.
"The Soweto Marathon is South Africa's only premier standard marathon, an iconic athletic event that takes place in a township, over the years we have seen how this marathon contributed to economic activity and job creation within the Soweto community."
Early this week, the organisers of the marathon, the Soweto Trust announced that the decision to cancel this annual event comes after a lack of cooperation from former organisers ASA to secure funds from ASA's broadcast deal with the SABC.
MEC Maile has also warned that such conflicts within sporting bodies will jeopardise the development of athletics. "This debacle will demotivate our dedicated athletes who have been making a steady and impressive progress in their performance. It must be noted that Gauteng runners did not only win the number one spot in the Comrades marathon, but six of our runners made it to the top ten. As a department we used the Soweto marathon as a platform to identify and support talented runners and develop them to a more structured and competitive level, " says Maile.
Maile has instructed his departmental officials to engage the local athletic structures, specifically Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) and ASA to establish the reasons why this iconic event has summarily been compromised.
For media enquiries contact:
Nino Zama
Cell: 083 473 6725
Tel: 011 355 2711
E-mail: Nino.Zama@gauteng.gov.za
