The African Christian Democratic Party has called on Christians to boycott the Comrades Marathon after the announcement that the race is to be run on a Sunday in future.
”You undermine the importance of family and you undermine the sanctity of the Sunday as a special day to get in touch with the Lord of lords and the King of kings,” the party’s Western Cape leader Hansie Louw, himself a Comrades runner, said on Friday.
He was reacting to an Athletics South Africa (ASA) announcement that the race will no longer be run on June 16, Youth Day, moving instead for the next three years to the closest Sunday to that date.
The ACDP believes that South Africa as a state should promote Christian moral values, and that it should be ”a nation in submission to Almighty God”.
Louw said he had run every Comrades since 2000, and would have liked to have achieved a green number by completing 10 races.
”I may now never achieve this because Comrades will be run on Sundays in future,” he said.
”I therefore call on all Christians in South Africa to boycott the Comrades Marathon. And I mean a total boycott — nobody participating in the race and nobody following the race on TV, as well as everybody boycotting the sponsors of the race.”
Louw said he had run the odd race on a Sunday, but tried to avoid doing so.
The Comrades, however, was different, being such a big event that it took up the whole day. This means most runners and their supporters will not be able to attend Sunday church services and will not have ”quality time” to spend with their families.
ASA said on Thursday the decision to shift the date followed a fierce debate about the appropriateness of staging an event of the magnitude of the Comrades on June 16, one of the most ”significant and sanctified” days in South Africa’s history.
Asked then about the potential backlash from religious groups, ASA president Leonard Chuene said his organisation had considered the issue, but that soccer was played on that day, and all of the central Gauteng road races were run on Sunday without complaint.
”We believe that we have taken notice of all the activities on this day,” he said.
The Freedom Front Plus accused ASA of sacrificing the sentiments of thousands of Christians for ”the political favour of a handful of politicians”.
This year’s June 16 and Comrades fell on a Friday, the Muslim holy day. Race organisers provided a facility on the route for Muslims who wanted to take a break from the race to worship. — Sapa