Leonie Mervis– she’s bubbly, engaging and from first appearance seems as if she’d be your average environmental activist with a taste for some pretty good eco-friendly coffee. Leonie is anything but average – on the contrary, a social change heroine.
As I sat down with Leonie over a cup of particularly well-made coffee. I must admit, she began to embrace our conversation with the beginnings of her journey. Leonie, after studying architecture at Natal University propelled herself into environmental design and sustainability. Inspired by online videos such as The Inconvenient Truth and The Story of Stuff, she felt the urgent need for a green media channel in South Africa intended to showcase environmental issues, projects, and solutions.
''I was consulting and helping people go green at a time when no one really knew anything about it.’’ she expresses.
Leonie, around 2008 decided to found an online film platform to educate the public about the power of green living and to document community and renewable resource-based projects aimed at uplifting communities throughout South Africa. The platform – Wildfire Creative, was a means of igniting social change throughout South Africa, helping connect people without a voice to the resources and tools needed to showcase their work within communities and draw attention to their plea for help. The integral point to note Leonie explains is
‘’how important it is to make the unseen seen, and that’s all I wanted to do with Wildfire Creative.’’
After working with a variety of partners and on multiple projects such as Trashback, Love and Care, and Transition SA which can still be found on the Wildfire Creative website today, Leonie began to take an interest in the work of BEN bikes, (Bicycle Empowerment Network) – a network based in South Africa aimed at distributing bicycles to individuals and communities in dire need. Leonie, encouraged by organizations such as BEN bikes and The Pedal Power Association broached the idea of transitioning from her filmmaking roots to start a promotional and marketing-based platform for cycling in South Africa. After teaming up with BEN bikes director Andrew Wheeldon along with 11 others, Leonie began building up the online platform Bicycle Cape Town. Even though this was a start to providing a means of empowering cyclists, this wonder woman saw the need for something bigger – connection. She probed at the power of connecting individuals overseas to the cycle opportunities available in South Africa.
’'Bicycle Cape Town became Bicycle South when I decided to initiate the Bicycle Certification Program, the first in South Africa.‘’ she clarifies. The concept involves a dual focus program designed to verify businesses and areas in South Africa that are bike-friendly and subsequently to promote them in order to market not only cycle tourism but also South Africa as a bike-friendly travel destination.
’We want to get as many businesses involved that we can… we’ve expanded as far as Limpopo,’’ Leonie revealed enthusiastically. If you have some time on your hands, I suggest taking a quick trip to the Oranjezicht market in Cape Town and you’ll notice the newly implemented wooden bicycle racks or if you’re a Jozi local, have a wander around the bike-friendly cafés such as The Grind Coffee Company or Bidon Bistro.
Leonie accompanied by friends embracing the best of cycle culture along the Seapoint promenade.
Photo credit: Leonie Mervis
As great as the cycling city pitch sounds, there are many hindering factors to functioning as a cycling-based country, one being the need for safe cycling as it’s pointless providing people with bicycles if they can’t learn how to ride them Leonie insinuated. She strives through Bicycle South to connect as many people throughout the country to the resources, training, and skill courses available to them. She highlights the notion that it’s never too late to learn–''We’ve had girls and boys of 6 years to men and women of 60 years attending courses… There should never be a negative stigma attached to learning how to cycle.’’
Leonie’s spectrum of cycling empowerment doesn’t stop there, she also spends her time using Bicycle South as a tool to promote and empower communities through both urban and rural centered bike projects, ’'We’ve always said – the bicycle is this amazing connector of communities.’’ Rural projects such as Qhubeka, BEN bikes and many others around the country are helping to close the poverty gap in rural areas. Bike Buddies and Bike to work which are commuting-based projects available for view on the Bicycle South website, are busy connecting individuals in urban areas from completely different walks of life. Leonie and her team seek to showcase the importance of these projects to the people of our country.
As sunny as the picture I’ve painted might seem, Leonie assures that transforming South African
car-dominated cities into cyclist cities is an incredibly difficult task. She emphasizes that cities need
A) Adequate infrastructure
B) The education that comes with riding bikes and driving cars safely in cyclist populated areas and
C) The actual bicycles.
She also explains how vital a political push toward cycle empowerment is, ’'Infrastructure is where the drag is because it’s partially funding and it’s partially political will – to get both of those aspects to line up is very difficult.’’ Smiling broadly, she elaborates on her vision for South Africa describing how she encourages using trends and solutions adapted from other countries right in the heart of our own. Amsterdam for example she suggests, started off as a car-dominated city and only through campaigning and cycle activism became a cycle city. Whilst currently working closely with the director of cycle tourism in the Western Cape, Leonie is determined to change the way the average person thinks about the bicycle. ‘’It truly is a tool of transformation, we as a country are not there yet… but we’re getting there,’’ she says as she grins over her last sip of warm coffee.
Leonie is no stranger to the challenges that running an online social change platform brings, she stresses that funding is an ongoing problem but finding the right people to collaborate with is not a walk in the park either. She stays adamant however to keep working at her vision as the feeling of inspiring other change-makers rewards her in more ways than she could ever imagine.
‘’Who knows where I’ll be in 5 years’ time, hopefully pursuing another adventure.’’
Leonie and her trusty eco-friendly steed. Photo credit: Leonie Mervis