FROM CEO TO SONGBIRD

• As a former hospital CEO Golden Games participant Rebecca Peta understands the importance of good health for senior citizens.
• She attended the National Active Ageing Programme in the North West as the conductor of Team Limpopo’s choir – a crowd favourite at the event.
• She hopes to make the team again and is inspired to try one of the sporting activities.

Energetically conducting Team Limpopo’s choir at the National Active Ageing Programme in Rustenburg, was a former hospital CEO, Rebecca Peta. 

The choir has become somewhat of a favourite at the annual gathering, and it has become clear that generating such perfect pitch and excitement from a choir is no simple task.

Peta, a first-time participant at the games, retired in 2021 as the CEO of Maphutha Malatji Hospital in Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality in the Mopani District of Limpopo.

Raised on the small farm of Lukasrust in Ga-Maja, she started her medical profession as a nurse at George Masebe Hospital in the Waterberg District, becoming a staff nurse at Sekororo Hospital in Mopani District.

She received further training in general nursing and midwifery at the Mapulaneng Hospital in Mpumalanga and, in 1986, started working at the Maphutha Malatji Hospital as a professional nurse.

This dynamic healthcare professional also studied psychiatric nursing at Groothoek Hospital in Capricorn and completed her B Cur Nursing degree, majoring in nursing education and community services, and nursing administration through UNISA.

Beyond nursing

Broadening her horizons, she added a diploma in public administration through Regenesys Business School, a diploma in construction through the University of Pretoria and a master’s degree in hospital management through Wits University.

Peta first became a nursing manager at the Sekororo Hospital and, in 2004, was appointed as the CEO of the Sekororo Hospital for four years, before being deployed in the same position at the Maphutha Malatji Hospital.

The former CEO says she never experienced any issues with her colleagues at the hospitals and her first and main priority was always the care of patients.

Her love for music and singing started at home and she also added her talents to her local church choir.

After retirement in 2021 she was trying to find a new rhythm in her daily life when she joined a walking club for ladies in Phalaborwa and later joined the Mopani Older Persons choir.

She hopes to participate in one of the sporting activities in the Active Ageing Programme in future.

“It really inspired me to see older persons participate and compete in this manner. This is my first Golden Games and hopefully, it won’t be the last. It is a great opportunity to participate in this programme,” says Peta.

Peta is married and has three children and three grandchildren.

She is a very satisfied grandmother and believes that “God will continue to see me through”.

Her advice to other professionals approaching retirement is to prepare themselves to participate in these types of activities so that they can keep fit and healthy, cope with the slower pace of life and be able to fight the various diseases related to ageing.