Programme Director, MEC Faith Mazibuko MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza;
Executive Mayor of the Mogale City Municipality, Cllr CalvinSeerane;
MMCs and Councillors of the Mogale City Municipality;
Leaders of the Disabled People of South Africa;
The people of Gauteng.
We are here today to honour the United Nations 1992 resolution to observe the 3rd December every year as the International Day of Disabled Persons. South Africa started to commemorate this day with the launch of the Integrated National Disability Strategy in 1997. We are here to declare that people with disabilities have human rights. People with disabilities have capabilities and talents that must be harnessed to move our country and our province forward.
Our provincial government’s theme for today and this year’s Disability Rights Awareness Month is: “Celebrating 20 years of the rights of persons with disabilities in our Democracy! Together we move Gauteng forward through radical socio-economic transformation”.
Our Gauteng Province’s Disability Rights Policy has a vision that incorporates this theme. It envisages: “A Gauteng Province that includes people with disabilities to such an extent that they effectively contribute to its economic, social, cultural, and political life with the full enjoyment of human rights together with able-bodied persons.”
In taking this vision forward, we have made a significant contribution to South Africa’s implementation of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in Gauteng.
We are implementing our obligations in terms of this convention which was signed by our government and ratified by our parliament.
We aim to improve the lives of people with disabilities and advance their rights through radical socio-economic transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation.
The concept of accessibility is an important starting point for any discussion about the human rights of persons with disabilities. No one can enjoy a human right that they cannot access, and persons with disabilities face many barriers that hinder full and equal access to their enjoyment of human rights. The barriers that persons with disabilities encounter can be divided into the following four categories:
- Physical: Physical barriers prevent access for persons with disabilities to the physical environment such as buildings, roads, transportation as well as other indoor and outdoor facilities such as schools, housing, medical facilities, sporting venues and workplaces.
- Informational: Informational barriers prevent access for persons with disabilities to both the form and content of information that may be provided on websites, brochures, books, television, among many other ways that information is presented in society.
- Institutional: Institutional barriers include legislation, practices, or processes that actively prohibit or fail to facilitate access for persons with disabilities.
- Attitudinal: The negative attitudes and lack of understanding about disability issues of people in society create some of the most pervasive barriers to equal access for persons with disabilities.
We intend to include people with disabilities in all the 10 pillars of my new administration.
Our achievements in including people with disabilities radical economic transformation are the following:
- The supplier database of the Gauteng Department of Finance has 1 150 companies with ownership by entrepreneurs with disabilities is between 1 percent and 50 percent ownership and 125 with more than 51 percent ownership.
- This year to date, we have done R4.6 million with entrepreneurs with disabilities.
- Over the past five years the Province has empowered and conducted business with a total of 5 916 enterprises owned by People with Disabilities to the total value of R108 million.
We emphasise that at provincial level institutional arrangements, such as South African National Aids Council (SANAC) strategies and Gauteng disability action plans, be consistent with and help to advance the rights of persons with disabilities, including persons living with HIV/AIDS. Provisions relating to and supporting the right to health in the context of HIV and AIDS for persons with disabilities include: the right to the highest attainable standard of health, provisions on non-discrimination and equality, accessibility, participation, education, respect for privacy, freedom from violence and abuse, the freedom to receive and impart information, and the right to marry and found a family among others.
On the international front, we have partnered with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Human Care Organisation, and Department of Social Development (DSD) to train people with disabilities to live independently in their communities and have also launched two independent living centres.
Implementing the Inclusive Education Policy for Learners with Special Educational Needs has removed a significant barriers to learning and teaching in the following ways:
- St Vincent’s School for the Deaf now has a Deaf principal,8 Deaf teachers and 7 hearing teachers that can teach in South African Sign Language(SASL). One result of this has been a 75 percent rating for learners in Grade 1 on the national tests for English Second Language. A total of 196 educators have been trained to teach their subjects in the medium of SASL.
- We now have 18 Full Service Schools, which can support learners with different disabilities to attend our ordinary schools.
