Provincial Government's celebration of the International Day of Disabled
Persons
3 December 2007
Honourable MECs present
Mayors and other leaders in local government
Heads of Departments and officials of the Gauteng Provincial Government
Other dignitaries, friends, comrades
And citizens of Gauteng with and without disabilities
Thank you for inviting me to address you at this key event on the calendar
of our province. The celebration of International Day for Disabled Persons
(IDDP) comes from decades of lobbying by organisations of disabled people all
over the world and at the United Nations (UN). The United Nations General
Assembly passed a resolution in October 1992, declaring that 3 December each
year will be the International Day of Disabled Persons. The government is
pleased to again celebrate this day with disabled people and their allies.
As this celebration happens a day after World AIDS Day and within the 16
Days of Activism of No Abuse Against Women and Child, we must also pledge to
prevent the spread of these two scourges among people with disabilities.
The theme of "Making Gauteng a better place for people with disabilities"
reflects correctly the need for inclusiveness in all our efforts to develop our
province. I believe our world will be poorer without people with disabilities.
To prove this I will give a very few examples of the achievements of disabled
people. This province has produced a graduate in Actuarial Science who happens
to be blind. There is a Chartered Accountant in the government service, who
happens to be deaf.
Paralympians, our sportspeople with disabilities, have won more medals than
our Olympians, bringing us much national pride. Zanele Situ, the javelin
thrower in a wheelchair was amongst the first group of citizens to be awarded
national honours. A newspaper picture of her was beautifully titled; 'Spear of
the Nation'. Natalie du Toit, the swimmer, won medals in both the Paralympics
and the Olympics. Internationally, some famous people also have disabilities.
The foremost scientist in the physics of outer space is Stephen Hawkins, who
can only move one finger. One of the most famous scientists, Albert Einstein,
whose theories were critical to space travel, had Attention Deficit Disorder
and did not do well at school, because no one recognised his disability.
It is important to make the point therefore that when we promote the rights
of people with disabilities we advance the attainment of human rights for
all.
One of the achievements of the struggle waged by the disability movements for
accessible transport was to make it mandatory for all new buses to have wider
and shorter steps. This has resulted in our grandfathers, grandmothers and
children no longer having to struggle to climb steep and narrow steps to get on
a new bus.
When completed the Gautrain will also be fully equipped to cater for the
needs of commuters with disabilities. Vehicles used to transport commuters to
the train and the stations will be fully accessible to disabled persons. We
engaged in the fight for democracy, not just because of racism and oppression,
but because it excluded people from full participation in the economic, social
and political life of the country.
This made the whole country poorer socially, culturally and economically. If
you don't believe me, ask the business people who have invested so many
billions in South Africa, since 1994 and ask the white kids dancing to kwaito!
That is why our struggle was not just about a non-racial South Africa, but also
a non-sexist and non-ablest country. Having defeated apartheid, we are now
fighting poverty and exclusion of marginalised groups.
Like everyone else, when disabled people are sick they need health services.
Also, when they are unable to get employment, they need a social grant. Beyond
these services we know that disabled people in this province also need access
to education, jobs and full participation in the economic, social and political
life of the province.
For this reason, all Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) departments take
into account the needs of people with disabilities both in the ensuring access
to and in the provision of services. Our departments ensure that the systems,
facilities and infrastructure that they are responsible for do not discriminate
or disadvantage people with disabilities. This developmental approach results
in departments designing policies, strategies and programmes that empower of
people with disabilities.
Another aspect of the theme that made one think was who is: "Making Gauteng
a better place for people with disabilities" and who will continue to make it
so? It reminds me of my days in the unions, when we organised for workers
rights and had the harsh slogan, which said "Organise or Starve".
Since the launch of the first disabled people's organisation in South
Africa, the disability rights movement has taken that slogan seriously. I am
pleased to note that both disabled people's organisations and organisations
that offer services to them are consolidating their efforts to speak with one
voice by organising themselves into regional forums. Working as an organised
collective is important for delivery on human rights.
Even our officials have to be well organised in planning, budgeting and
implementing programmes that include people with disabilities. It is also
important that in planning and implementing programmes, governments consult and
forge partnerships with disabled people's organisations. That is how we can say
that we are busy "making Gauteng a better place for people with
disabilities."
The Gauteng Provincial Government has taken many steps to make Gauteng a
better place for people with disabilities. I will now mention but a few of the
examples of what we have done and we are doing for people with disabilities. Of
the 20 000 jobs to be created through the Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP) in 2007, two percent will be for people with disabilities. An example of
inclusion in this programme is that the Department of Agriculture, Conservation
and Environment had 1,6% of their EPWP participants as people with disabilities
in 2006/07 financial year.
People with disabilities have benefited from job opportunities and small
business promotion through the Gauteng Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment
Strategy, which includes preferential procurement to entrepreneurs with
disabilities. At least 17 enterprises owned by people with disabilities have
acquired provincial contracts with a rand value of R 10 644.
