![\"ccs-62657-0-82872900-1429368237.jpeg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-82872900-1429368237.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nBy the time the 2015 Nedbank sani2c gets underway on 12 May organisers will have created over 10000 man days of employment since last year’s race alone.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have always looked to involve the local communities in the sani2c as best we possibly can since we first started the race and job creation is a major element of what our event is about still today,\u201d says organiser \u2018Farmer Glen\u2019 Haw.<\/p>\n \u201cWherever we possibly can we source both labour and material locally with Glencairn and Joliet being prime examples of this principle.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the \u2018pick and spade\u2019 hard labour right through to the plumbers and tilers, all come from within the local communities that we are building near and some have even been upskilled further through our assistance as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Local tiling sensation Dlamini and BSi Steel dusi2c discovered plumber Mzo Mbhele are two such beneficiaries of the Glencairn and Jolivet developments.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Dlamini used to tile locally but unfortunately he wasn\u2019t the greatest,\u201d explains Haw. \u201cThrough the assistance of Tile Africa though, we sent him to their training school and he\u2019s now come back and has done the most incredible work!\u201d explains Haw.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the end of the project he will have layed 3000m2 of tiles \u2013 some of which has been across 50 showers in very difficult conditions \u2013 and the standard of the work that he has produced so far will get him any tiling job anywhere; he\u2019s now that good!\u201d<\/p>\n Youngsters support of participants of the Nedbank sani2c demonstrates the positive impact the race has had on local communities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMzo used to be sub-contracted by Umgeni Water to help when they were putting in new water systems in the rural areas and we stumbled across him during our dusi2c preparations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started building at Jolivet I got him in and he\u2019s done all of the plumbing there; all the water for the toilets and the kitchen and all the other plumbing and he\u2019s going to be doing the same at Glencairn too.\u201d<\/p>\n The construction of a community lodge along the race\u2019s second stage high \u2013 the drop into the Umkomaas Valley \u2013 has seen the event\u2019s reach stretch even further into local communities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are also currently building a self-sustaining, eco-friendly community lodge on the second stage route that should be completed by the end of this winter.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the summer the lodge will provide accommodation for riders of the mountain biking tours that we\u2019ll be running from there or it will be the perfect overnight stop for those that want to cycle down from Underberg!\u201d<\/p>\n Local residents and former head of the team that built the trail through the area that has become the heart of the sani2c route, Mr. Shange is now relishing taking on the challenge of maintaining and managing the lodge upon its completion.<\/p>\n Having spent seven years with Shange during the trail\u2019s construction, Haw noticed how meticulously kept Shange\u2019s homestead always was and that he had a spare rondavel on his plot of land that his son, who lived in Johannesburg, only used occasionally when he came to visit.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought why doesn\u2019t Shange look to start a \u2018village stay\u2019 type mountain biking accommodation with his spare rondavel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea took off immediately and before we knew it the demand was too big for the rondavel and so the idea of building the community lodge was born.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Shange always keeps his plot so incredibly neat and tidy \u2013 everything is always clean, the grass is always cut by hand with a slasher and he has every fruit tree you can imagine growing on his plot \u2013 and so we have built the lodge right next to his property and he and his wife are going to run the lodge when it\u2019s finished!\u201d<\/p>\n The Mlambu family\u2019s father and son thatching combo are another pair to have benefitted hugely from the employment and upskilling they received from the race and the development of the lodge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided the lodge\u2019s roof was going to be thatch as that was what fitting into the local environment the best but when we asked around the local community for the local thatcher no one could help us.<\/p>\n Local community members show their appreciation for the impact the Nedbank sani2c has had on their communities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEventually we discovered that an old man, Mr. Mlambu, did a bit of thatching but that his work wasn\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got hold of professional thatchers from Winterton and they agreed for us to pay for Mlambu, his son and another local youngster to go up there and be trained to thatch properly by this professional.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they came back they thatched the lodge better than anyone could have, they were pedantically proud of every little bit of their work!<\/p>\n The sani2c\u2019s upskilling of the Mlambus has resulted in them now starting a successful thatching venture in their local community.<\/p>\n \u201cLocals and local farmer\u2019s wives who hiked past the lodge saw the work that these guys had done and have since got them in to do work at their own places!\u201d says Haw.<\/p>\n The 11th edition of the Nedbank sani2c’s gets underway when the Trail event takes place from 12-14 May 2015. The Adventure then unfolds from 13-15 May before the cream of the the country’s top mountain bikers do battle during the Race from 14-16 May. More information can be found at www.sani2c.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A world class experience both on and off the bike is what the Nedbank sani2c mountain bike race has become best known for however the magnitude of the impact of the three day long event from Sani Pass to Scottburgh Main Beach on the local communities is almost immeasurable. As the 11th edition of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4018,53],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-nedbank-sani2c","tag-sani2c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20152"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n