Programme Director
Chairpersons of portfolio committees
Members of the Executive Council
Councillors present
Chairpersons of the Organised Structures Dealing with Disability
Head officials of the Disability Centre’s
My heads of both departments
Nankuni nonke bafundi base St Patrick Special School, Kungothando Disability Centre and Vukuhambe Special School
Distinguished guests
Officials from all departments and the Municipality
All protocol observed
Programme Director this event is long overdue, we should in fact have done it in March as we all know that in South Africa March is known to be Human Rights awareness month.
Within that month the 21st had been declared as the national Human Rights Day. A major focus of that month is awareness raising through practical action in order to sensitise citizens about the norms and standards that guide processes that aim at recognising the reality that all people are equal before the law and that every person, irrespective of colour, race, religion, sex, age or creed has fundamental rights to
enjoy.
Hence it still sensible for us as citizens of this republic and communities of the Eastern Cape to turn back the hands of time and recall that in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No. 108 of 1996, these rights are unequivocally articulated, such that this chapter has subsequently come to be known as the Bill of Rights.
In our 1997 White Paper, as the department we made a commitment that we will contribute towards achieving government’s Social and Economic goals by inter alia:
- Creating sustainable employment for these communities.
- Actively promoting affirmative action in respect of race, gender, age and integration of Persons with disabilities as producers and consumers of government services, etc.
- Contributing to the generation of sustainable economic growth.
While we endeavour to integrate Persons with Disabilities into our operations and programmes, we have not recognised their full potential. It is against this background that as these two Departments Transport, Roads and Public Works through their respective Special Programmes Unit we undertake to honour the 2012 National Human Rights Month through embarking on developmental activities that will benefit Persons with Disabilities in the main and trigger awareness on Disability issues and Disability culture in these departments.
This day will be preceded by a signing a Memorandum of Understanding between these two departments and the Eastern Cape Disability Economic Empowerment Trust, wherein we will be committing to a number of undertaking that will ensure that issues of Disability are mainstreamed in the two departments.
Mindful of the fact that as these departments under my political leadership, we continue to under-achieve on targets set by Government in respect of creating opportunities for people living with disabilities. We will change that!
We are aware that as these two departments we have a great potential to lead the province on creating economic and job opportunities for Disabled People, as such we are also engaging the Disabled Sector with the view to identify and implement sustainable and integrated interventions that would transform the livelihood of People with Disabilities.
This collaboration between the three parties will focus on opportunities that exist with Transport sector and those that are present in the Infrastructure Sector. The agreement which we are signing will target empowerment and training opportunities that will ensure that People with Disabilities are capacitated to seize the opportunities offered by the departments and other entities in the province and beyond.
I know we have living examples of these training done by the Department of Roads and Public bearing fruits in the regions…in the OR Tambo two of our disabled leaners trained as artisans (Goso Masande and Magadla Dumisani) have been subsequently employed by the department, the remaining two of the five under the same training of three years are finalising their two remaining modules.
And in terms of Roads and Works staff establishment there is currently 19 disabled persons. 15 African males, two African females and two White males.
That constitutes 0,5% of the total number of employees. The Acting General Manager: Corporate Services in the department has also pledged to ring fence money for five disabled students to be awarded bursaries in the scarce skills categories which are Engineers, Architects and Quantity Surveyors.
These are positive signs worthy of note, while a lot still remains to be done but the ship is certainly on course.
Thank you!