The Gauteng Youth Commission, in partnership with the GSSC, has placed 100
youth with disabilities in work opportunities. We have contributed to the
economic empowerment of people with disabilities by assisting with the
establishment of 8 wheelchair repair centres that are fully run by
entrepreneurs with disabilities. They deliver an excellent service and we are
very proud of these centres. The centre at Chris Hani Baragwanath repairs 60
chairs per month on average.
The government has ensured that one its premier tourism attractions,
Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind, is fully accessible to visitors with
disabilities. We offer assistance to disabled people involved in, or who would
like to be involved in, tourism business opportunities.
The Gauteng food security programme, which includes beneficiaries with
disabilities, assists many families to start producing vegetables on their
residential properties. The services government provides include infrastructure
in the form of garden tools, seeds, irrigation and fencing materials as well as
training in agricultural production.
The government has trained at least 40 crime victim counsellors in South
African Sign Language to assist Deaf persons when reporting crimes. Government
also has a programme where a local police officer 'adopts' schools attended by
disabled children. This officer then conducts activities which involve
awareness about personal safety and abuse. We are concerned about the abuse and
neglect of people with disability. I urge our social workers and other
community members to expose the abuse and to support the survivors of
abuse.
Healthcare for disabled people is available without charge in public
facilities. In 2005, the Gauteng Provincial Government was awarded the
disability trophy from the national Department of Health for providing the
highest number of wheelchairs and hearing aids per capita. We have adopted a
Human Resource Development Strategy that commits our Provincial Government to
ensure a target of four percent of the people receiving training and education
are people with disabilities.
This strategy also commits to the organisational development and capacity
building of community-based organisations and other non-governmental
organisations. The Gauteng government will be providing Department of Labour
with technical assistance in the allocation of devices that will ensure
students with disabilities can enter training programmes.
We have responded to the call to include people with disabilities in
structures intended to enhance public participation in our democracy. We have
provided guidelines to local government to ensure the inclusion of disabled
people in Ward Committees. This directly addresses disabled peopleâs
organisations demand that "nothing about us, without us."
Various municipalities have already set up Offices on the Status of Disabled
Persons reporting to the Municipal Manager or Executive Mayor. We have also
ensured that people with disabilities are instrumental in delivery through
their participation in Community Participation Forums and School Governing
Bodies.
However while we have made significant progress, there are still a number of
significant challenges that we must still confront and overcome. An audit
conducted last year has shown that we need to work harder to reconfigure our
building to meet the SABC minimum standards for use by disabled people.
We have struggled to meet our target to ensure that two percnet of the total
workforce of government employees is people with disabilities. We have only
managed a less than ideal 0,09%. I have heard managers argue that they are
experiencing significant challenges in finding suitably qualified people for
employment in various positions. This sounds disturbingly like the argument
that the corporate sector once advanced for their slow progress in implementing
affirmative action.
We know that people with disabilities have been marginalised and denied
opportunities for training. For that reason we can not expect that suddenly the
market will be able to provide people with skills we want. Skills development
is a priority of this government and we must identify, among people with
disabilities, those with potential in specific areas and train them to the fill
the vacancies that we have.
Gauteng Provincial Government, through the Office of the Premier, had a
Gauteng Disability Dialogue on 19 November 2007, which was a consultative
meeting with the disability organisations in the province. The dialogue
analysed existing gaps and made recommendation which will be taken into the
programme of action for the period ahead.
Guided by these recommendations we will begin to identify gaps to make
public transport accessible to people with all types of disabilities not only
for those on wheelchairs and crutches. We will also continue to facilitate,
through our policy interventions, job opportunities for people with
disabilities in the public and private sector, including the development and
strengthening of all sizes of enterprises owned by entrepreneurs with
disabilities.
We will also accelerate delivery on housing policies and procedures on
accessible housing for disabled persons, including ensuring that infrastructure
in new projects such as 20 priority townships is also accessible to people with
disabilities.
It is important that we keep the lines of communication open between the
government and people with disabilities. It is not adequate that we meet once a
year around the international day of disability. We are therefore committed to
the establishment of a Gauteng Provincial Disability Forum to improve
consultation, regular engagement and communication on policy and programmes of
government.
I hope that the forum will assist us to explore better ways to support and
build capacity of the disability organisations to help government deliver
better services to people with disabilities. The government will in the coming
year, commission an audit to establish progress made by all departments to
mainstream issues of disability in their programmes and budgets. This work will
help us identify challenges in the system and assist in the development of
further intervention to improve delivery to people with disabilities.
Programme Director, we must always keep upper most in our minds that
disabled people live with us in communities and are also affected by violence,
crime, abuse, HIV and AIDS and all other social ills that impact on all our
lives. Our campaigns against all of these challenges must have a strong focus
on people with disabilities. We should not allow a situation to develop where
people with disabilities are ignored and they suffer in silence.
It is only when we attend to all of these issues in a partnership led by
people with disabilities themselves and involving the government, the private
sector and other civil society organs, will we succeed in truly achieve an
inclusive society where all its people have equal opportunities.
Finally I want to wish all of you a merry Christmas and urge safety on the
roads as you travel to your holiday destinations. We have a daunting year ahead
to complete the tasks we set ourselves at the beginning of our term to make
Gauteng a better place in which to live.
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
3 December 2007
