A joint venture between Solly’s Discount World, Mavu Management Services and Makhado Cycle Center put a smile on the faces of farm workers in Levubu, when 65 bicycles, worth more than R40 000, were distributed among farm workers of Mavu Management Services.

Mavu Mangement Services is a subtropical farming venture which shares the wealth of the earth with the Xigalo and Ratombo communities and it has more than 300 workers. Fifty-six of the mountain bikes come from Solly’s Discount World and the nine Humbers were acquired from Makhado Cycle Centre.

Mavu Management Services’ manager, Philip Boardman, explains how the bicycle initiative came to life: "We realized that some of our workers were unable to meet the transport costs because they are staying far away from their workplace. Some had to travel for more than 10km on foot and they were forced to start working while being tired. Some of our workers come from as far as Tshakhuma, Bungeni, Mashau and Valdezia."

Boardman says he and other two divisional managers, Kobus Cronjé and Lucas Muneri, negotiated with the bicycle suppliers to supply the bicycles in bulk. "We negotiated on behalf of the workers who would then pay for the bicycles in three installments, after realizing that most of them were unable to save cash. We also negotiated a huge discount, which they would never have enjoyed on their own."

One of the beneficiaries, Richard Ndima, said he was overwhelmed with happiness after his employers came to his rescue. "It will now be easy to go to work because the transport problem has been solved. We no longer have to worry about the transport costs because the bicycle only needs my energy to take me to work. This will really motivate us to work hard."