The world’s biggest ultramarathon is heading for its 100th birthday with no governing body willing to sanction it. That situation, remarkable for any race of this scale, connects directly to a year of governance breakdown at Athletics South Africa and a credit card that a disciplinary panel concluded was treated like a personal expense account.
On October 6, a three-member disciplinary panel chaired by retired judge Basheer Waglay found ASA president James Moloi guilty on two of four charges. He has been suspended since October 2025. World Athletics has now given ASA six months to put its house in order or face sanctions, up to and including suspension of its membership.
For the 28,000 runners planning to line up at the 100th Comrades in June, this is not background noise. It is the story.
Key Facts: The ASA Crisis at a Glance
- Who: James Moloi, president of Athletics South Africa (ASA), aged 59
- Suspended: October 2025, pending disciplinary proceedings
- Verdict: Guilty on two of four charges, October 6, 2026
- What the audit found: 399 transactions totalling more than R300,000 ($19,000) between May 2023 and April 2024
- World Athletics deadline: Mid-November 2026 for ASA to submit a reform schedule; mid-April 2027 to adopt a revised constitution
- At stake: The 100th Comrades Marathon, June 13, 2027, currently unsanctioned by ASA
Why Was James Moloi Suspended? The Credit Card That Triggered It
A forensic audit by Forvis Mazars, commissioned before Moloi’s suspension, uncovered 399 transactions on his ASA credit card worth more than R300,000 ($19,000) between May 2023 and April 2024. The spending spanned liquor, clothing, groceries, fuel and a cash advance.
The disciplinary panel found him guilty on two of the four counts brought against him: using ASA assets without authorisation and making purchases on the federation’s card in April 2024. That April is significant because it was the first month Moloi received a new R18,000 ($1,100) monthly presidential allowance. He has since repaid the R24,841.95 ($1,550) spent that month.
The other two charges were dismissed. ASA had no approved card policy for him to breach, and federation officials had repeatedly topped up the card each time he exceeded its R15,000 monthly limit. The panel was unconvinced by his defence that every transaction was legitimate federation business. Reporting by Daily Maverick noted the panel found he had used the card as though it were his own personal fund. The recommendation: strip him of the presidency and his board seat.
Moloi has denied all wrongdoing. He says he can account for every purchase.
Why It Took a Year and Two Hearings to Reach a Verdict
The process did not run cleanly. The first disciplinary hearing, held in December 2025, was thrown out by its sole presiding officer on a procedural point: the suspension letter had been signed by an acting chief executive who was himself named in the Forvis Mazars audit. Attempts to reinstate Moloi afterwards stalled, with the board split on whether to proceed.
Zakhele Dlamini, president of the Southern African Confederation of Athletics, reviewed the December hearing and concluded it had violated both ASA’s own rules and World Athletics’ requirement for independent panels. ASA’s council voted to start again from scratch.
The second hearing ran its course and delivered a guilty verdict on October 6. More than a year after his suspension, Moloi was found guilty.
Complicating the timeline further: Moloi had been re-elected to a second four-year term in May 2025, just five months before ASA suspended him.
World Athletics Gives ASA a Six-Month Reform Deadline or Face Sanctions
The ultimatum came in a three-page letter signed by World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon, sent from Monaco and reported by Business Day and IOL. The core demands are straightforward: remove Moloi “without delay,” submit a constitutional reform schedule to World Athletics and the Confederation of African Athletics by mid-November and adopt a revised constitution within six months. Fresh elections must follow within three months of that.
If ASA misses those deadlines or stalls the process intentionally, the World Athletics Council takes up the case under Article 13 of its constitution. Available sanctions include fines, withheld grants, barring South African athletes and officials from international competition and, in the most serious outcome, suspending ASA’s membership outright.
Dlamini visited South Africa in early September to assess the situation directly. What he found shaped the tone of the Ridgeon letter: officials serving simultaneously on provincial and national bodies, a board too divided to reach collective decisions and unresolved questions about who held the authority to act. World Athletics said it was “particularly concerned these issues reflect structural weaknesses in ASA’s governance framework.”
As of October 20, ASA had not yet acted on the panel’s recommendation to remove Moloi. The reform schedule is due to World Athletics by mid-November 2026. The six-month window for a revised constitution closes in mid-April 2027, just eight weeks before the 100th Comrades.
What the ASA Standoff Means for Runners Entered in the 2027 Comrades
This is where runners need to pay attention, particularly those targeting the centenary edition.
The Comrades Marathon Association voted in August to cut ties with KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA), the provincial body that had tied the race to ASA. The CMA’s membership cited serious concerns about placing one of the world’s great ultramarathons under the influence of governing bodies battling their own leadership crises. KZNA’s president, Steve Mkasi, was himself suspended in July following an altercation with an athlete.
ASA responded by announcing it would not sanction the 100th Comrades, calling the CMA non-compliant with official governance frameworks. The race launched entries regardless, without requiring an ASA licence. A record field of 28,000 runners is expected.
The legal position, according to the CMA, is that the race can be held. Reporting by Daily Maverick suggests all three parties agree on that much. What remains unresolved is whether a broader reconciliation between ASA, KZNA and the CMA will happen before June 13, 2027.
For most international runners, the immediate practical impact is limited. The race is on. Entries are open. If you are qualifying or planning your build-up, keep going. Our full Comrades guide covers the course, qualifying standards and everything you need to know as a first-timer or returning runner.
The scenario to watch is an escalation by World Athletics against ASA before race day. A full ASA suspension would raise complicated questions about South African athletes competing internationally. It would not, based on what is known now, prevent overseas runners from entering and finishing the race itself.
Prize Money Unpaid, Parliament Involved: The Full Scale of ASA’s Crisis
Moloi’s credit card is one thread in a larger unravelling.
Winners of the Soweto Marathon, run in November 2025, are still waiting for their prize money. South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture unanimously called for the ASA board to be dissolved in March 2026, citing its failure to meet its fiduciary duties and protect athletes’ interests. ASA had appeared before Parliament four times in twelve months by that point.
South African running has given the sport some of its most iconic races and produced world-class athletes capable of competing at the highest level. The Comrades, Two Oceans and the Cape Town Marathon carry serious global reputations. None of that is built or protected by a governing body that its own parliament, a continental confederation and World Athletics all agree is broken.
The next hard deadline is mid-November. That is when ASA’s reform schedule lands on World Athletics’ desk. Whether the board can produce one, and actually follow through, is the only question that matters now.
The 100th Comrades deserves better than this backdrop. A governing body under a global ultimatum, elite athletes still owed prize money from a race run last year and the sport’s flagship event running without an official sanction. Whether this resolves cleanly before June 13, 2027 depends almost entirely on ASA finding a level of basic function it has not managed to demonstrate in over a year. Watch the mid-November deadline. That is where this either turns or gets significantly worse.