“We are proud to be affiliated with John McInroy and to be part of such a significant campaign as Unogwaja. We are inspired by the way they encourage people to stand and walk together and inspiring hope,” says Michelle Rolfe, managing director at go4word.
The Unogwaja Challenge started in 2011 with a small group of people cycling from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg and then running the Comrades to emulate Phil Masterton-Smith, whose nickname was
Unogwaja, the Zulu word for a hare. In 1933 Masterton-Smith couldn’t afford the train fare from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg and then cycled the distance before running the Comrades Marathon. The cycle challenge will remain at the heart of Unogwaja but McInroy wanted to open the journey to all for anyone to take part for as long or short a distance they can.
McInroy and Robert Le Brun of Unogwaja will set out to cover the distance from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg on foot on Friday, 1 May, starting from the Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel at 07:00. Everyone is invited to join the first few kilometres to the Grand Parade.
The cycling team will leave Cape Town on Thursday, 21 May. Both teams will join up in Pietermaritzburg and take on the Comrades Marathon together.
R685 379 has been raised to date for the Unogwaja Light Fund which will be used to support projects focused on empowerment and not dependency. The project aims to raise R2-million in 2015.
For more details about Unogwaja, visit
www.unogwaja.com, and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag, #unogwaja.
For more information on go4word, visit
www.go4word.co.za. Alternatively, visit and like their page on
Facebook and follow them on
Twitter.