province at the provincial celebration of the International Disability Day,
Itsoseng
3 December 2007
Programme Director
Honourable MECs for Social Development and Developmental Local Government and
Housing
Other MECs here present
Your worship, the Acting Executive Mayor of Ngaka Modiri Molema District
Your worship, the Acting Mayor of Ditsobotla
Government officials here present
Leaders and activists on disability
Distinguished guests
Our mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers with disabilities
Comrades
Ladies and gentlemen
It has been said you can judge a society's level of civilisation and
development by the manner in which it treats those, among its people, who have
disabilities. It is these people, together with women, children and the aged,
who constitute the most vulnerable groups of our society because they tend to
be more exposed to hardships and poverty than other members of society.
That is why it is so appropriate that we celebrate the International
Disability Day at a time when we are also observing our 16 Days of Activism
Against Gender Violence. We are, both as a nation and as a province,
practically demonstrating our commitment to bringing these often sidelined
members of our society from the margins to the centre, from the periphery to
the mainstream, from outside to the inside.
As a nation we have a proud tradition where people with disabilities were
integrated into society, viewed as part of us, and somewhat privileged members
of communities as they tended to get the attention of everyone. Seeing the
beyond their disabilities, we would share some of the chores with them. As we
meet here today we have, at personal and community levels, to recover that
mindset and make our compatriots with disabilities feel like equal members of
our society, fully enjoying the rights accorded them by our freedom, our
democracy, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.
We must, today and tomorrow, and the day thereafter and beyond, express both
in word and in action, our commitment to ensure that people with disabilities
are not hidden in the dark rooms of our homes, forgotten and kept in the
shadows of our minds. We must make people with disabilities live lives as
normal as our own, for they are no less normal than us as human beings.
Disability is not a sickness, and it is not an abnormality.
When we fought for freedom and democracy it was freedom and democracy for
all, freedom and democracy for both those who are abled and those with
disabilities. Let the fruits of uhuru, then, be experienced by all. That is our
official position as government, and that should be the position of us all as
the people of South Africa. We are all here today to say that and to say it
publicly. We are here to say you are no less human because you have a
disability and you are not more human because you have no disability. Our
common humanity gives us all equality and we have to cherish this shared sense
of oneness.
Our government has taken the lead not only nationally but also
internationally in standing for the rights of people with disabilities. That is
why in March this year we signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights
and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, and we followed that up by being one
of only ten countries to ratify the convention.
Dignity, as we all know, begins with some measure of self-reliance and the
feeling that you are not a burden to those around you. That, in its turn,
depends in the main on gainful employment. What it means for us as a nation is
that we have to do all we can to create solid economic opportunities for people
with disabilities.
Our determination to create these opportunities for our compatriots is
evident from our theme today, and that is "Renewing our pledge: decent work for
persons with disabilities". The focus is on two aspects of that pledge. The
first is that we are renewing it, which means our commitment is not new. What
we are doing here today is to rededicate ourselves to something we believe in,
an agenda we have been pursuing in the thirteen years we have been in
government.
The second critical part of the pledge is the focus on decent work. What we
are saying is that it is not enough to merely provide work for people with
disabilities. The work we provide for them must be work that we ourselves would
happily take and do. It must be decent work, not throwaways, not work that we
would reject if it were offered to us.
It is because of our determination to ensure decent and quality jobs for our
people with disabilities that we, as government, are reviewing the National
Disability Policy Framework and the National Job-Access framework for the
employment and equity of disabled persons. Through the review, we aim not only
to ensure better jobs but also an improved quality of life for persons with
disabilities. Disability must and should not mean a lower level of life.
Through the review we are also determined to improve performance against
disability employment equity targets. We have to ensure that all the employment
equity quotas relating to people with disabilities are met, and ideally even
exceeded. The Department of Labour is committed to ensuring that our national
targets in this regard are achieved.
Clearly, then, we are not merely speaking about the rights of people with
disabilities. We are, rather, practically making their lives better in quality.
We are making it possible for them to live lives that are as normal as
possible.
That, in our view, goes way beyond jobs and includes other socio-economic
development initiatives and interventions. Accordingly, today we shall also be
transferring 47 two-roomed houses to people with disabilities. We are happy, as
well, to announce that national government has approved funding for our
Department of Developmental Local Government and Housing's project to construct
four-roomed houses for some of our people with disabilities.
On its part, our Social Development Department is focusing on renovating and
recapitalising the Itsoseng Handicraft Centre, which is the only
government-owned shelter workshop we are left with after the transfer of some
of our centres to the Gauteng government. This is part of our programme of
action to transform protective and shelter workshops to meet the developmental
needs of people with disabilities.
Let no one; therefore, be left in any doubt that we are committed beyond
words to make our people with disabilities live their lives in the most normal
way possible.
Even, however, as we in government take the lead in this regard, we are also
concerned that we do not create a dependency syndrome among people with
disabilities. Our interventions must happen against the background of a clear
understanding that people with disabilities are not charity cases; and neither
are they beggars. What is done for them is done in the same way, and for the
same reasons, that things are done for people without disabilities.
It is because of that mindset that we must insist, as well, on creating
space not only for people with disabilities to become employees, but also for
them to become employers. There is a clear need for them to generate their own
and decent quality employment where they can, and our job is to create
conducive conditions for this. Thus we have to ensure that people with
disabilities can also access business development support such as offered by
structures like Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the Industrial Development
Corporation, among others.
In closing, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, let me summarise the four key
ingredients of our position on the empowerment of people with disabilities in a
holistic pursuit of our theme.
One, we must create decent quality jobs for people with disabilities. Two,
we must ensure that employment equity targets relating to people with
disabilities are observed. Three, we have to continue our other socio-economic
interventions to ameliorate the plight of people with disabilities, including
on the housing and the shelter workshops front. Four, we need to support
business and self-employment initiatives of people with disabilities.
Through all these interventions we shall achieve our goal of a society where
to be a person with a disability is not to be on the borders of society but
within the mainstream.
It is with a vision of that society that we stand here today in public and
powerful affirmation of our continued commitment to those of our countrymen and
women with disabilities. We stand here today to make the vociferous statement
that you are not alone; we are one with you for you and us are one.
I thank you all.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
3 December 2007
