Hollard to crown the King of the Mountain at Mzansi Tour

The Hollard Insurance Group has joined the Mzansi Tour (17-21 April 2013), the only UCI-graded road cycling stage race in Southern Africa, as one of its three main sponsors. South Africa’s largest independent insurance company will own the King of the Mo

The Mzansi Tour will be the first international South Africa road stage race to take place in professional cycling’s “new era”. There has been road racing in South Africa for over 120 years, but the last time South Africa hosted an international road cycling tour was in 2011. Due to South Africa’s relatively remote geographic location, however, road racing has not developed at the same pace as Europe and the US.

Says Warwick Bloom, General Manager: Marketing for Hollard: “We see the sponsorship of the Mzanzi Tour as being a win-win-win opportunity, which, not only helps to promote professional cycling in South Africa, but also boosts tourism in Mpumalanga and Gauteng where the tour will be operated.

“The tour is endorsed by the Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA), which has identified big sporting events as one of the priority focus areas for skills transfer and development in South Africa.”

CATHSSETA CEO, Mike Tsotetsi says that the skills associated with the planning and management of big sporting events, fall within the “scarce and critical skills”. This race offers us the opportunity to conduct research on the prerequisites of this industry and provide us with insights on how best to transform both cycling and the management of big sporting events. Through this tour, CATHSSeTA further intends to create awareness about the various career options, learnerships and bursary opportunities available in the sport and tourism sectors; which will help bring about positive change to the young people and communities on the Mzansi route.

“Our long term objective is to place new graduates and learners in their final year of study for a sporting qualification, on an internship programme with the organizers of the tour for some much needed “behind the scenes” workplace learning” said Mr Tsotetsi.

Although to date, Hollard has focused on early childhood development through its corporate social investment and employee volunteering programmes, it sees the transfer of skills as a critical objective to job creation in South Africa.

Says Mr Bloom: “Long term, genuine and mutually beneficial partnerships form the core of everything that we do as an insurance group today. We believe in doing things differently, not for the sake of being different, but for the purpose of truly making a significant difference. We want to make a positive change in the lives of our customers, our partners, our suppliers, our communities and the broader South Africa. Our approach has always been to partner wherever we can create a better value proposition.”

The SETA hopes that this initiative will provide the much needed out of classroom learning, which will, not only add to the skills of young people, but further equip them with enough information to improve their employability opportunities and entrepreneurial capabilities. CATHSSETA has further committed to using the platform offered through this tour to raise awareness among aspiring black cyclists about choosing this profession as an alternative to other sporting codes.

The Mzansi Tour will start on the edge of the Kruger National Park, an area famous for Africa’s Big Five (rhino, leopard, elephant, buffalo and lion). It will follow five stages over five days and will include some formidable climbs, long flat sections and wind. From an altitude of around 400 meters about sea level in Mpumalanga province, the tour will finish in the Gauteng province at the popular Montecasino at around 1600 metres above sea level. Hollard will present the jersey at the final closing stage at Montecasino to the overall King of the Mountain.

Beneficiaries of the race are the Velokhaya cycling project in Khayelitsha, the Burry Standar Foundation and the Rhino Action Group Effort (RAGE). For further information about the race, please visit www.mzansitour.co.za