On the road…a trip with Morgan Freeman and Zelda la Grange – 18 July 2010

Although he didn’t actually ride a motorbike, actor Morgan Freeman – who played Mandela in the film, Invictus – accompanied 20 riders, including his business manager, on a road trip with a difference. Freeman, with celebrities such as the Nelsona Mandela Foundation’s Zelda la Grange, Yfm presenter Paul Mnisi, also known as Rudeboy Paul, Highveld Stereo jock Jeremy Mansfield and his wife Jacqui, Isidingo actor Jack Devnarain and former Bafana Bafana and Kaizer Chiefs defender Marc Bachelor on a road trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town in honour of Mandela Day.

Freeman said: “I’m not here to ride a bike, I’m just here to make sure that my business partner doesn’t fall off his. Madiba doesn’t want a day of celebration . He asked that we spent 67 minutes on that one day in service of humanity,” he told reporters as they left Johannesburg from outside the offices of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

“I am very happy to be taking part and believe that the ongoing message (about Mandela Day) should be spread far and wide.”

En route, the bikers donated blankets, assisted in painting buildings, planted trees, cleanws and walked dogs and assisted in a soup kitchen and an orphanage in different areas in the country.

On arrival in Cape Town. Freeman and his road crew were met at the the Aids Response Centre in Khayelitsha by Premier Helen Zille and Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato who chipped in to help the actor to bolt fence poles to create a new steel fence.