An innovative partnership has been developed between organisations from the UK and South Africa to establish a specialist cycle hub which will enable thousands of children in rural South Africa to learn how to ride and maintain bicycles.
Since 2016, the University of Leeds and the Bambisanani Partnership have devised and delivered a Cycling to Success programme based at Mnyakanya High School in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
This programme has led to almost 200 young people learning how to ride bikes safely, and to also maintain and fix bikes in the community. The programme has also operated a bike rental scheme to allow leaners who live great distances from school to ride to and from school.
The project has gained widespread acclaim, including praise from World Champion professional cyclist, Lizzie Diegan MBE, who has even given her own kit to support it.
The ambition has always been to expand and grow the programme to further schools in the area to broaden the reach and numbers of children gaining these valuable life skills.
Over the last two years, the University of Leeds and the Bambisanani Partnership have been working with the highly respected KZN Cycling, the provincial cycling federation, to identify opportunities for collaboration and to expand the project across a great number of schools and across the calendar year.
The Bambisanani Cycling to Success programme introduced in the remote Nkandla region has had an enormous impact.
This is an area where children can routinely walk two hours to and from school each day. The bikes have subsequently been used for transportation, recreation, informal sport and even by the local football team for fitness training. Other remote rural communities also approached the Partnership to see if they could be involved, but until now this has not been possible.
The collaboration with KZN Cycling dramatically increases capacity to bring cycling, with all its transformative benefits, to other communities.
Over the past week, the Bambisanani Partnership and KZN Cycling have signed a three-year agreement worth over R520 000 to establish a cycling hub in the Nkandla region.
This new hub will have a local community member as a member of staff to deliver schools cycling programmes, as well as community clinics and organise races and events across the area.
The new hub will enable 5 000 young people per year to attend training clinics, as well as acting as a talent identification programme for KZN-Cycling performance pathway. This new partnership provides an exciting opportunity to empower the young people of Nkandla, as well as providing a blueprint for future programmes and projects.
The commitment and enthusiasm for this project is clearly evident from those involved:
“We are all excited to develop this new partnership. A cycling hub like this, run by the community, for the community is development at its best,” said Andrew Lockwood from the University of Leeds who is a Bambisanani Partnership Trustee.
“We have already seen the significant impact our cycling projects have had in Nkandla; and this expansion is great news and I am sure will make a long-term impact on those who benefit from it.”
Alec Lenferna, Chief Executive Officer of KZN Cycling, is excited to see the province’s already impressive programme expanding.
“We’ve always believed that we have a good programme in place across all eleven districts in the province, and every year we have tens of thousands of youngsters that get included in the various elements,” said Lenferna.
“However, the new agreement that has been put in place with the Bambisanani Partnership, not only endorses the hard work being done by all, but more significantly, allows for longer-term strategic planning linked to elements that are going to positively impact on the lives of the people of the Nkandla region.”
“For people in the deep rural areas of KZN, bikes, and the linked opportunities that bikes have, are life changing. If there were more organisations like the Bambisanani Partnership that got behind development programmes like this, whether here or elsewhere in the world, there would be more smiles on more faces every day.”
David Geldart, CEO and Founder of the Bambisanani Partnership, is grateful for the partnerships that have allowed the programme to grow.
“I am absolutely delighted to have signed this agreement to work in partnership with KZN Cycling,” he said. “Our own cycling programmes in the deep rural areas have been a resounding success and it is a wonderful opportunity to be now collaborating with KZN Cycling to bring cycling to thousands more young people.”
“Significantly, this work will also involve the KZN Department of Education and the KZN Department of Sport and Recreation, who we have worked with closely for many years. Massive thanks must go to Andy and Alec for working tirelessly to create this pioneering programme.”
