30 Oct 2023

Workplace wellness programmes play crucial role in boosting team spirit and promoting seamless service delivery, Kgatleng District Commissioner, Ms Kolobetso Sejakgomo has said.

Speaking during Kgatleng District wellness event on Friday, she said wellness programmes were essential not only for promoting and managing employee health, but were integral to encouraging social inclusion amongst employees.

She said when employees interacted in a relaxed environment, they were bound to understand each other and in turn, improved productivity would be derived.

“I encourage you to make this wellness programme a tradition so that it can break the silo mentality we find in our workplaces,” she said.

Ms Sejakgomo commended the wellness team for bringing employees and village authorities and representatives from different villages in Kgatleng.

For his part, National Health Promotion Agency acting chief health officer,  Mr Oageng Moseki underscored the importance of changing lifestyle to curb non-communicable diseases (NCD).

He said this against the backdrop of rising numbers of NCDs particularly diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases, which, he said were the leading cause of deaths globally.

He said NCDs claimed 41million lives annually, accounting to 74 per cent of all deaths across the world, while a further 17 million of those deaths were considered to be premature.

Mr Moseki said Africa had the highest prevalence of hypertension at 27 per cent, while 46 per cent of the population was not aware if they were hypertensive, and that only 42 per cent of the cases diagnosed were treated.

He also underscored the concern that Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS V) of 2021 demonstrated that was near epidemic control with new HIV infections almost equal AIDS related.

He said the distribution of new HIV infections was heavily skewed towards adolescent girls and women.

“Of concern is evidence that condom use at high risk sex among young people aged 15-24 years is lower among females and further declining over the years,” he said.

Mr Moseki encouraged employees to take care of themselves by promoting all dimensions of healthy lifestyles such as physical, mental emotional, spiritual, social, environmental and intellectual wellbeing.

“In all these dimensions, change is necessary for promotion of quality health,” he stressed.

For her part, coordinator of Kgatleng Wellness Programme, Ms Semakaleng Palai said the committee was committed to holding wellness events monthly and that the programme was essential for distressing, boosting employee morale and team building.

She thanked the committee for pulling together to make the event a success. 

Kgatleng Wellness programme was held under the theme ‘ Productive Workforce: My Health, My Decision.’ ends