Three men are walking nearly 400km from Gonubie in East London to Jeffreys Bay. Their journey ends at the Mighty Men event in Jeffreys Bay from 21-23 March.
Talk of the Town caught up with Mthabisi Khumalo, Arthur Friedrichs, Martin Douglas and backup driver Mawande Ndevu just after the halfway mark.
They set off from Gonubie at 5am on Friday March 7 and plan to reach J-Bay on Thursday March 20.
When TOTT encountered them, they were a few kilometres east of Alexandria and had just passed the halfway mark.
Douglas said, “We’re doing this to raise awareness of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, and as a way of inviting people to join us at Mighty Men 2025.
“I’m just following what the Lord told me to do – to walk with the cross.”
The total distance is 388km.
The group had stopped for Douglas to tend to blisters on his feet. They were joined by Boknes resident Victor VIljoen.
“I passed them earlier and I was really annoyed at how slowly the bakkie was going,” VIljoen said. “Then I saw that they were walking with this cross and I just started crying.”
He was still tearful as he spoke to Douglas.
The event, at Mooi Uitsig farm in Jeffreys Bay, is from 21-23 March and, with 195km to go, Douglas said they hoped to reach there by Thursday.
“If we get there a day earlier, it’s a bonus,” said Douglas who is one of the organisers of the event. “Then we get a day’s rest before we have to start preparing for it.
The Mighty Men Conference Jeffreys Bay, is an annual gathering of Christian men and boys which has been hosted in the Eastern Cape since 2018.
Douglas said the event’s founder Angus Buchan would be there on both days.
Saturday would be for men only.
“We want men to take accountability for their lives and to be fathers to their children,” he said.
Sunday would be open to wives and children.
About Mighty Men
Farmer Angus Buchan began the Mighty Men Conference in 2004. Around 200 people attended that first event. That number rose to 600 in 2005, over 1000 in 2006, 7,400 in 2007 and 60,000 in 2008. The final national event in 2010 was attended by up to 300,000 men and boys. The website mightymeneasterncape says Mighty Men Conferences have continued to take place around South Africa and the world “however these are no longer organised as one central conference by the Shalom Trust”.
