GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The Department of Correctional Services at the Graaff-Reinet Remand Centre held a wellness day with intergovernmental departments at the Botanical Gardens Sport Grounds.
The day started off with an endurance walk from the town centre, going up from Middle Street up to Caledon Street and via Stockenstroom Street to the Botanical Garden.
The Department of Sport and Recreation facilitated the programme that featured various sporting activities such as egg race, foot cricket, soccer, volley ball and more.
Xolelwa Lowana, manager for special programmes, says that they hope to build relationships with other departments through this event.
They want to rotate the event on a monthly basis to other centres in the Kirkwood DSC Management Area, consisting of Graaff-Reinet Remand Centre, Somerset East and Jansenville, to accommodate more officials in those areas.
The purpose of the wellness day was to make members aware of the importance of looking after themselves mentally and physically to enable them to execute their duties in their respective departments.
They also wanted to send out the message to the communities that the departments are under one umbrella and to make all of them aware of happenings in all the communities.
They aim to see departments working together as one team to fight the high rate of crime, including housebreakings, copper cable theft and gender-based violence (GBV).
Departments invited to the events were the Graaff-Reinet Remand Centre, the area commissioner and other departments in the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality, the departments of health; justice; local traffic; roads and transport; sport, recreation arts and culture (DSRAC); and education.
Also invited were SAPS and its detective unit, Emergency Medical Services, SANParks, Midlands College, Police Academy, and Sassa.
Other stakeholders like Sanlam, Metropolitan, LegalWise and Gold Rush also took part in the event.
The organisers, Correctional Services, thanked all departments and businesses for their support and donations that made the wellness day a success.
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