On Sunday morning, 2 June, representatives of the annual Unogwaja Challenge, Thamar Houliston and Zoliswa Limba, made a pit-stop in Graaff-Reinet to meet with Donald Kingwill, superintendent of Union’s Arthur Kingwill House, during a route recce for the 2020 edition of this challenge.
Union has been a steadfast supporter of this challenge for many years, with the participants of this annual event always being accommodated for a night at Arthur Kingwill House.
The Unogwaja Challenge, which has recently been renamed the Community Chest Unogwaja Challenge, will be hosting their 10th edition of the challenge in 2020. This annual challenge consists of a 10-day, 1,660km cycle from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg concluding with participation in the Comrades Marathon on the 11th day.
It is a journey of the heart inspired by Phil Masterton-Smith (whose nickname was “Unogwaja” meaning hare in Zulu). In 1933, Masterton-Smith lived in Cape Town and could not afford the train fare to Pietermaritzburg for the start of the Comrades Marathon. He got on his bike and he cycled there.
Today his courage and determination in the face of adversity are at the core of this challenge which has become an annual journey that started in 2011 and brings together a small group of people chosen from all over the world for this special mission of hope across South Africa.
Photo above: Donald Kingwill, superintendent of Union’s Arthur Kingwill House, with Unogwaja Challenge representatives, Thamar Houliston and Zoliswa Limba