--- title: "How a humble Soweto parkrun cultivates joy and community in a neglected park" description: "In Soweto’s Dorothy Nyembe Park, parkrun’s understated weekly ritual united legends like Bruce Fordyce with grassroots volunteers, proving running can rebuild community and hope." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "ESCAPE" author: "Mark Heywood" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/markheywood/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-11-how-a-humble-soweto-parkrun-cultivates-joy-and-community-in-a-neglected-park/" published: "2026-09-11T11:00:00" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 1024 --- # How a humble Soweto parkrun cultivates joy and community in a neglected park > In Soweto’s Dorothy Nyembe Park, parkrun’s understated weekly ritual united legends like Bruce Fordyce with grassroots volunteers, proving running can rebuild community and hope. By Mark Heywood · Published 11 September 2026, 13:00 SAST ## Key points - On 5 September a 5km parkrun at Soweto’s Dorothy Nyembe Park drew legends – nine-time Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce and parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt – with no fanfare, just community running. - The morning underlined parkrun’s global reach: the Dorothy Nyembe start coincided with about 35,000 runners at 220 SA events and 450,000+ worldwide – a social movement made simple and free. - It was the volunteers who stole the story: ambassadors and local organisers keep the ritual safe, predictable and joyful – Fordyce even walked the course with blind runner Chantal Ferreira. - Despite the park’s neglect under City custodianship, participants see a possible renaissance; parkrun offers small, steady civic repair and belonging. ## Content Dorothy Nyembe park is a rundown and neglected park in Dobsonville, Soweto, named after one of the brave heroes who sacrificed her life for the right to freedom, equality and dignity in South Africa. On the morning of Saturday, 5 September 2026, the park was host to a significant, but unheralded, event. At just before 8am a small group of people began arriving and assembling for the weekly parkrun that now takes place there – one of three parkruns in Soweto and more than 50 parkruns in different locations in Gauteng alone. [READ MORE A user’s guide to most of Gauteng’s parkruns: Revised edition July 13, 2026 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/JcmY-nl5W4FIJakm_ErBEoao0bo=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_8637.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-07-13-a-users-guide-to-most-of-gautengs-parkruns-revised-edition/) It was an inauspicious gathering. Apart from the fact that there were an unusual number of white people in a Soweto park (or, sad truth be told, in Soweto at all), there were no trappings to suggest that an unusual event was taking place. No blue lights. No bodyguards. No SUVs. No ostentation. In fact, as the group stretched limbs and jogged on the spot against the unseasonal cold, nobody was making a fuss. And yet among them were several people who have changed – and are still changing – the world. The most recognisable was Bruce Fordyce, a nine-time Comrades Marathon winner, one of the greatest ultra-distance athletes in history, and his wife and partner Gill. Less recognisable was Paul Sinton-Hewitt, who founded the parkrun movement in London’s Bushy Park in 2004 and his wife and partner Joanne. Sinton-Hewitt is a tall, gangly man, who blends easily into a group. He wasn’t drawing attention to himself. It took me a few minutes to spot him. It was a cold, wet morning, feeling more autumnal than spring, the ground pleasantly soaked, the re-leaved trees relishing the light rain. It smelled of a “petrichor”, the title of a lovely poem by one of our great poets, [Ingrid de Kok](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-01-20-poetry-as-antidote-a-journey-through-grief-love-and-the-transformative-power-of-language/). ![A huddle of parkrunners: (Left to Right): Lwandile Phaledi; Bruce Fordyce; Bella Ferreira; Chantall Ferreira; Mark Heywood; Gill Fordyce,: with more than 2,000 completed parkruns between them. (Photo: Mark Heywood)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/x38Okn2VrXxyBPeTiPzbJpmQATA=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Mark-ParkRun-Sept20262_951589.jpg) *A huddle of parkrunners (left to right): Parkrun ambassador Lwandile Phaledi; Bruce Fordyce; Bella Ferreira; Chantall Ferreira; Mark Heywood; Paul Sinton-Hewitt, and Gill Fordyce, with more than 2,000 completed