The journey to manhood is rife with pitfalls, temptations and misdirection. Sadly, too few men embrace the responsibility and sacrifice needed to grow the sons they helped create into upstanding gentlemen.

In association with The Character Company, Morné Basson hopped on his stationary bicycles for the #Bthat1 campaign on Wednesday, 14 October. The Character Company trains f.a.t men to be mentors to pre-adolescent boys in order to fill a void left by an absentee father. Standing for faithful, available and teachable, the f.a.t guys also embody the company’s five values of kindness, honesty, courage, respect and self-discipline.

“It is about using positive masculinity to breed positive masculinity,” said The Character Company founder, Jaco van Schalkwyk. He believes that gender-based violence, corruption and racism are products of a male population that lack a proper identity.

“Without a positive male role model they ask themselves ‘Am I good enough’ and then aim to prove that in the wrong way,” said Jaco.

Morné broke a Guinness World Record last year for the most consecutive half marathons, smashing the old record by an extra 20. Now he is committing to 72 kilometres on a stationary bike for 72 consecutive days. That total of 5 184 kilometres is roughly the distance it would take to cycle around the perimeter of South Africa, symbolising the need to encircle young men in a positive environment.

“Boys need a long-term role model and #Bthat1 challenges men to be the one to make a difference,” said Morné. The aim of the ride, which is done at different venues every day, is to encourage people to donate to the worthy cause.

“For just R72 a month we can assign a new mentor to a troubled hot spot,” he continued. The Character Company assigns one mentor to groups of between five and ten boys, starting at between eight and ten years old.

This is for my wife, my sister and my daughters so that they don’t have to experience trouble at the hands of men,” said Jaco.

“They talk of toxic masculinity, but it is not that, it is confused masculinity. Once their identity is settled, the rest sorts itself out,” he continued.

The young boys of today will, depending on their role models, either be the convicts of tomorrow or they can be the leaders they have the potential to be.