2024 – 2026 EXCO NOMINATIONS

NOMINATIONS RECEIVED 2024-2026 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The following PPA members were elected to serve for two years in 2023 and still have one year to serve: Steve Hayward, Gordon Laing and David Bellairs.

 The following nominations have been received for the PPA 2024-2026 Executive Committee, all being paid-up members of PPA.

The Executive Committee reserves the right to co-opt one more committee member for a period of one year.

MOTIVATIONS SUPPLIED: IF YOU WERE ELECTED TO THE COMMITTEE, WHAT WOULD YOU FOCUS ON IN YOUR 2 YEARS?

John Gale

“I am a keen road and mountain cyclist with more than 20 Cape Town Cycle Tours and 20 Cape Epics amongst numerous other races. I am a Chartered Accountant (SA) with 20 years’ experience working in commerce and industry, in an SME and entrepreneurial environment. Having served as Treasurer since November 2015 I have been able to identify areas where I can add value to the reporting, planning, and financial management of the organisation. My focus during my term would be to facilitate the financial reporting and associated management systems so as to enable meaningful and effective decisions regarding PPA’s strategic implementation of its key mandate to promote cycling.”

Abbas Harris

“Being part of such a great organization such as PPA is indeed an honor for the past 6 years. Should I be elected again, my focus will continue to be on working inspired people to motivate youth using a bicycle as a tool. At Active Bodies Sports Development we have donated many bicycles to several high schools and primary schools focusing on the Cape Flats Athlone region, but the ongoing cycling programme is limited to the teacher’s availability and at times, stolen or broken. We have established a Learn2Ride Centre based at Alexander Sinton High School for children ages 4-18 years that operates every Saturday morning with over 80 bicycles ranging from BMX, road bikes, mountain bikes, commuter bikes and little kiddies’ bikes with training wheels. The service is free for over 120 kids that are either from the local orphanages, Hanover Park, Heideveld and surrounding communities. Learning the skill to ride a bike is fundamental in children’s development and we see the benefits thereof. We also facilitate 50-80 youth every year with a training programme, access to bicycles, entries, cycling kit and an opportunity to cycle the most amazing Cape Town Cycle Tour. We have also registered Active Bodies with WP & Cycling South Africa with a focus on track cycling and now being the largest registered members of youth cycling. Working closely with PPA, I intend to continue to enable the youth with various cycling programmes with the intention of replicating the Learn2Ride Centre in many other communities where the youth from all ages can get free access to bicycles”

Henri van der Merwe

“I am passionate about the concept of cycling as an environmentally friendly an economical solution to improve mobility and to empower and improve societies and their environment. Projects like Bike4All excite and inspire me. I believe that motorist behaviour is a critical obstacle that needs to be addressed in order to encourage a utility cycling culture. I also believe that it is important to draw a distinction between the promotion of utility cycling and sport cycling, and that the latter does not necessarily serve the purposes of the former. I accept a nomination for re-election with the intent to be of service where I can and particularly to support the agenda of utility cycling.”