March 2022

NEW REGIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKE PERMIT OFFERING TO TOUR OPERATORS AND GUEST HOUSES

The Wine Lands Cycle Club recently launched an annual mountain bike permit which gives the rider access to vast range of trails in and around Stellenbosch. These trail areas include:

– Jonkershoek Nature Reserve
– Boschendal
– Banhoek Conservancy
– Somerset West and Helderberg Nature Reserve
– All the Stellenbosch Trail Fund (STF) trails on municipal land (such as Coetzenburg, G-Spot, Paradyskloof, Idas Valley and Botmaskop)
– Paarl and Franschhoek

Historically, a mountain biker had to buy separate permits for all these areas. The new regional permit for 2022 costs R1,500 which is substantially less than the cost of buying separate permits.
As a tour operator or guest house, you are able to buy a batch of individual passes and register them all under your establishment’s name. You can then use the same passes throughout the year for different guests.

The Wine Lands Cycling Club (WCC) will however require that you keep a register of the specific board which was used each day, together with the details of the specific guest. This is to ensure proper control and safety. The WCC will issue your establishment with an A5 booklet to use for this purpose. It’s also important that you write your establishment’s contact details on the back of each board, to use in case of emergency.
The 2022 permits can be bought directly from the Wine Lands Cycling Club and collected from the Stellenbosch Trail Fund office at The Adventure Shop (Google maps pin drop) To order a batch of permits for your establishment, simply e-mail Esmé Verster, the secretary of the Wine Lands Cycling Club (secretary@winelandscyclingclub.co.za) with the following information:

– The name and contact details of your establishment and a contact person
– The number of permits you would like to buy

Esmé will assist you with payment and will arrange for the permits (and an A5 booklet) to be delivered to the STF Office for you to collect.
We hope this offering ads value to your establishment and to your guests visiting Stellenbosch!

Back to newsletter

Stellenbosch University’s annual fund, Bridge the Gap enables our student community, staff, alumni, parents, and friends to support our students with the things that are making their lives undeniably difficult. Our aim is to close the gap between talent and financial need, something we all care about. You can make an immediate, tangible difference in the lives of Stellenbosch University students by giving to the Annual Fund, Bridge the Gap.
Gifts to the Annual Fund fuel residential university life, our student wellness resources, outreach programs for student success, and helping SU to strike a better balance between academic excellence, a cohesive support system and a vibrant Stellenbosch University community.

We know that you’re probably tired of hearing this – but Covid19 has made our students’ situations so much worse – retrenched parents, fewer part-time student jobs, NSFAS realignment and defunding, reduced Corporate Social Investment funds to go around, greater food insecurity nationally, and pressure. This pressure means that our students’ mental health, wellness and confidence about the future has plummeted.

Here are some of the Bridge the Gap initiatives that you can support:

#Move4Food is a way of providing immediate relief to the food insecurity of a student which may have resulted from any number of crises, mishaps or funding gaps. It is an emergency
fund which our social workers can access to provide an assessed student with immediate help which other possible interventions are explored and sought.

The Pantry Project was established in 2015 by students and staff members, following an awareness of overwhelming food and toiletry insecurity amongst health sciences and medical students on our Tygerberg Campus at Stellenbosch University. It aims to alleviate the burden of food and toiletry insecurity and functions exclusively on donations.

#Action4Inclusion Many students are overburdened by university fee debts. The plight of historic debt owed to universities by students from poor and working-class families is of great concern. The #Action4Inclusion Campaign seeks to ensure the registration of all students by clearing historical debt.

#GradMe Student debt exacerbates economic inequality, more particularly racial inequality, where it results in universities being forced to withhold the award of degrees. So here is that chance for our students to graduate, find employment or create employment and start to acquire sufficient wealth to support their, and your family’s future. But all this comes crashing down if you cannot get your degree, can’t apply for positions, fail to launch.

#ZimZim This project aims to ensure that students – all of whom met the academic requirements for entry onto their chosen courses – are given financial support to help clear the last bit of study debt by
the time they graduate. This will ensure that they receive their physical degree certificates at graduation and can begin to find relevant employment. By offering this support to these talented students, you will contribute to knowledge production on our continent, thereby retaining the University’s commitment to inclusive excellence.

Caught in the Middle. Simply put, these are students who do not qualify for free higher education bursaries from Government, but who cannot afford studies unaided. The tuition, the accommodation, the food, the transport, computer hardware and software as well as study material.

End period poverty. Although the South African government, on the evidence presented by our Stellenbosch University Law Clinic, moved to make sanitary products more accessible by removing the 15% Value Added Tax on such products in 2019, there are still many students who simply can’t afford them. Empower a young woman’s life by donating sanitary products.

#MatiesHardDrive Our SRC is working with several firms to provide part-funded driver training for students who require a driving licence in order to get a job – social workers, engineers and other professions need drivers’ licenses to apply for positions when they graduate.

For more information on how to donate please click here 

Back to newsletter