With final preparations now underway the first children will be participating in the programme by early June of this year.
aQuellé Tour Durban – Inaugural KZN Cycling Club Championships
Greetings to all club reps As the year starts drawing to a close, it’s great to be able to share some information with you relative to two exciting new initiatives aimed specifically at clubs, and their registered members, that will be in place at the 2025 edition of the aQuellé Tour Durban.The inaugural KZN Cycling Club Championships will be staged on 27th April 2025 – our road race day – and this new competition allows all registered clubs of all sizes and rider depth to be able to compete and to walk away with some prizes, and the bragging rights that go with the title….!!The KZN Cycling Participation Trophy competition will be linked to both days of competition at the event and will require very little effort from all concerned…The basis of the KZN Cycling Club Championships competition is outlined below. •The Championships is based on competition across three different road race distances – 42km, 68km and 110km •The cumulative results of the top three finishers from each club in each of these distances will be taken to determine the overall winning club •Therefore, the results are determined by nine riders from the club •The finishing time of each rider will be taken and added to determine the overall club time •All entrants from your club will be eligible to be one of the top finishers – ie. the clubs will not need to designate which riders will be making up their official team •All riders in the competition must be an official club member and need to have a valid CSA Membership •Entrants will just need to enter the event in the normal manner, in their chosen distance and indicate their club on the entry portal as one of the required fields. The event organisers will then manage all timing and results collation etc •Riders can be male or female – there is no specific designation •Unfortunately, the competition will not allow for entrants on e-bikes… Benefits that will accrue to the participating and winning clubs and riders are as follows: •All participating clubs can set up a team area in the clubs section in finish area for free •All participating clubs will be able to have support staff in the designated clubs technical zones on the course to be able to provide additional feeding and mechanical support etc •Trophies will be awarded to the top three clubs, and the nine riders from each of the top three clubs will receive presentation medals and product hampers Presentation medals will be given to the top 3 x finishers in each distance so these individual efforts can be recognised as well •The winning club will receive free registration with KZN Cycling for the following year •The winning club will be able to use the term “2025 KZN Cycling Club Champions” on all official correspondence and communication mechanics such as websites, social media platforms, newsletters etc for the period until the following year’s competition is staged •Additional prizes for the competition are being sourced at present and when pertinent, more information will be given as to these benefits Apart from the KZN Cycling Club Championships competition that allows for an outlet for the more competitive members from the clubs, there is another competition linked to the event for those club members that that don’t necessarily want to race, but just wish to be part of the event. The parameters of the KZN Cycling Particiption Trophy competition are as follows: •The competition is open to entrants in both the mountain bike and road elements of the event •Riders on e-bikes will contribute towards the winning totals •Just by entering the event(s), club members will add to their club’s chances of success… •The winning club will be the club that enters the highest percentage of their registered members into the aQuellé Tour Durban events relative to the total number of club members. •By way of explanation, if a club has 100 members and 50 people enter the event, they will receive a score of 50%. Although a club may have more members, eg. 200 members in total, if 90 members enter, that club will receive a score of 45%. •This will mean that the first club will finish in a higher position than the second club •This allows all clubs registered with KZN Cycling – irrespective of size – an opportunity to have success at the event. •If a club member enters both the MTB and Road race, the club will receive an additional entry to add towards their total – i.e.. 3 x entries instead of 2. Trophies will be awarded to the top three clubs in this competition, and the winning club will receive free registration with KZN Cycling for the following year. I trust this information makes sense in the first instance, but more importantly, is of interest. We are working closely with KZN Cycling in a bid to boost the club initiatives and to have more people on more bikes more regularly – this being very much one of the cornerstones of the aQuellé Tour Durban. We are an event of participation and recreational bike riding as opposed to hardcore racing, but it is acknowledged that there are people that enjoy riding their bikes as hard and as fast as possible, and some that just wish to ride more sedately, and these new initiatives allow for all members of a club to be accommodated. Clubs, riders, the federation and organisers are all important cogs in the machine to allow for the sport to grow and to flourish, and the more we can all work together in order to assist each other, the better… To this end, it would be greatly appreciated if the event information and these competitions can be shared with your club members, and that your club members be encouraged to compete.Should there be any queries about these initiatives, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Thanks, and kind regardsAlec LenfernaEvent DirectoraQuellé Tour Durban+27 82 909
