Khaltsha Cycles Aims To Inspire Its Community Through Cycling. Khaltsha Cycles is a one-stop bike shop founded by Sindile Mavundla, Juma Mkwela and Divinia Stevens. Its shared passion has always been to create and promote the culture of cycling in townships by offering quality affordable bicycles. Its passion for cycling is combined with a shared vision of community development through cycling. The company believes that bicycles can change lives. Hence it has made it part of its business model not only to partner with manufactures that produce quality affordable bikes but to create bicycle programmes that will change the lives of its communities.
Its programmes include; Learn2Cycle, a learn to cycle programme teaching first-time riders how to ride a bicycle; Bike2School, a school’s based programme for students and learners to use bicycles as a means of transport to commute from home to school; Safe Cycling, where there are monthly rides to promote safe cycling in communities together with Pedal Power Association and community-based cycling clubs and bicycle users. Through these programmes, the company believes it can create change and lead a cycling South Africa.
Sindile Mavundla explains to The Insider the origins of Khaltsha Cycles saying, “We started with Learn2Cycle classes. This programme teaches first-time riders how to ride a bicycle. Once people learnt how to ride, they immediately asked, ‘Where can I buy a bike?’ That’s when we thought, how about we put together a bicycle shop?”
During the hard lockdown, Community Action Networks (CANs) started sprouting up across the country to enable neighbourhoods to help those most vulnerable and in need of support during the national state of disaster. The Langa CAN has been using Khaltsha Cycles to make sure their community stays alive. Langa CAN member, Mzkikona Mgeldle, explains, “We have been using bicycles to deliver food to bedridden and disabled beneficiaries, working with the local clinic. Khaltsha Cycles has helped us during these trying times to have a way of commuting. We’re using bikes to make sure people get food.”
Mavundla told The Insider that, “The goal is to get Khayelitsha to become a cycling township. I think if we can make turn townships to cycling communities then Cape Town could become a cycling city, but to do that, we need to actually start with townships. We want to see Khayelitsha being linked to Cape Town and Stellenbosch through a bicycle freeway that we’re currently having conversations about to try and make it work. We want people to use bicycles as a preferred mode of transport, that’s what we want to achieve.”
