Proud moment

IT WAS a great gesture from Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to honour our Paralympians who returned with medals from Rio this week.

Mbalula announced the medallists would get handsome financial incentives ranging from R100 000 for gold to R30 000 for bronze.

These bonuses are an addition to the R500 000 for gold, R250 000 for silver and R100 000 for bronze offered by Sascoc.

They truly inspired the nation, although a haul of 17 medals is three fewer than what we amassed at the London Games in 2012.

We agree with Mbalula that disability should not be seen as an impediment from achieving success in anything, including the sporting field. Most touching for us was seeing young Ntando Mahlangu, at 14 the youngest medallist in Rio, being welcome in song and dance by his schoolmates.