parkruns between them. (Photo: Mark Heywood)* ![The silent statutes of Dorothy Nyembe park. (Photo: Mark Heywood)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/YpYmkvFfZqnxqf_7naPNOhgTOII=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Mark-ParkRun-Sept20266_491023.jpg) *The silent statutes of Dorothy Nyembe park. (Photo: Mark Heywood)* After a short exercise warm-up led by Lwandile Phaledi, a parkrun ambassador in Soweto, and a run briefing by the day’s run director, Gillian Findlay, at precisely 8am the parkrun started. At exactly the same moment, so did approximately 35,000 other parkrunners at 220 events across South Africa, and (time differences allowing) so did 450,000+ parkrunners in 22 different countries across the world, stretching from New Zealand to the US. ### A social movement Sinton-Hewitt is still fit for his 66 years. I had contemplated running with him. It didn’t last long as I saw him gently stride away from me. Fordyce, on the other hand, brought up the rear, choosing to walk the whole 5km guiding and keeping the company of Chantal Ferreira, a blind runner. They finished in 1:17:58, a far cry from Fordyce’s personal parkrun best of 18 minutes and some seconds. I was struck by the humility and gentleness of these two giants. They stayed at the end for photographs, bonding with the local parkrun volunteers, chatting about the state of the park. It’s a sad fact that the park’s best days were probably under apartheid. Today, as with everything else that falls under the guardianship of the Johannesburg City Council, it’s rotting and run down. More litter than flowers. Nonetheless its grandeur is evident. Kids still play sports there. A park renaissance remains possible. Bruce Fordyce, the Comrades King, needs no introduction to a Daily Maverick readership. We know him and his exploits. He is a legend. In 2011 he founded parkrun in SA and today he is its CEO. Sinton-Hewitt, however, might not be known to you. He grew up in South Africa before moving to London in the late 1980s. He started a weekly park run as a hobby in 2004, combining his tech genius and love of running, with a desire to create a place of community, for himself initially. As he says in his book, [One Small Step, The definitive account of a run that became a global movement](https://www.wordsworth.co.za/products/one-small-step-the-definitive-account-of-a-run-that-became-a-global-movement-trade-paperback): “I planted a seed at a time when I was struggling and wanted to be active, outdoors and social. “What I didn’t realise was that so did everyone else. A social movement is a collection of people with shared ideals and a vision for change. It doesn’t have to be an uprising or revolution.” ![Warming up on a wintry spring morning. (Photo: Mark Heywood)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/hqhs7VbdXhWWlhQeDOVLDBAaBuU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Mark-ParkRun-Sept2026_939916.jpg) *Warming up on a wintry spring morning. (Photo: Mark Heywood)* One Small Step describes how parkrun grew incrementally, and then exponentially; it harnessed the digital communications revolution for community rather than self-aggrandisement; it let the running do the talking about its values and mission. It declared it would be forever free. On its public-facing side parkrun is the epitome of simplicity. You arrive at a parkrun, volunteers shepherd you to the start, you run or walk, you register your bar code on completion and you go home. Judging by the faces I see at the end of every parkrun everybody leaves having felt some sort of joy and community. But behind the simplicity is a worldwide web of volunteers; complexity organised for community. Later that day I attended a tea party with parkrun ambassadors, hosted by the Fordyces, to meet the Sinton-Hewitts. As the small group, coming from all corners of Gauteng, and some from even further, introduced themselves I listened in awe. Anecdotes about parkruns (it’s a new religion!) interspersed with laughter. But what struck me was that, without even really realising it, this small group of people are the engine of thousands of people’s weekly joy, the motor that keeps the parkrun predictable, safe and community owned. And they do it for love, not money. Doing voluntary work for the love of it, to help other people run, walk, find community, find hope, find themselves and feel better about life is beyond worthy. It’s basically a return to what we are about as humans. **DM** *To become a parkrunner, volunteer or to find out more about parkrun, visit*[*parkrun.*](https://www.parkrun.co.za/)