Muzhingi: We ought to be ashamed!

Sunday Mail

27 June 2010

By Makomborero Mutimukulu

IT is generally agreed that winning the Comrades Marathon, the world’s oldest and largest ultra-marathon race, is one of the topmost accomplishments in athletics.

Athletes who cross the finishing line first in the 90-kilometre race become legends overnight and are showered with praise for the rest of their lives.
Winning the Comrades Marathon is an extraordinary feat.
Doing it twice, like Zimbabwean athlete Stephen Muzhingi has done, is a magnificent achievement. No superlative can fully describe the feat.
Equally one would also run out of words to describe how Zimbabwe has inexplicably failed to honour Muzhingi for exploits that can be compared with the Warriors winning the World Cup and Kirsty Coventry scooping gold at the Olympics.
As Zimbabweans we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for frustrating one of the country’s most successful long-distance runners into wishing he was South African.
“The South Africans are more proud of me and maybe this is why I should become a South African. It is so hard to be recognised in my own country, but maybe now, with this second win, I might just be recognised at home,” Muzhingi was recently quoted as saying.
In Gutu, Muzhingi’s birthplace, people are perplexed as to why the media splashes full portraits of athletes such as Usain Bolt and not the boy who grew up with a dream of becoming a bus driver before going on to rule the world marathon circuit.
“I don’t know much about this Bolt guy, but I am certain that he does not stand a chance with Muzhingi,” 50-year-old Mariah Mupah told The Sunday Mail from her market stall at Gutu Growth Point last week.
Mupah may be forgiven for trying to compare a sprinter with a long-distance runner, but what excuse does Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart have for not making noise about Muzhingi’s Comrades Marathon triumph?
Coltart must be at the forefront of pushing Government into honouring Muzhingi.
Maybe the reference to “sport” in Coltart’s title should be replaced with “cricket”.
Twice Muzhingi has won the world’s toughest race and Zimbabwe is silent, going about business as if nothing has happened?  It’s nauseating!
However, such has been the life of the 33-year-old Muzhingi who was given notice to vacate his lodgings by a landlord who was not amused by the top-of-the-range fridge the athlete had bought using proceeds from his 2009 Comrades Marathon triumph.
“After winning the race last year, I first bought a fridge and when I took it home the landlord gave me notice to vacate. I then bought a house,” disclosed the South African-based athlete.
Muzhingi has had to fight adversity at every turn while working twice as much. His initial attempts to take a crack at the Comrades Marathon went up in smoke as he just could not afford a ticket to South Africa. And after several failed attempts, Muzhingi made his Comrades Marathon debut in 2005, crossing the line at number 123 before coming seventh in 2007.
The year 2009 saw a long-cherished dream come true when he became the first African, outside South Africa, to win the much-revered race. A few weeks ago, Muzhingi proved that his 2009 triumph was no fluke by successfully defending his title.
However, unlike the first time when he had to borrow a Zimbabwean flag from a church and celebrate alone, this time Muzhingi was a prepared man. His wife Erinah and son Mathen were on standby, with national flag in hand, to share in his moment of glory.
“This race is for my wife and child. I think I was running for them,” Muzhingi told the media a few minutes after successfully defending his title.
Now, as Zimbabweans we might be forgiven for turning a blind eye to his 2009 triumph, but it is inexcusable for us to fail to stand up and take note of Muzhingi’s exploits.
If we can give Coventry a diplomatic passport for winning gold at the Olympics and Sizzla Kalonji land for his project, what can stop us from being extravagant with Muzhingi, our two-time Comrades Marathon champion?
Come on, let’s honour this son of the soil!
There is a chain of people who are sleeping on the wheel. The media has not made enough noise about the matter, the Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are conspicuous by their silence, the Sports and Recreation Commission has only issued a feeble statement while the ministry responsible seems to believe cricket is the only sport in Zimbabwe.
Last year, Coltart only got to salute Muzhingi on behalf of Government a few days after this paper had broken the story on how the athlete had made history in Mzansi.
“It’s good when Zimbabwean men and women raise the flag high and it is important to rebrand Zimbabwe through sport because the country has been associated with things that are not good,” Coltart said in his congratulatory message.
“We are delighted with what you have achieved for the country and we are certainly proud of the achievement. I’m going to be watching closely next year’s race and hope you will break the record and with the 2012 Olympics coming you will focus on that. I will be following your exploits closely.”
Now the Comrades Marathon edition that Coltart promised to “watch closely” has come and gone with Muzhingi proving that he is the undisputed numero uno.
We now wait to see what Government will do. It is a people’s Government after all, is it not? Surely, this is a matter that will not take Cabinet more than five minutes to deliberate on.
Maybe it’s about time Walter Mzembi “hijacks” the matter.
“Zimbabwe is also the birthplace of current Comrades Marathon champion,” the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister could say as part of the marketing drive that saw Brazil come to play a friendly with the Warriors in the build-up to the World Cup.
Recently, Muzhingi spoke of his disappointment at how his maiden Comrades Marathon triumph was received in his country of birth. “For other athletes who have won before, the trophy was flown and presented to prominent persons in their country. I did not know who among the prominent leaders was willing to receive it on my behalf. I have tried to go through the Sports Commission and the mayor (of Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda), but nothing has worked out.”
For transforming from a boy who used to run more than 10 kilometres to school to becoming a two-time Comrades Marathon winner, Muzhingi is a legend regardless of the sickening manner his country is living true to the assertion that a prophet has no honour in his country of birth.