KZN citizens celebrate National Recreation Day in numbers

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KwaZulu-Natal joined the rest of the country on Friday 7th October in marking National Recreation Day in style, which is celebrated annually on the first Friday of October since last year.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage all citizens to engage in active and healthy way of life.

The KZN event hosted at Phelandaba Stadium in Madadeni at Newcastle surpassed expectations as it attracted a much bigger number of participants of all ages from the northern KZN region comprising three district municipalities.

MEC for Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation Mrs. Bongi Sithole-Moloi took part in the 3km fun walk that kick-started an array of activities in the morning and drew in excess of 1000 participants from the young to the very old.

"Not only did I participate in the fun walk/run but I did so with pride and integrity and completed it," joked the excited MEC after the walk while showing off her medal and a bright T-shirt bearing a bold message "#ICHOOSE2B ACTIVE". She urged everyone to make healthy lifestyle choices not only by exercising regularly but by cutting out on eating unhealthy food. She urged parents to reduce buying take aways as a special treat for their families or an excuse for not having time to prepare meals for them because of busy work schedules. She added that living an active and healthy lifestyle helps in reducing lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

"We also encourage government employees to adopt active lifestyles. It is in the interest of the state to have employees who are healthy, which in turn increases productivity and service delivery. The Provincial policy on work and play is in place to encourage civil servants to participate in sports and recreation activities," she added.

The KZN event will surely go down as one of the most successful of the country. It was also the most inclusive sports event ever hosted in the province as it had activities for biggest diversified citizenry. There were children, the disabled, youth, senior citizens and everybody else. The disabled played wheelchair basketball and were part of the walk too. Aerobics, netball, 7-a-side football, netball, basketball, the indigenous games and jumping castles for children all added colour to the event.

Vision

A healthy, winning, and socially cohesive province through sport and recreation.

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