CycAlive puts schoolboys on leadership track

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The boys, from Moletsane High School and Pace Commercial Secondary School, joined pupils from Torah Academy, Orange Farm schools and Israeli schoolboys brought out by Partnership2Gether, to set off for KwaZulu-Natal last Sunday.

“I am excited and looking forward to the challenge,” said Moletsane High School pupil Neo Khampe, one of those who had never seen the sea, just before he started cycling.

“It has always been my wish to see the sea. I imagine it is a beautiful thing,” said Andile Magubane.

“This is a day which brings so much hope and promise to the people of South Africa,” said Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein before the cyclists set off, emphasising that investing in the next generation of leaders helped to make the world a better place.

The value of CycAlive, Goldstein said, lay in transmitting the values and traditions of brotherhood, unity, hard work, exercise, and connecting with and respecting one another.

It was in this spirit of ubuntu that the cyclists embarked on their journey from the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Houghton, Johannesburg. CycAlive was the first outreach project to be a major part of the Nelson Mandela calendar.

The idea was born in a classroom in 1998, when Torah Academy decided to do something to identify with the democratic South Africa.

The riders were given a ceremonial send-off by the Alexandra Field Band and motorcyclists from Steelwings and Rolling Thunder, who escorted them out of Johannesburg.

The boys stopped off at the site where Nelson Mandela was captured and arrested in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1960s. They also distributed care packages to hospitals and schools en route. They were followed by principals, teachers, and a team of paramedics.

They arrived in Durban on Thursday, 9 August, welcomed by the Field Band from KwaZulu-Natal, civic dignitaries, and community leaders. Thereafter, they were hosted by the Council for KwaZulu-Natal Jewry.