Youth Day to miss Comrades
2007-06-15 13:30
Tumo Mokone
June 16 will mark the start of the 2007 season of the Tri-Nations series, as South Africa host Australia in Cape Town.
Youth Day will also see AmaZulu FC fight for their Premier League status as they host first division FCAK in a relegation/promotion playoff in Durban.
In Soweto, where the day's historical uprising began 31 years ago, there will be a boxing tournament, in which a South African title will be at stake.
On a much smaller scale, a community-based organisation in the Langa township in Cape Town says it will host a tennis tournament, to encourage local youth to partake in meaningful activities like sport.
The organisation's media statement also goes on to say its quest is to unearth the future Pete Sampras or Roger Federer out of Langa.
Under normal circumstances - normal for the past decade at least - the Comrades Marathon in KwaZulu-Natal would have been held on June 16.
Closest Sunday
However, due to incessant political pressure, driven mainly by the ANC Youth League, the Comrades has now been separated from June 16.
This year the race will be run on June 17, and on the Sunday closest to June 16 in subsequent years.
Though the argument of the youth league about the Comrades' date didn't generate popular support - more so among South Africa's huge road running fraternity and sport-loving public at large - Athletics SA, the Comrades Marathon Association and other stakeholders finally bowed to the pressure.
If June 16, which in some years will fall in midweek, was not a good date for the race, then that viewpoint should have come from the runners themselves, and secondarily, from the organisers and their sponsors.
The 89.3km-long Comrades Marathon, the biggest ultra-marathon in the world, will march on, though the disassociation with June 16 has harmed it.
But the bigger loser will be Youth Day itself - its history and the ideals it holds.
Corners of the world
The day has also been robbed of an international flavour through the pulling power Comrades has on athletes from overseas and other African countries.
There are some corners of the world which had never known about June 16 and its importance to the history of South Africa until nationals from those parts started travelling to the country for the Comrades Marathon.
Before 1992, the race was almost exclusively a South African affair, largely because of the international sports boycott against the country's apartheid policy.
If the events of June 16, initiated by Soweto school students, accelerated the drive for the dismantling of then racist regime, what can be wrong with celebrating freedom from apartheid through the Comrades Marathon?
Pulling together
Moreover, there is no bigger event in SA, which best captures the spirit of youth like the Comrades.
Seeing thousands of men and women of all ages, from company executives to housewives and gardeners, pulling together in search of a common goal - to finish - is a sight to behold.
This is the picture that must define Youth Day in the new South Africa.
The eyes of the world are forever on us because so much is expected and hoped for South Africa by the international community.
It is therefore incumbent upon us to rise to the occasion and build strong foundations which are key towards the building of a new society in this country.
My final word would be: to err is human, but to rebuild is monumental.
June 16 needs the Comrades Marathon, and the race needs Youth Day.
Having one without the other at this stage of our history as a nation, will be like having a braai without meat.
The sky won't fall on our heads the day this date change is reversed.
To all the Comrades who will be going down to the coast for the marathon this weekend, viva the spirit of youth!
Read Tumo every week in the Sunday Sun.
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