Sibaya Casino & Entertainment Kingdom General Manager, Virath Gobrie, and his executive team and members of staff spent March 27 in wheelchairs to raise awareness about the impacts of disabilities by participating in the Little Eden CEO Wheelchair Campaign.
Cedric Mkhize, an HR Officer at Sibaya, has spent the past 17 years in a wheelchair, and will join his colleagues participating in the campaign. “I think it will be ridiculous amounts of fun. I’ve had some of my friends trying my chair out and within five minutes, they are gasping for air. You have to adapt to the fitness and muscle tone required.”
Mkhize said it had been challenging at first to adapt to life in a wheelchair, and moving around differently. “You wonder if people are looking at you as Cedric, or as someone in a wheelchair, and feeling sorry for you. But today, it’s my everyday reality and I’ve adjusted to almost everything. I think the Little Eden Campaign can change people’s perspectives – if they go into it with an open mind and focus on the objective, there will be a lot of learning about how they view the difficulties faced daily by people in wheelchairs. They can definitely expect some pain in their shoulders after a day of propelling and stopping their chairs, as well as maneuvering over ledges and uneven surfaces.”
In support of the campaign, Sibaya donated R55 000 to be used towards the cost of caring for 300 children and adults with profound intellectual disability. It costs the NGO R14,160 per resident per month, and many are from families who are unable to contribute towards their costs.
“We are happy to show support for our disabled colleagues and our guests who are in wheelchairs by spending a day at work discovering how challenging it can be to navigate life as a person living with a disability,” said Gobrie.
Sibaya is focused on creating an inclusive working environment for all and spent R244 000 on skills development for people with disabilities last year. “Our three unemployed learnership candidates successfully completed their Hospitality and Reception learnerships,” Gobrie said.
Disability forms part of Sun International’s strategy on diversity, inclusivity, equity and belonging. The company currently has 92 employees with disabilities and continuously drives to increase this number.
“For the past three years we have dedicated awareness days centred on how workplace accommodation enhances the performance of our people living with disabilities and recently conducted a survey to create awareness. We have also worked on demystifying the stigma of disabilities to ensure that employees feel safe to declare their disabilities,” said Heidi Edson, Sun International’s Socio-Economic Development Specialist. “We are aware that being a 24-hour operation may be discouraging to applicants with disabilities. We have thus worked tirelessly to improve the recruitment of people with disabilities through initiatives such as unemployed learnerships for people with disabilities.
Sun International spent more than R3-million on skills development and training for people with disabilities in 2023. “We’ve upskilled and invested in 54 learners with disabilities across the group in 2023, some of which are in wheelchairs and provided 43 unemployed learnerships for people with disabilities in 2023 across the Group.”
