Light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s never too late to change your ways.

Langa runner, poet turned stand-up comedian Tsepiso Nzayo hailing all the way from Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, celebrated 641 days of Sobriety with a bang on Sunday at the Balwin sport peninsula marathon. Tsepiso took part in the prestigious Balwin sport peninsula marathon that takes place annually. Nzayo, once a heavy drinker, says alcoholism starts slow and quickly becomes a habit without you noticing.

Tsepiso tells us in his time back in Mqanduli in 2016, everyone around him was athletic and he wasn’t: he could not play rugby nor football, but he could run. He says he got into running through exchange students from Switzerland that were frequent joggers.  His intention was to get closer to them but instead fell in love with running. It’s been close to 8 years now running for Tsepiso and his hobby soon changed into passion. 

Now, Nzayo does charity runs to raise money and spread awareness to the ills of society. Tsepiso got backing from different companies such as TooMuchwifi that fell in love with his story and his charity runs and wanted to help make his dream of becoming a professional runner a reality. The ISP company loved his passion for community development and sports which made Tsepiso the perfect ambassador for its brand. Toomuchwifi gives back 30% of its revenue back to the community by supporting various organizations and community upliftment programmes. Tsepiso is one of many beneficiaries that the company has helped since its inception back in 2016. 

Tsepiso’s story of alcohol abuse is well documented. He recently posted some of his pictures of that dark time of his life. He says alcoholism starts slow and you become defensive when people start to call you out. There is always money for alcohol or someone willing to buy you some he says. He also told us alcohol compromised his passion for running because there were times, he would miss races because he slept drunk. He noticed that drinking became a habit that hindered his fitness and any hope of achieving his dreams. 

Ironically his passion for running is the one that helped him kick the drinking addiction. He says he would go for three months without drinking due to training for upcoming marathons. One day after that extensive training period, he asked himself why should I go back. Now it has been close to two years since the last time he consumes alcohol. On Sunday, he will be celebrating the 641 days sober milestone by indulging in the Balwin sport peninsula marathon. 

His words of encouragement to those struggling to defeat alcohol abuse is do not stop because people tell you but decide that you want to stop.