Joburg City encourages residents to live a healthy lifestyle

The Department of Community Development hosted a healthy lifestyle program at the Rabie Ridge Stadium on 18 May.

The City said the aim was to get Joburg residents involved in healthy lifestyle activities. People from various places in Region A descended on Rabie Ridge Stadium to participate in various sporting disciplines, such as chess, netball, karate, soccer, tennis, as well as hip-hop dance, aerobics and face painting.

“It is one of our mandates that people should engage in healthy lifestyle activities,” said City of Johannesburg Sports and Recreation Assistant Director Mandla Mahlangu.

“For this programme, we focused on everybody – the young and old. The youth must be active at all cost so that they live a healthy lifestyle. We want to create a culture of healthy living. We want people to engage in positive activities.”

Mahlangu added that the program was not only intended to get people into healthy living, but also to create social cohesion.

“We had schools and communities participating in this program. We are trying to promote social cohesion by including everybody. People learned a lot today. Connections were made and relationships formed.”

The residents of Region A were excited that the City encourages them to live a healthy lifestyle.

“I am happy that our government is encouraging us to participate in sport. I wish they could host these kinds of events more often and do workshops to educate people about the importance of a healthy lifestyle,” said Mpho Manamela, who played netball.

Emmanuel Lufuno Gogela, who is a football coach at Rebonwe Primary School in Ivory Park, expressed his gratitude for being invited to participate in the program.

“As a coach, I am very happy that my players got exposed to this event and I thank the City of Johannesburg for what they have done for us. They have invited us to join their league and I would like to.

“We are grooming these girls to play in bigger leagues, as well as for Banyana Banyana. We don’t play just to be fit.”

The City also invited older people to participate in the event. Gogos from Ivory Park Gogos played football.

“I am happy with the support we are getting from the City of Johannesburg. Most of the players in our team I met through these kinds of events. The City is also assisting us with some balls and kits,” said the founder of Ivory Park Gogos, Gertrude Tau.

Related article:

https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/213820/its-smooth-sailing-for-nfc/