Zakiya McKenzie
zakiyam@caxton.co.za
Each year, Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital in Auckland Park opens up to people with physical disabilities from all over South Africa for their annual sports day.
This year, the hospital once again gave patients an opportunity to enjoy physical activity on 16 October.
Athletes participated in wheelchair racing, wheelchair volleyball, and soccer among others. One of the highlights for the day was the friendly game between the national Paralympics basketball team (Team SASOL) and team Netcare. Former national swimmer Penny Heyns was also present and marvelled at the competitive spirit of the disabled athletes.
Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, Deputy Minister in the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, was also on location to offer her support.
“For me this is an amazing day. It is a very important event for us [the ministry] to come out to because when people leave institutions like Netcare Rehab they become our clients. So connecting with the patients here gives them hope and it gives us access to our clients.”
“This has been one of the highlights of our calendar for the past eighteen years”, said CEO of the Netcare Group, Dr Richard Friedland.
“Initially it was only internal to Netcare but now we have invited people from all the country to come and compete at our sports day. We are happy to celebrate people who are differently-abled and their participation in sports. ”
