City’s gogos lead the way to a healthy lifestyle
18 May 2016
Hundreds of gogos and young people braved the rainy and chilly weather at the weekend as they descended on Ivory Park Sports Grounds to take part in the City of Johannesburg’s Go Jozi Healthy Lifestyle activities.
The overnight rain delayed the start of the soccer games and aerobics. But when the activities finally resumed, the weather had not dampened the spirits of the participants, according to Rose Bhuzu, acting co-ordinator of the programme.
The citywide initiative – one of Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau’s flagship programmes – is spearheaded by Councillor Nonceba Molwele, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Health and Social Development. Its aim is to encourage Johannesburg residents to engage in physical activity such as working out in the gym – the City has outdoor gyms in all its seven regions – running, walking and cycling to keep diseases and conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity at bay and to increase Johannesburg’s life expectancy.
Since the beginning of the year, Bhuzu and her 13-member team of instructors have held events in Orange Farm (Region G), Hillbrow (Region F), Diepsloot (Region A), Tshepisong (Region C) and now Ivory Park (Region A). The next event will be at the Union Stadium in Westbury (Region B) on Saturday May 28.
“At Ivory Park we started at 8.30am instead of 7am because of the rain. More than 400 local residents, including gogos and girls, showed up for the aerobics and for soccer tournaments. Since we started in February, the response by communities has been very good. There is a huge demand for such activities and people are very keen to participate,” she said.
“The last event for this financial year will be in Emndeni, Soweto (Region D), on June 25. Both the Mayor and MMC will hopefully be there. We’re shutting down Emndeni because we expect more than 1 000 people to take part,” she said, adding that other events would include health screenings and referrals, a 5km walk, cycling and running.
Bhuzu said plans for the 2016-2017 financial year would include joint programmes to create a health database and sessions on the importance of healthy eating and exercising.
“There are always long queues for health screening. Some people report back that, thanks to our help, they now have their BP under control. That’s very encouraging and we should do more.”
Gugu Mathibela, an official of the Social Development Department, was impressed by the soccer-playing gogos, who came from all regions for the tournament.
“This was my first time to see them in action. They were playing so enthusiastically. They are so committed and energetic. In all, eight teams of gogos and seven of girls under 13 took part in the tournament in Ivory Park. The next tournament will be the semifinals, from which a team will be picked to play gogos from Limpopo. We hope both the Mayor and MMC will be at the semifinals at a date still to be confirmed,” said Mathibela.
She said the department was very happy with the enthusiasm and the number of participants at Go Jozi events throughout the City.