Durban — Twelve pupils from a Pietermaritzburg High School who walked more than 10km to school every day had bicycles donated to them by the Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA) on Friday.
The PSA handed over the bicycles to pupils from grades 8 to 12.
Provincial manager Charles Ngubane said that the donations were to promote the culture of learning by avoiding pupils from dropping out of school because of having to walk long distances.
He said this was not the first time the association had embarked on such an initiative, adding that this was in a bid to see children succeed and embark on journeys headed towards their chosen careers.
“The donation was part of the PSA’s social responsibility component with the aim of giving back. Members of the association and government employees believe that at the end of the day, we become members of the community. And when we are members of the community it means that community needs also affect us.”
Ngubeni said that they encouraged their members to report back to the association any needs that they identified in the communities that they were in.
“This can be children in schools that need uniforms or any other need, which was the case in the giving of bicycles.
“We started the bicycle project three years ago. We identified learners covering long distances to and from school, being ten kilometres or more. Once we have such schools identified we hone in on those that have the biggest numbers of learners faced with this challenge. We have been to Paulpietersburg as well as Tugela Ferry with this initiative.”
He said when they went into deep rural areas they found this problem. While Maritzburg has areas such as Sweetwaters and Sobantu, they found there were deep rural parts of these areas where pupils walked long distances to schools.
“We found that Mthoqotho High School in the Nxamalala area had such learners. As PSA we are not only looking after the rights and promoting the interests of our members at the workplace but we look beyond that looking into our communities as well. We urge communities that are in need to draw themselves close to the PSA so that we may consider lending a helping hand, not just in the Department of Education but in other spheres as well,” he said.
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