In addition, the Gauteng Department of Education has formulated a new strategy to increase numbers of persons with disabilities benefiting from the skills development programmes and learner ships and meet the National Skills Strategy of 4 percent of all beneficiaries being people with disabilities.
In keeping with our mandate to prevent and mitigate the effects of disablement, our health department has undertaken the Early Childhood Intervention for children under 3 to prevent disabilities form occurring, to pick up disabilities at an early age and to provide intervention to children as early as possible.
We continue to provide free health care to patients with disabilities who cannot afford it and have improved their independence and mobility by providing them with 63 000 assistive devices over the last five years. These include wheelchairs, walking aids, prostheses and hearing aids.
Other ways in which we use the health system to remove barriers are:
- The training of 500 blind persons by qualified Orientation & Mobility Practitioners to live independently.
- Partnering with the Albinism Society of South Africa (ASSA) to have people with Albinism to receive sun protection packs and systematic eye tests for spectacles
- In addition, 3 700 persons with disabilities accessed services from 107 Non-Profit funded by our Department of Social Development.
To remove the barrier of fear of crime we have done the following:
- Education and awareness campaigns have been held on the prevention of sexual assault and domestic violence against women with disabilities and provided people with disabilities with tips and information on issues relating to their safety.
- Disability help desks have been established at some of the police stations wherein blind rape survivors from the JHB Society for the Blind and retired professionals volunteer their services to assist disabled people with better service.
- 33 police stations are physically accessible for people with disabilities and 3 of them have a South African Sign Language interpreter for Deaf persons.
As part of our modernisation of human settlements and urban development we would like to renew our commitment that three out of 10 houses that the Gauteng government builds must be accessible for and allocated to people with disabilities. These houses will be as close to all amenities as possible. As shown with handing over of houses in Westornaria Borwa on 30 November 2014, we have already started to proritise people with disabilities in the allocation of houses.
In the local government sphere please participate in ward committees so that the needs of people with disabilities are implemented in the Municipal Integrated Development Plans.
As part of modernising the public service, the strategy to meet our target of 2 percent of all our staff being employees with disabilities has improved dramatically this year, as we have moved from 0.8 percent to 1.34 percent of the staff complement comprised of people with disabilities. The future is bright for all people with disabilities in our province. They have a lot of talent and skill to contribute.
As part of our modernisation of public transport infrastructure we would like to make a commitment that all public transport and its infrastructure will be accessible to all people with disabilities. We have already started to ensure that all the new BRT systems are built to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities. The case in point is the recently launched A Re Yeng, Tshwane's BRT system.
As the political nerve centre of government in Gauteng, the Office of the Premier plays a strategic leadership role by providing strategic leadership, coordination and support to departments to deliver on Disability Rights across the province.
Our Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System of Gauteng uses a dashboard of key indicators and targets agreed to by the Executive Council to monitor performance on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. This includes targets for delivery to people with disabilities.
I would like to conclude the following highlights of our performance and partnerships with you:
- We have supported our iconic SA Paralympic Team and Mr Lucas Sithole the winner of the British, USA and Australian Open Wheelchair Tennis Tournaments. Lucas has made us a proud sporting nation.
- In partnership with Disabled People South Africa, our Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation ensures that all infrastructure improvements that they have a stake in results in meeting the standards to include people with disabilities.
We can also celebrate the struggle heritage of people with disabilities. There have been people with disabilities who have fought oppression over decades and helped to bring apartheid to an end and build democracy.
Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) in the early nineties coordinated a national campaign to provide a platform for persons with disabilities across the country to voice their aspirations and expectations of what a democratic South Africa would mean to them. The product of this process was the adoption of the Disability Rights Charter in 1992 by the majority of representative organisations of persons with disabilities at the time. This resulted in the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Bill of Rights.
I say again: “Let us celebrate 20 years of the rights of persons with disabilities in our Democracy! Together we move Gauteng forward through radical socio- economic transformation”.
I thank you.
