Thousands of inDrive drivers turned an ordinary working day into an act of giving this Mandela Day, as the platform’s “Drive like Mandela” campaign raised money for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, one completed ride at a time.
On 18 July, for every ride completed by a driver on the inDrive platform, R1 was donated to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, turning a normal day’s work behind the wheel into a nationwide contribution. Throughout the day, a live donation tracker on the inDrive website displayed the growing number of completed rides and the total amount being raised in real time, allowing South Africans to watch the impact of drivers’ work add up trip by trip.
The campaign also reflects an important part of Nelson Mandela’s own story. Before becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Mandela was driving comrades and friends to meetings during the struggle, quietly helping people reach places that mattered. “Drive like Mandela” honours that same spirit in the drivers who do this work every day, getting people to their jobs, their families and their opportunities, often without recognition.
“Mandela Day is a reminder that some of the most important work is also the most easily overlooked. Our drivers get people to work, to school, to hospitals and back home again, day in and day out, and we wanted to use this Mandela Day to recognise that. Through ‘Drive like Mandela’, we’re proud to have contributed to the Nelson Mandela Foundation in honour of the role our drivers play in their communities,” said Ashif Black, Country Representative for inDrive South Africa.
Inspired by Nelson Mandela’s enduring legacy of service, fairness and community, the campaign was designed to recognise a group whose contribution often goes unnoticed. Millions of South Africans mark Mandela Day by giving their time in service to others, and inDrive wanted to mark that its drivers give far more than that, every single day, one ride at a time.
“Mandela Day reminds us that lasting change is built through the contributions of ordinary people. By recognising drivers as active citizens and turning each completed trip into support for the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s work, this initiative demonstrates that making a difference is often found in the work we do every day. We thank inDrive and every driver who participated for showing that collective action, even one ride at a time, can create meaningful impact.” said Gaopalelwe Phalaetsile, Head of Communications and Marketing, Nelson Mandela Foundation.
This initiative aligns with inDrive’s overarching global mission to challenge injustice and positively impact one billion people by 2030, starting with the people who make the platform work: its drivers. By recognising the value of the work drivers do every day, “Drive like Mandela” shows that mobility is about more than getting from one place to another, it is about the people who make that possible, and the good that can come from a single ride.
