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South Africa’s athletics sensation Mpumelelo Mhlongo has been cleaning up, and he's just getting started

South Africa’s athletics sensation Mpumelelo Mhlongo has been cleaning up, and he's just getting started
Yamkela Mkhize, Mpumelelo's 14-year-old cousin, and his grandmother, Ma Maggie Mkhize in their home. (Picture: Chris Makhaye)
Chris Makhaye
By Chris Makhaye
6 Sep 2024
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Paralympic Gold medallist Mpumelelo Mhlongo is achieving astonishing feats. The South African sprint and long jump athlete and Paralympic Games record holder has previously won silver and bronze at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in the T44 men’s 100 metres and long jump events.

THE pride of many South Africans took an upward jolt last Sunday night when 29-year-old Mpumelelo Mhlongo not only won the country’s first medal in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, but did so in spectacular fashion as a runaway gold medal winner in the T44 100m race, having clocked it in 11.12 seconds.

‘We’ve got this’


Mhlongo is a role model who is achieving astonishing feats in sports and in his studies, and who has a blossoming career.

He is a South African sprint and long jump athlete and Paralympic Games record holder. Mhlongo won silver and bronze at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in the T44 men’s 100 metres and long jump events. 

Read more: Mhlongo breaks SA’s Paralympic duck with terrific 100m gold

See Mhlongo here in the 100m Final



It was not the first time that he had hoisted the South African flag high. He did so during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games, where he broke the T44 200m World Record and set the T44 200m, 100m, and long jump Paralympic Games records.  

He’d also done it during his first Paralympic appearance at the Rio 2016 Paralympics Games.

See Mhlongo's Paralympic profile here:  Wins and records

On Thursday afternoon, during a telephone interview with Daily Maverick that he fielded from his room in the athletes’ compound, Mhlongo said he felt the full weight of the national flag whenever he competed,which  inspired him to do better and better. 

“On Sunday night, for example, we felt that we should do our best for South Africa. We had expected to have stiff competition from Brazilian Matheus de Lima, but it turned out he had a bad day, finishing last. We didn’t know much about Cuba’s Yamel Luis Vives Suarez (Mhlongo’s runner-up on Sunday). We went for the jugular. By the 60% mark of the race we told ourselves, ‘Yes, we’ve got this,’”  said Mhlongo, who goes by the name “Phantom Toes” on Instagram.

It was by far his best performance of the day, although it fell just short of the record set by Jonnie Peacock, of Great Britain, on 8 September 2016 during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.

“We still could have done better by running faster. But we are confident of making up for it on Sunday,” he said, meaning in the T44 200m race, which will be his final contest before returning home.

I took the “we” to mean all of South Africa, particularly his wife, Monique, and his close family. It also means his colleagues and the people back in Klaarwater, 30km southwest of Durban. 

Mpumelelo Mhlongo and his wife Monique during their fairytale wedding. (Photo: Courtesy of the family)



The township is his birthplace, and there live the people closest to his heart. On Sunday night, for example, close family members – uncles, aunts, cousins and close friends — were glued to the TV screen in the lounge of the home of 73-year-old Maggie Mkhize, Mhlongo’s doting grandmother.

“The last time I spoke to him was on Friday. He had earlier promised he would buy me data because he wanted to speak to me. After he did, he called me from Paris, and we had our usual banter. He asked me to pray for him and I said to him ‘I will keep you in my prayers, but you must just do your best and you will.’

“After he won, I heard whistling and ululation all around the neighbourhood,” she recalled. “I have never felt so proud of my boy.”

Trials, tribulations and triumphs


Mhlongo lives with constriction ring syndrome and a clubfoot, after he was born with Amniotic band syndrome. It is a congenital disorder resulting in fibrous bands that can cause limb anomalies and deformities, and which can necessitate amputation.

To avoid amputation, the family was required to take him to hospital for operations that allowed blood to flow to the lower part of his leg.

Mpumelelo Mhlongo with his wife Monique at the Paris Paralympics. (Photo: Courtesy of the family)



“He often came back home with a plaster and I often ordered him to stay indoors to avoid further damaging his condition,” Ma Maggie related. “But I would soon see him running out of the yard, into the neighbourhood, with his friends, running all over the place. Sometimes, we would find him having pulled off his plaster, out running with his friends.”

