Freedom ride cycles in ‘doom’ factor

'Freedoom' spelling error on a T-shirt handed out at the Freedom ride that took place at the weekend. 210714 Picture: Handout/Supplied

'Freedoom' spelling error on a T-shirt handed out at the Freedom ride that took place at the weekend. 210714 Picture: Handout/Supplied

Published Jul 22, 2014

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Johannesburg - Was it a Freedom Ride or a FreeDoom Ride? Were the riders free or were they doomed?

Riders at Sunday’s Freedom Ride, in honour of Nelson Mandela Day on Friday, were left amused, and some who took to Twitter a little less so, when they realised their free T-shirts, had a noticeable spelling error.

Cyclist Peter Berger arrived at the Mandela Bridge at 8am, eager to begin the ride to Soweto.

“I was sitting at the back of a tandem bike, My partner and I put the shirts on but it was only when we started peddling that I noticed the funny statement,” Berger said yesterday.

The back of the yellow T-shirt erroneously quotes Mandela saying: “The purpose of freedoom (sic) is to create it for others”.

Said Berger: “I suppose others noticed too because when I pointed it out to a few people, they’d say, ‘aah, I see what you mean’. But all in all, it was a very nice ride and very well organised. I hope this was simply a mistake and not some person with a cynical sense of humour.”

Hugh Fraser, one of the organisers, took responsibility for the blunder. “It’s embarrassing, but there really wasn’t any mischief behind it. It was a mistake,” he said.

But some participants weren’t very forgiving.

@AlexJayZA tweeted: “Ag no man… who didn’t proof-read the Freedom Ride T-shirts?! Free Doom?!”

@ChrisRoper tweeted: “4000 T-shirts with freedom spelt ‘freedoom’. Sigh. You couldn’t sub 10 words?”

@2ulie tweeted: “Non (sic) of our business but hey t-shirts with freedom spelt ‘freedoom’”.

The Star

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