Comrades Cuts Ties With Athletics South Africa Before Its 100th Running

The Comrades Marathon, the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon, will stage its 100th running next year with no tie to South Africa’s athletics federations, after its members voted on Saturday to sever the race from KwaZulu-Natal Athletics and, through it, the national governing body for the sport.

Members of the Comrades Marathon Association settled two questions at a special general meeting at Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg. On the first, whether to put the association’s own interests ahead of accommodation with the provincial federation, 873 voted for independence and 229 against. On the second, whether to re-affiliate with KwaZulu-Natal Athletics, 694 voted no and 338 yes. The figures circulated first through a post by the runner Sihle Masinda; the association declined to comment on Saturday and said a formal statement would follow on Sunday.

The vote formalizes a split more than a year in the making. Members had already moved once to leave KwaZulu-Natal Athletics, hoping to attach the race directly to the national federation, Athletics South Africa. The national body refused, telling the association this year that a direct affiliation was not on offer and that Comrades belonged under its provincial arm in KwaZulu-Natal. Members rejected that instruction.

The break matters because of what it moves. Broadcast rights were Athletics South Africa’s single largest source of income in 2024, its most recent audited year, worth 12.68 million rand (about $765,000), close to 40 percent of the federation’s 31.9 million rand (about $1.9 million) in revenue, according to figures reported by TimesLIVE. Those rights are sold as a bundle, with the Two Oceans Marathon, the Cape Town Marathon and the national track and field championships packaged alongside Comrades, and Comrades is the property that makes the bundle worth buying. The federation sold this year’s rights to the public broadcaster, the SABC, without consulting the race, which responded by producing its own livestream on YouTube. With Comrades gone, the value of what Athletics South Africa can sell falls with it.

KwaZulu-Natal Athletics stands to lose money more directly. A senior official, speaking anonymously because the result had not been formally announced, put the annual cost of losing Comrades at about 3 million rand (about $181,000), which he said is roughly 45 percent of the provincial body’s revenue and would force cuts to staff, offices and programs. The two sides have separately been fighting over about 4 million rand (about $242,000) in levies the provincial federation says it is owed.

Beneath the money is a dispute over control. Members were angered by a leaked federation memo, dated June 18 and signed by the acting chief executive, that proposed bringing the country’s major road races under national jurisdiction and creating a private company to earn from events, sponsorship and broadcasting. Both federations are currently without their elected leaders: the presidents of Athletics South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal Athletics are each suspended on a precautionary basis, with no findings made against either man.

Whether Comrades can simply walk away is, in practice, largely settled. A race that draws more than 20,000 runners is authorized by the cities it passes through, eThekwini and Msunduzi, which issue the permits and gain from an event that fills their hotels each June, not by the federations. The running writer Stuart Mann has argued that South African law does not require an event organizer to affiliate with any federation, pointing to a 2014 court ruling that a national cycling body could not compel recreational organizers to seek its approval.

Comrades, run almost every year since 1921 and won this year by George Kusche and Gerda Steyn, will hold its 100th running on June 13, 2027, on the route between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The association says preparations are continuing and that the permits are largely in place. Athletics South Africa maintains that events must be sanctioned through the national federation and its provincial structures. The formal word from Comrades was expected on Sunday.