Calling all Activity Advocates
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ launches SA Chapter of Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health.
Did you know that just 130 minutes of moderate physical activity per week has scientifically proven health and wellbeing benefits?
And it needn’t be pumping iron in the gym or smashing triathlons. Simply hanging laundry, washing the car, taking the stairs, or frequently standing up and stretching at your desk counts, too.
Movement is medicine and the more mobile we are, the happier and healthier we are. Which is good news for us, our families and communities, and our country.
That’s why Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has launched the South African chapter of the Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health (SA-GAPPA-H).
In fact, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has been amongst the early advocates of physical activity to ensure there’s a positive knock-on effect for individuals and, ultimately, the country’s public health sector. As a signatory to the GAPPA-H’s in 2025, Professor Demitri Constantinou committed to help advance this agenda at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and in South Africa.
In May 2026, Constantinou convened an exploratory meeting to launch the South African Chapter of the Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health (SA-GAPPAH). This meeting was the crucial first step in building a unified, multi-sectoral front to embed physical activity into the very fabric of our healthcare system and communities.
Pandemic of inactivity
In South Africa, the need for us move more is urgent. The collision of a triple burden of disease (non-communicable diseases + infectious diseases HIV/TB + environmental/systemic contexts) profoundly affects individual and national health. A sedentary [inactive] nation is more prone to disease and poor health. This is aggravated in a country where poverty and socioeconomic disparities dominate.
Constantinou presented alarming statistics at the exploratory meeting, showing that physical inactivity causes 5 million deaths per year globally. In South Africa, one in three people is inactive, which translates to some 35% of the population. Fifty-one percent of deaths in South Africa are from NCDs, with obesity becoming increasingly prevalent. Here black women are most at risk, with one-third of this cohort living with obesity.
“The evidence is clear: physical activity is a powerful, cost-effective medicine for preventing and managing diseases like heart conditions, diabetes, and cancer. South Africa faces a pressing health crisis, and the time for siloed efforts is over,” said Constantinou. “National targets for physical activity don’t exist in South Africa. This is a gap. Where policies do exist, they are not implemented. We have a national crisis in terms of promoting physical activity.”
The ‘silver bullet’
Professor Georgia Torres, Head of the Department of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine and co-host of the SA-GAPPAH, concurs: “To promote physical activity, we have to find out how to make people move. This is a gap in South Africa – and a human gap. We get so hung up on the clinical we forget we’re dealing with human beings, especially those with chronic diseases.”
For Torres, who is also the COO of the , “I do believe exercise is the ‘silver bullet’ and its simplicity is the complexity.”
Beyond complexity towards physical activity
Some 124 stakeholders contributed at the SA Chapter of GAPPH-A exploratory meeting at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½. They represented a range of stakeholders including students and staff from exercise science and sports medicine-related disciplines at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and other universities, corporates such as Technogym and Discovery Vitality, NGOs, global public health leaders, traditional and Chinese medicine practitioners, chiropractors and physiotherapists.
A survey of 141 respondents revealed an encouraging 63% indicating that they were ‘very likely’ to get involved in driving the promotion of physical activity and health in their communities. Many in the room put up their hand immediately to volunteer for the interim SA-GAPPAH steering committee, established that same day.
, who volunteered for the steering committee, is a Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ PhD candidate and human rights activist. Hlongwana says: “The South African chapter of the global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health is set to be a melting pot for collaboration and partnership and expanding to include other networks in the sector in alliance to promote movement and exercise in creative and innovative ways in multidisciplinary sectors.”
Physical activity advocates needed
The promotion of physical activity and health is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires individuals to take up the challenge, to ‘walk the talk’, and to pass the baton on in their communities. No lone individual can get South Africans moving but is starts with one. It starts with you.
The SA-GAPPAH initiative has a bold vision: a South Africa where physical activity is universally promoted, prescribed, and integrated as a core component of healthcare and community life.
Its mission is to drive policy, research, education, and community programmes to achieve this goal.
“We call on all Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ies to become physical activity advocates, in whichever capacity that resonates with you. We cannot do this work alone. The SA-GAPPAH is an open network, and we invite volunteers and organisations to join and actively participate. We need all hands-on-deck, across the board.”
Contact the SA chapter of the GAPPA-E to find out how you can get involved and help get Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ies – and South Africa – moving for better health.