Musina Municipality received 22 bicycles from the Department of Roads and Transport on Monday. The bicycles will be distributed to three needy schools in the farming and rural villages around Musina.

The receipt of the bicycles is part of the Shova Kalula Bicycle National Project aimed at assisting school children who have no access to public transport. The schools that will benefit in Musina are Esme Four (five bicycles), Mopani (14) and Kransberg (3).

The beneficiaries were identified through the municipality, the Department of Education and the Department of Roads and Transport. This was done after profiling the learners and their parents’ employment records, including the estimated household income. 

In order to benefit, children should be from low-income families, must be between grade 3 and 12, have the capacity to ride the bicycles and wear visible clothing, and understand the basics of road safety education. The beneficiaries will be those who walk more than three kilometers per day as a single trip to the school.

The conditions also specify that the schools should ensure that the learners use the bicycles mainly for school purposes. The schools shall keep the bicycles under lock and key in the school premises during the school holidays. The learners are also expected to return the bicycles as the property of the school when they leave the school.

The school will also have the right to withdraw the bicycles from the learners who do not comply by either not taking good care of the bicycles, not cycling to school regularly and those who drop out of school within a period of a year.