Today, and annually, the 3rd of December, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SASCOC) honours the International Day of Persons with Disabilities as more than a sport. It joins the world in inviting all of us to pause, reflect, and recommit to building a society where inclusion is not an event or a gesture, but an everyday reality.
While the Paralympics remain a powerful global showcase of excellence, courage, and elite performance, they represent only one dimension of a much broader and more urgent responsibility: ensuring that people with disabilities have meaningful, equitable pathways in every corner of sport and society.
“Sport shapes identity, teaches values, and builds community,” said SASCOC president Barry Hendricks. “But when people with disabilities are excluded – whether through inaccessible facilities, limited development programmes, or outdated perceptions – the impact goes far beyond the playing field. Acknowledging the International Day of Persons with Disabilities reminds us that inclusion cannot be seasonal.”
The CEO of SASCOC, Ms Nozipho Jafta, added: “The Olympic and Paralympic movements share a common cause: to inspire humanity, celebrate potential, and promote fairness. Recognising the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is not symbolic – it is strategic. It asks us to confront where we are falling short, to challenge assumptions, and to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights to thrive in societies”.
SASCOC acknowledges the efforts and contribution of the late Moekie Grobbelaar, former SASCOC Board member and president of the South African Sports Association for the Physically Disabled (SASAPD), as well other colleagues who served on the Disability Commission, to drive the relevant policies for persons with disabilities in South Africa.
South Africa has a rich history with para sport and the Paralympic Movement, starting at Tokyo 1964 when Daniel Erasmus won two gold medals and two silvers at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Since then, the honours roll has grown to include other notable figures like the aforementioned Moekie Grobelaar, Natalie du Toit, Ernst van Dyk, Fanie Lombaard, Oscar Pistorius and the late Zanele Situ.
At Beijing 2008 Du Toit, who won 15 Paralympic medals in her career, became the first amputee swimmer to compete in the Olympics, while four years later Pistorius became the first amputee to race alongside able-bodied Olympians at London 2012.
At the last Paralympics, Paris 2024, Mpumelelo Mhlongo and Simone Kruger won gold medals, with Team SA bringing home six in total to continue the levels of excellence that Team SA delivers on the Paralympic stage.
The president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, said: “Since the IPC’s creation in 1989, the organisation has made strong progress in serving members and athletes to advance the Paralympic Movement and showcasing athlete excellence through the delivery of transformational Paralympic Games.
“With the global platform, reputation and influence we have worked hard to establish, the IPC is now well positioned to deliver on our vision to make for an inclusive world through Para sport.
“Aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Sustainable Development Goals and with our approach based on the social model of disability, the IPC Impact Strategy has been developed with the purpose of demonstrating how the IPC’s activities and services have a global impact in making for a more inclusive world for persons with disabilities.”
