Disabled sport stars celebrated
Mogale City celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
More than 200 disabled people from across the West Rand gathered at the Munsieville Sport Complex to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 28 November.
Mogale City pre-empted the day, declared by the United Nations, which took place on 3 December each year.
Representatives from Mogale City’s Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP), Gauteng Department of Social Development and West Rand District Municipality urged people to remove barriers and to realise the full and equal participation in society of people with disabilities.
The message was that when barriers were removed and disabled people were empowered to participate fully in life, their entire community benefited. Barriers and discrimination were, therefore, a detriment to society as a whole.
Visually impaired television and radio personality Rhulani Renoldah Baloyi urged participants never to wait for help.
“We cannot always sit back and wait for someone to come and assist us. Let us stand up and help ourselves by doing things the way we want and not how people want… I am encouraging families to give persons with disabilities a chance to conduct daily activities without their assistance, but to provide moral support to allow them to shape their future development.”
Among the guests on the day were mayoral committee member Anna Setswalo-Moja, West Rand District Municipality Disability Desk’s Lungile Mndingi and Archie Lemeko from Wheelchair South Africa.
The theme of the UN day this year is “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”. On its website, it says over one billion people, or about 15 per cent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability.