Mhlongo is the son of Ma Maggie’s daughter, businesswoman Lungi Mthembu and legendary cop Brigadier Mhlongo.

Speaking from Paris this week, she said she named her son Mpumelelo, which means success in isiZulu, after a difficult first few days and months of his life. 

“It was clear from the beginning that his foot was deformed. But it wasn’t the only thing. He looked frail and at one time I feared that he wouldn’t see, would not hear. But as days went by he started moving, began to see and gradually became a bubbly child.

See Mhlongo here in the long jump: 



“That restored my hopes and the only name I could think of was Mpumelelo. He has fittingly fulfilled his name, and achieved things beyond our wildest expectations. It has been such a pleasure parenting him, we don’t have to constantly put him on the straight and narrow because he knows what he wants and he has the confidence and poise to achieve it,” she said. “I don’t regret ever spending money and everything to send him to the best schools and seeing him achieve his goals.”

Here she was referring to the fact that he attended Kloof High School, which allowed him to continue to earn and achieve his sporting goals. He earned the joint award for the Junior Sportsman of the Year in his first year of high school.

Mpumelelo Mhlongo of Team South Africa during the Men's Long Jump-T64 Final on day seven of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games at Stade de France on 4 September 2024 in Paris. (Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)



His trailblazing streak continued when he enrolled at Kearsney College, an institution that produces some of the country’s best sportsmen.

During his matric year he received the Edwin Henwood Trophy, after competing with able-bodied opponents and giving them a hard time.

 It was only a matter of time before a big sponsor came knocking on his door. In his case it was Investec Bank, which granted him a scholarship that covered all his studying expenses for the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he studied chemical engineering.

At UCT he was a regular on the dean’s merit list, and he won Sportsperson of the Year for five consecutive years. He is currently studying for his doctorate at UCT, with his thesis focusing on the conversion of plastic waste into energy.

Read more: SA’s world champion adds another medal to his tally

After Mhlongo’s triumph on Sunday night, Peta Dixon, Investec’s head of sponsorship, said: “Mpumelelo’s achievement in Paris further highlights the transformative power of sport to transcend barriers, and showcases the immense talent within the Paralympic movement in South Africa.

“Speaking as his long-time athletic sponsor, as well as on behalf of Mpumi’s close-knit colleague community here at Investec, we are thrilled to witness him make history. His triumph is an extraordinary win for South Africa, and a powerful reminder that with the right talent, support and opportunity, boundaries can be broken. We are incredibly proud to stand behind athletes like him, who inspire us all to reach for greatness.”

Yamkelwa Mkhize, Mpumelelo's 14-year-old cousin, and his grandmother, Ma Maggie Mkhize in their home. (Picture: Chris Makhaye)



However, his mother thinks there are still many records to break. “This is not the end of the movie. We are just waiting for him to finish his doctorate so that he can start a family. After that, anything is possible.”

Mhlongo speaks glowingly of his family members, saying they have been a pillar of his strength, even in Paris. “This time I am here with my wife in the stands, my mother is here for the first time ever, and even my mother-in-law. Having my family here is everything I could have asked for.”

Although he studied chemical engineering, Mhlongo works as a structured finance consultant for Investec in Johannesburg.

At his childhood home town in Klaarwater, he is such a role model that everyone, young and old, looks up to him.  

Pathfinder


Yamkelwa Mkhize, Mhlongo’s 14-year-old cousin, is a pupil at the local Phakathi High. On Sunday night Yamkelwa was among the people glued to the TV screen at Ma Maggie’s home. He said Mhlongo’s legend had captured the imagination of his peers.

“At school, they don’t believe me when I say he (Mhlongo) is my cousin,” he said, adding that this had resulted in him perusing the family’s photo albums and purloining the pictures to take to school, especially those that features Yamkelwa with the athlete.

“For me things are simple, I have a cousin who is a celebrity and an achiever, who appears on TV, yet is also able to speak to me like a brother. I love that, and I also want to follow in his footsteps and study engineering at the highest level.” DM

Update: Mhlongo won his second medal at the 2024 Paralympics on Saturday evening, getting a bronze in the Men's 200m T64 race.

This article was amended at 1.15pm on 7 September, and again on 8 September, to update and also for accuracy. 

 

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