PODCAST: THRIVE Part 5: Gauteng community leader with visual impairment shares his story

Tshepo Modikwe, a community leader and employee at the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, was born blind due to glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging the optic nerve at the back of your eye.

According to the South African Continuing Medical Education Journal, the prevalence of glaucoma in people over the age of 40 ranges between 4.5 and 5.3%.

Modikwe discusses his disability journey, personal accomplishments, aspirations, and challenges with SABC Digital News producer, Lebo Tshangela in this bi-weekly feature, Thrive.

He says, “Disability must not be an obstacle to your life, but disability must be something which encourages you and tells you that over and above the disability, you can still make it because we have our stalwarts like Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, Mike Masutha and Steve Kekana, who actually made it in their lives. So we must not close ourselves out and think that if you are visually impaired or blind you can’t do anything.”

Below is the full podcast: