Thandeka Onica “Nika” Sebokedi (1951-2021), the Centre Manager of the Fanang Diatla Centre for the Mentally and Physically Disabled was laid to rest at a funeral service held on 18 February 2021 at her home in Temba, Hammanskraal. Her mortal remains were interred at the Sekampaneng Cemetery nearby Temba, Hammanskraal.
Her funeral service was attended by a limited number of mourners in line with the Covid-18 regulations, officiated by the Right Reverend Benjamin Moleko, assisted by Reverends Frans Kekana and Jeff Mekoa from the St John Anglican Church in Temba. The clergy paid homage to her as she was an ordained Lay Minister of the St John Anglican Church, a church where her late father Sephiri William Sebokedi was an Arch Deacon before his death in 1990.
Described by speakers as a modern-day Mother Theresa for the disabled youth community in and around Temba, her passing on Saturday 13 February 2021 after a long illness, was described as a monumental loss for the staff and learners of Fanang Diatla Centre for the Mentally and Physically Disabled in Temba.
Onica “Nika” Sebokedi joined Fanang Diatla Centre for the Mentally and Physically Disabled as a volunteer skills development practitioner seven years after the center was founded in 1987 by a group of social workers. The center was founded with a vision of not only creating a “daycare center” for the disabled but most importantly to create a center that can empower the local disabled youth with life skills that would contribute to their self-sustainability and livelihood.
From 1994 to 2021, she provided exceptional stewardship towards the infrastructural development of the facilities of Fanang Diatla Centre to its current state. She was also the head of the academic and skill development curriculum designed to enhance the special education and training for the mentally and physically challenged.
Working in collaboration with the local social workers and her staff, they maintained a robust social welfare support system that responded to the special needs of each of the eighty-plus learners. She was an advocate for the improvement of the holistic development of her learners and the protection of their inherent human rights.
She took a lead towards building strategic relationships with community stakeholders, the governmental and non-governmental organizations, the diplomatic corps as well private businesses to contribute financially and materially towards the sustainability of the center and its future growth.
At a private and personal level, she was a pillar of strength to her nuclear and extended family. She was a sister to her surviving siblings, a mother to her children, a grandmother, and a great grandmother to her grandchildren. More than anything, she was a source of hope to the many learners that she has looked after with dedication during her twenty-seven years of service to the disabled community.
Despite the gradual deterioration of her health over the last two years, she was constantly conscious of her matriarchal duties and responsibilities for the welfare and cohesion of her extended family, right to the end of her mortal life.
May her soul rest in eternal peace.
Watch the Recorded Funeral Live Stream
