The Association for the Physically Disabled (APD) non-profit organisation dancers from Daveyton, Ekurhuleni region were announced the overall winners of the 2018 Gauteng’s Eisteddfod competition.
The competition brings together people living with disabilities from all five regions of the province and was organised by Gauteng provincial Department of Social Development in partnership with the City of Johannesburg to celebrated Provincial Disability Eisteddfod at the East Bank Community Hall, Alexandra. More than 2 000 people living with disabilities took part in this year’s competition where five judges unanimously voted for the APD as best performers in the competition.
“We are very delighted that we were announced overall best performers in the competition. We’ve been working very hard since the beginning of the year. At times working with people living with disabilities can be challenging but we managed to give our best,” said Thabang Sibeko, APD Dancers coordinator.
According to Mariska van der Walt, programmes manager for persons with disability at the Department of Social Development in the province, the activities are aimed to promote the advancement of disability rights, to profile key interventions, empower people with disabilities and strengthen access to services and opportunities for people with disabilities.
“Today we are having our provincial Eisteddfod competition which is a yearly programme. This year we had five regional build-up events. The regional winners are competing in a provincial level here today. We have choirs, dancers, solo performers and all those who participated will receive medals and the overall winner will receive a trophy” she said.
“We also want to emphasise that the Gauteng Provincial Government has taken a conscious decision to develop strategies and policies that will address issues affecting persons with disabilities. This is to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind as resonated in the disability rights movement slogan ‘Nothing about us without us’,” van der Walt concluded.
