Bikers for Mandela Day

27 June, 2011

Today the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF)revealed the route to be followed by the Bikers for Mandela Day contingent in 2011.

This year’s group of riders includes NMF staffers, 25 riders and 15 support staff who will depart from Montecasino, Johannesburg on July 11th. Celebrities, businesspeople and other supporters will also be part of the group of riders undertaking this year’s trip.

The focus of the route in 2011 is significantly more rural than last year’s trip, traversing first Gauteng and then the Free State, Kwa-Zulu Natal, and Mpumulanga. A section of the Bikers for Mandela Day 2011 route also takes the riders through Swaziland. In addition, the route includes several heritage sites that are significant in the life and times of Nelson Mandela, including the site near the Kwa-Zulu Natal town of Howick where the ANC leader was captured on 5th August 1962 – marking close to 49 years since Mr Mandela’s arrest.

Starting with a project near Harrismith, other stop-off sites for Bikers For Mandela Day’s engagement with community projects include Jozini, Mbombela (Nelspruit), Graskop and Eshowe.

The Bikers For Mandela Day 2011 journey is supported by Spar and Vodacom as well as 46664, which has selected the project as key to its mission of furthering the humanitarian legacy of Mr Mandela. A host of other businesses, media, community projects, municipalities and more have also contributed this year.

The now annual Bikers For Mandela Day forms an integral part of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Nelson Mandela Day activities, with the eight-day ride ending in Pretoria on July 18th. Significantly, both the day of departure on July 11th and the day of return by Bikers For Mandela Day are Mondays, further reinforcing the recently launched “Mandela Mondays” of the NMF.  Mandela Monday’s encourage people worldwide to give a small amount of their time every week to do a good deed to benefit their fellow human beings, the community or the environment in which they live.  This ties back to the tagline of this widely implemented global campaign which asks us each to make everyday a Mandela day.

As was the case with the 2010 Bikers For Mandela Day trip, the group of riders will be visiting community projects along the route, devoting 67 minutes of their time to activities that will leave a lasting and sustainable impact on their beneficiaries.

“The Bikers For Mandela Day trip this year is more arduous and extensive than last year’s – which is saying something considering we encountered rain, storms, sunshine and even snow en route in 2010,” says Zelda la Grange of the Nelson Mandela Foundation,

“But as a Mandela Day project that touches on all aspects of our founder’s life and legacy, the riders are all determined to undertake the journey. We hope it will inspire many other South Africans, whether part of a bike riding club or a canoe club, a stokvel or as individuals to do their 67 minutes of community action on July 18th as well as five minutes on Mandela Mondays.”

For more details on the route, please click here.