First, have you decided on a budget?
You say R12k to R14k, but seem have fallen victim to budget creep already!
If money is not tight, then that is fine, but is much easier to narrow down the search once you know what the budget is.
Other important question to answer is the type of riding you want to do.
By long distance events, do you mean XC / marathon type riding? i.e. do not require lots of travel in the shock?
Else you should be looking at a 'trail' type bike which has more travel and is thus more of a do everything bike.
I ride a Giant Anthem 2, which is a XC type bike (about R13k April 2007). Very happy with it.
R18k+ will buy you a higher spec bike components wise (like the Anthem1 or better, but this was out of my budget).
In the end you have to find the bike that is best for you.
The only way is to test ride as many as possible bikes, preferably not only in the car park.
Enjoy the search!
