Bicycle hero

At the basement entrance of Luka Jantjie House, there is a hive of activity. It’s there that you will find Benjamin Jonas, quietly going about his business as the University’s only bike technician who takes care of SPU’s fleet of bicycles.

He was appointed to the job in 2016 after working here part-time. Since then he has lost count of how many bicycles he has repaired but “it’s more than 500 bicycles,” he says.

Bicycle repairs wasn’t something new for Benjamin who says that “since I was a little boy my father taught me how to do any repair work.”

nd that skill has come in very handy because “every student has their own way of riding a bicycle. For some, it is their first time. When I am alone, I smile and think to myself that I was the same when I was growing up.”

He says that offering bicycles to the students is a “good thing because some of them didn’t have bicycles while growing up. Also since they don’t have exercise classes, it’s a good way for them to exercise daily.”