Saray Khumalo

Media Release

4 September 2020

Saray Khumalo goes big to mark World Literacy Day

Static cycling event aims to raise R1  million towards setting up digital libraries in schools

Johannesburg, [insert date of distribution] : Award-winning mountaineer, entrepreneur,

motivational speaker and libraries ambassador, Saray Khumalo, is going big to mark World Literacy
Day. In celebration of the occasion, she has announced that she will be hosting a mass cycle-a-thon
on [insert date] to raise R1 million in funding for digital literacy. The event will also give corporate,
sports and individual teams a chance to have some fun together for the first time since lockdown
began.

Saray intends to smash the exiting world record for the most money raised during an eight-hour
static cycling event in support of a bold iSchoolAfrica initiative. The organisation, which is endorsed
by Bok Captain, Siya Kolisi, is aiming to set up a digital library in a rural or township school in each of
South Africa’s nine provinces. Each library will consist of a mobile iPad lab supported by curriculum-
based apps, training modules, dedicated programme facilitators and mentors.

“We’re all going a little stir-crazy after so many months in various stages of lockdown,” says Saray,
“and this event will give teams the chance to get together and get active again – all in support of a
fabulous cause.”

The cycle-a-thon, which will adhere to all mandatory Covid-19 protocols, will feature 40 teams (or
brave individuals!) who will cycle continuously for the duration of the event. Teams of all kinds,
shapes and sizes are invited to participate by sponsoring a bike to the tune of R25k and by seizing
the opportunity to cycle into the history books.

“The digital divide has the potential to be the greatest divide of all,” says Khumalo, “serving only to
deepen inequalities that already exist. So this cool event has a serious purpose – to bridge this divide
for children who don’t have access to information technology and so to ensure that they don’t get
left behind in the Digital Age.”

Saray has been actively involved in children’s charities since she was the 2IC at Discovery Bank,
where she adopted Kids’ Haven under the auspices of the group’s corporate social investment
programme. It was a decision that was to set multiple wheels in motion because it was at Kids’
Haven that she was invited to join a team planning to climb Kilimanjaro.

She accepted the invitation on condition that she could use the opportunity to raise funds for Kids’
Haven and was so successful in her efforts that she was able to build and quip a library at the
organisation’s Child and Youth Centre in Benoni.

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Now a new challenge awaits. The present record for the most money raised during an eight-hour
static cycling events is £30,856, which was set in the UK in 2016. At today’s exchange rate, that
amounts to around R686,000, so if the South African event can raise R1 million, it will be a hard
record to beat.

“Eight hours of cycling is pretty gruelling, even on a static bike,” says Saray, “but South Africans are
made of stern stuff and this is a very worthy cause. Sponsoring a bike is not only a chance to
reconnect with colleagues and friends, but an invaluable investment in the future of both our youth
and our county.”

For further information about the cycle-a-thon, about sponsoring a bike or about volunteering to
participate in the event, please visit [insert web address and/or other contact information] .

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