Two Oceans Marathon appoints fierce critic Stuart Mann to its new interim board

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to 'The Running Mann' blogger Stuart Mann.

Listen below: 

After the 2025 Two Oceans Marathon, disappointed marathon runners criticised race organisers, claiming they were unfairly prevented from finishing and didn't get medals, which affected their chances of qualifying for the Comrades Marathon.

The City of Cape Town withdrew its sponsorship as the organisation breached its permit, with too many runners participating in the half marathon. 

To rebuild the brand and trust of the running community and City, several board changes and replacements have been made.

The Two Oceans Marathon NPC board confirmed in a statement that they've appointed a temporary "injection of new faces following the resignation of many directors after the difficulties experienced in staging the 2025 event in April."

New member selections are temporary ahead of the organisation's annual general meeting in September.

Among these board cuts was the now former marathon chairperson, Toni Cavanaugh.

"Top priority for the new board is to continue the work of the previous board to repair the relationship between the event and the City of Cape Town following the breach of the permit conditions for the number of participants in this year’s race, as well as restoring the trust of the running community following incidents at this year’s event which detracted from their race experience," the organisation added.

Mann, who publicly criticised the Two Oceans Marathon organisers on his platform, has been appointed as one of the new board members, despite previously being sued by Cavanagh for his investigations.

Mann explains what a 'surprise' it was.

"I've been a fairly vocal critic, holding the organisers of the Two Oceans to account on various issues and negligence that occurred over the last few years, so I was quite surprised when I received the call to join the board."

- Stuart Mann, runner

Mann says one of the biggest blows for the organisation was the City withdrawing its sponsorship, valued at around R3.7 million, and disappointing the running community.

"The City withdrew sponsorship, which is apparently valued at about R3.7 million, so that's a massive blow to the organisation. The interim board is working hard to restore that trust. The other factor is that the City would want assurance that the same problems won't reoccur, the biggest one being the permit breach which is just a fundamental and basic error that shouldn't have occurred..."

- Stuart Mann, runner

"The Two Oceans Marathon brings in a massive amount of money, by all accounts over R1 billion, into the local economy, so everyone wants it to take place. The City wants it to take place, but the City wants assurances that it will be run professionally..."

- Stuart Mann, runner

Mann explains that the issue with the Two Oceans Marathon as an organisation is both systemic and related to leadership.

"... there are some problems within the systems and structures, but a lot of things stop at leadership... I've documented it really well, and there were some real leadership challenges with this year's event... overall lack of accountability in dealing with these issues. If you look at the Two Oceans' value statement, it's very clear: it's about being transparent, honest engagement, operating with integrity, and I think there's been a lack of that in recent years from Two Oceans leadership."

- Stuart Mann, runner

Mann explains how he intends to reconcile his role as a former critic of the organisation.

"I was asked to help out, and I am happy to help out to serve and assist. It does mean that board matters remain board matters in the privacy of the boardroom... I will be continuing my blog, but I'm also hoping that the issues of the past will be in the past, and we can look forward to restoring the trust, not just with the City, but with the running community, because I think that's where the trust has been breached. The runners have been treated as an inconvenience rather than customers, which is essentially what they are... going back to basics and organising a race everyone can be proud of."

- Stuart Mann, runner

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.