Over 700 learners from rural Nkomazi receive bicycles

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Over 700 bicycles have been donated to seven school in rural Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, to assist with school lateness.

Learners from Sidlemu, Mphoti, Kobi and Majembeni Primary as well as Sigweje, Dlamadoda and Lomahashe Secondary received bicycles from the Department of Transport initiative, Shova Kalula.

The Shova Kalula National Bicycle Project provide learners with bicycles that walk between 3 to 5 kilometers to school in rural and township areas.

These are the learners that do not qualify for scholar transport.

Deputy Minister of Transport Lisa Mangcu says the learners will be provided with Cycling Safety Education Awareness lessons to encourage proper road user behaviour and safe cycling.

“Learners will be provided with safety tips, provided with helmets to ensure that they are safe. They will be provided with reflective jackets to ensure that they are visible, we are not just giving bicycles to them, we are training them how to ride these bicycles, we are also calling on communities to create small entities to fix them, tyre punctures and so forth,” says Mangcu.

The beneficiaries were overjoyed with emotions when they received the bicycles. A grade 7 learner at Sidlemu Primary, Ntsako Sininda says the bicycle will help her to arrive early at school and home.

“The distance from school to home is too far the bicycle will help me to get home quick and wash my uniform” said Sininda.

The chairperson of the school governing body at Sidlemu Primary in Mangweni village, Lindiwe Siboza said the bicycles will be used for school purposes. Siboza has urged parents to ensure they maintain the bicycles.

The department has donated over 24 000 bicycles countrywide since the project started in 2011.