'Racist' Comrades Marathon Association board member suspended

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) executive has suspended the member accused of posting a racist message to a WhatsApp group, saying it had good reason to bypass the special general meeting (SGM) it had initially planned to call.

The CMA had initially said it would call an SGM to deal with the matter, but in a statement on Saturday morning it said the board had taken action based on financial concerns.

“Though the constitution of the CMA does not empower the board to remove a board member, clause 11 empowers the board to suspend any member pending a disciplinary process.

“The CMA, having considered its core responsibilities, which include among others, accountability, has resolved that the immediate suspension will save the association its limited financial resources which would be expended on calling an SGM, more so considering that the AGM is five months away.

“The SGM has since been shelved until the disciplinary process is finalised. There will be no prejudice to the general membership of the CMA as the member is henceforth suspended.”

Board member Zinhle Sokhela had accused former race and operations manager Ann Ashworth of getting white people to join the CMA to elect a white board.

Her message read: “Guys, you can recruit as many members as possible. Our new GM has recruited as many vanilla people as possible, and as it stands we have close to 400 new members (all vanilla) who have joined and want to attend [the] AGM in November to take back the CMA board to be whites-only.”

CMA president Mqondisi Ngcobo said in the statement there was no room for discrimination in the organisation.

“The CMA reiterates its commitment to serving the best interests of all runners and to ensuring that there is no place for any form of discrimination within the race itself, its organisation or among its members,” he said.