Plans under way to host Nelson Mandela marathon around the world

The CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, says they plan to host the Nelson Mandela marathon in different cities around the world.

The inaugural event is being held in Cape Town today with thousands of runners participating.

The race is labelled as the world’s first value-based running series, which also forms part of the Mandela Legacy Sporting Series. [ON AIR] As the inaugural Nelson Mandela Marathon gets underway in Cape Town this morning, our Chief Executive, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, spoke to @MorningLiveSABC about the significance of this historic event and the Foundation’s commitment to mobilising Madiba’s legacy.

Our ambition is not simply to see millions of people running in Madiba’s name.

We want people to ask themselves what his values demand of us today, and how we can translate those values into meaningful action.

Through the Nelson Mandela Marathon and the Global Running Series, we hope to connect people across generations, communities and borders, guided by the values of courage, dignity, equality, unity and freedom.

Remembering Madiba matters.

What we do with his legacy matters just as much. #NelsonMandelaMarathon #RiseRememberRun #NelsonMandelaFoundation — Nelson Mandela Foundation (@NelsonMandela) October 18, 2026 Buthelezi says the Cape Town leg will be the anchor event and will be hosted in the Mother City annually in October.

“But each year we are going to add new cities around the world hosting a Nelson Mandela Marathon.

We aim to have thirty cities hosting Nelson Mandela Marathons by 2030 with the first four in addition to Cape Town being added next year in 2027.

Those cities were launched and in fact announced yesterday.” “So next year we are going to have Nairobi, we are going to have The Hague, we are going to have Atlanta.

Cape Town will host a marathon every year in October and our other cities actually, depending on their weather, their climate will host at different times of the year,” explains Buthelezi.

The marathon has been won by Arthur Jantjies in a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 13 seconds.

The 25-year-old from Hopetown in the Northern Cape also won the Two Ocean Ultra Marathon in April this year.