Langa entrepreneurs’ bicycle service is the wheel deal
It’s all about pedal power for this mobility and delivery service. By
“C an you please give me one minute?” says Mzikhona Mgedle, over the phone. “I’m just hanging my daughter’s clothes on the line.”
It’s a sunny day in Cape Town and Mgedle, father of three-year-old Khethokuhle, is doing tasks at the family’s Langa home. Mgedle’s partner of 10 years, Anelisa Magiligwana, is out working as a teacher in Retreat.
“Anelisa, she’s also busy doing a social work degree at the University of the Western Cape,” Mgedle adds proudly. The couple met while attending Ikamvalethu Secondary School in Langa.
Inside their two-roomed flat, on the second floor of an apartment block, six bicycles are kept in the kitchen. During lockdown level three, on 10 June, this was where the Langa Bicycle Hub was born.
With the advent of lockdown, Mgedle, 26, lost his job at NPO Open Streets, where for five years he helped organise Open Streets events, advocating for shared public spaces and nonmotorised transport.
Open Streets informed his vision for Langa Bicycle Hub: “This is a home for all cycling needs to improve mobility,” he says. “Our vision is to use bicycles to improve people’s commute. We go around over weekends, looking for bikes that aren’t safe and we fix them. We get donated bicycles, fix them, selling refurbished bikes at affordable prices. For example, we have bikes for boys and girls aged 11 to 16 years old selling for R900.”
Indeed, the pandemic provided opportunity for creative thinking about cycling, as an alternative mode of transport along the township’s narrow streets.
“A focus point for us is to see more children and women on bikes,” says Mgedle. “We organise cycling events. We support Langa Safety Patrol by giving them strong bicycles to help them move easily while attending to incidents in the community.”
Since lockdown level three, Mgedle carried the six bicycles down two flights of stairs at his apartment block every day. Among other things, these bikes are used to courier medicine and food to bedridden people, including Covid-19 patients.
“We were collecting food from the Langa Community Action Network station and medicine from St John’s Clinic in Langa,” says Mgedle. “I started making a database of patients in Langa and exactly what they need in terms of food and medicine, with location pins on Google Maps. So everything was delivered right to their doorsteps.”
At present Langa Bicycle Hub has 45 bedridden beneficiaries. The delivery riders are volunteers from the community who rotate. “They are mostly kids from the area, waiting to get jobs,” says Mgedle.
But, given the bikes in the kitchen, where does he cook? Mgedle laughs. “We make it work,” he says. “The kitchen is large. My partner and I had a chat about it, and we decided that if this is our destiny, let us open our home... We have internet at the flat. So people come here ... to access the internet; kids come here to do their homework.”
If Langa Bicycle Hub is Mgedle’s brainchild, cofounder Siyabonga Ngwevela brings the brawn. Ngwevela runs a workshop nearby, where he has been fixing bikes for years.
“So it started at my house, which became an office and the customer service point,” says Mgedle. “Then there is Siya’s workshop where we take the bicycles to be fixed.”
The challenge is to monetise the idea and the services offered. Currently they are crowdsourcing funds on to buy a container in which to house the hub. They provide regular updates on their Facebook page – so far they have raised R8,450.
“We have no income yet,” concedes Mgedle. “We are trying to break even. We are communicating with the city council to find land in Langa where we could put the container. We are building relationships slowly. I’m sitting on my laptop writing emails to the city. We are trying to encourage local government to come on board, and corporates and NGOs in the sector. Yes, we need money, even if it’s not much. We have some friends overseas who have helped us with funds.”
Mgedle’s voice is laced with optimism. He says Langa Bicycle Hub is his greater purpose: “The bicycle hub is a dream for us, especially for the kids. When they see us cycling by, they shout: ‘Can I get a lift, can I get a lift?’ I’m positive that this will work. I feel this was the job I was destined to do.”
He adds that October is Transport Month, which has been “amazing” for the hub. “We have collected six bicycles to be donated,” he says. “A huge thank you to those who donated bicycles, so we can fix them and hand them over to people here in Langa who need them the most.”