Programme Director
Deputy Minister Hendrietta Bogopane Zulu
His Excellency Ambassador, Mr Yutaka Yoshizawa and the delegation from the Embassy of Japan and JICA
Members of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures
Mayors and Councillors
Director-General in the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize
Leaders of organisations of persons with disabilities
The Chairperson and CEO of the Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities
Our social partners from the private sector and civil society
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
The struggle for the emancipation of all South Africans, led by the African National Congress, which is celebrating its centenary this year, has always enjoyed international recognition and support.
It is therefore of significance that the Government of Japan, through its Embassy in South Africa and development cooperation arm, JICA, responded to our call for partnership in hosting this summit.
Your Excellency, Mr Yutaka Yoshizawa and the delegation from the Embassy of Japan and JICA, thank you for your solidarity with the struggle of the people of South Africa in general, and in this instance, South Africans with disabilities in particular.
The Freedom Charter proudly proclaims that South Africa belongs to all of us. This sentiment is reiterated in the South African Constitution, which guarantees equality to all South Africans.
We therefore seek to create a non-sexist, discrimination-free, equitable and inclusive society that protects and develops the human potential of its children, a society for all where persons with disabilities enjoy the same rights as their fellow citizens, and where all citizens and institutions share equal responsibility of creating such a society.
Yet, sixteen years later, it is recognised that the progressive realisation of the rights of South Africans with disabilities to equality as guaranteed in the South African Constitution has, despite the release of the White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy in 1997, and ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its protocol in 2007, not yielded the results intended.
An analysis of the causal factors of the slow progress, points towards, among others:
- On-going discriminatory and stereotypical beliefs towards persons with disabilities which detracts from the mainstreaming of disability considerations in planning, service delivery and monitoring processes across all sectors at all levels;
- Hostile built environments and communication systems which continue to exclude persons with disabilities from mainstream society;
- Lack of capacity within the disability sector, and in particular organisations of persons with disabilities, to effectively advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities in a sustained manner, and in particular at provincial and local levels.
As South Africans committed to the principles of justice, equality and respect for our Constitutional values, we must make a solemn commitment that we will use every ounce of our collective energy and every fibre of our being to build for ourselves a society that frowns upon the discrimination and abuse.
It is within this context that the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities have convened the National Disability Summit.
We are hoping that deliberations over the next day and a half will provide a platform for government and its social partners to engage on the National Disability Agenda priorities, to reach consensus on the approach to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to further consult on key aspects of the National Disability Policy, and to update delegates on the status of the First Country Report on the Convention and the process towards depositing the report later this year.
We were initially also hoping to use the summit to mobilise development cooperation for the National Disability Agenda, but upon reflection, resolved that this might be premature in light of the discussion areas of the summit.
The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities will therefore host a Roundtable during the first quarter of the new financial year to bring together government and its social partners, our international development cooperation partners, as well as the Secretariat of Africa Decade of Persons with Disabilities.
Programme Director, we host this summit in the knowledge that transformation of our society and government delivery systems is a partnership, and that government cannot do it alone.
The three spheres of government, state owned enterprises and the private sector need to acknowledge the critical role organisations of people with disabilities play in advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, in mobilising people with disabilities to speak out for the realisation of these rights, and to ensure that they at all times speak with a mandate derived from their membership, even from the furthest corners of the country.
We acknowledge that a lot of progress has been made in mainstreaming disability considerations into different policies and legislation since 1994.
The time has however come that we translate these promises and commitments into action; that we move beyond words and statements.
The department has therefore spent considerable time and effort over the past few months to analyse weaknesses in the delivery system, and to re-focus the Department’s energies on addressing these.
The department has therefore narrowed the focus of the National Disability Agenda in order that we work smarter.
In the following two years we will be strengthening coordination of the National Disability Agenda across all three spheres of government.
Firstly, we will strengthen coordination of a national awareness campaign on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by strengthening the development of disability awareness campaign materials, mainstreaming disability into all the national commemorative days, and consolidating the activities of Disability Month across all three spheres of government.
Secondly, we will finalise a national framework for universal access and design, which will, among others, include a review of minimum norms and standards, enforcement mechanisms, capacity development framework for accredited accessibility auditors and a financial model for the roll out of universal access across all three spheres of government.
Thirdly, we will finalise the National Disability Policy, which will include an audit of all existing legislation and policies against the articles of the UNCRPD, an analysis of options to ensure enforcement of any disability-related legislation, restructuring of the institutional arrangements across all three spheres of government as well as between government and civil society, and the finalisation of a monitoring and evaluation framework for disability mainstreaming.
Fourthly, we will focus on specific interventions to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to education, employment and rural development opportunities and health and rehabilitation services and that they are and feel safe.
Programme Director,
We will continue to champion the rights of people with disabilities at international level.
2011 saw South Africa hosting three international disability conferences, co-hosted by South African disability organisations DEAFSA, the South African Federation for Mental Health and of course Disabled People South Africa, who partnered with the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities to host the Disabled People’s International Congress in October in Durban.
Down Syndrome South Africa will be keeping up this tradition in August 2012 when they will be hosting the World Down Syndrome Congress in Cape Town, and we call on delegates to support this event in large numbers.
The South African government will furthermore be depositing our First Country Report on Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by August this year, and we once again call on stakeholders in participating in the process towards finalising a Country Report we can showcase to the world by participating in the consultative processes that will continue to unfold.
The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities will also be leading a country delegation to New York in September 2012 to participate in the Conference of State Parties.
Mrs Mudarikwa and Mr Dube, representing the Secretariat of the Africa Decade of Persons with Disabilities here today, we want to assure you that we will also be deepening our participation as a country in the Africa Decade of Persons with Disabilities Continental Programme.
Compatriots, we however once again need to reiterate that as government we cannot achieve full emancipation of people with disabilities alone. We need the private sector, organisations of people with disabilities, labour, our communities, our leaders and our international partners to join hands, push personal agendas aside, and work together towards this goal.
We acknowledge the challenges the disability sector are experiencing as a result of financial constraints threatening their very existence and taking up too much of their valuable advocacy time scrambling for scarce resources to prevent their doors from closing. We will be working with the sector in developing a more enabling environment that will strengthen their unity of purpose in general, and their advocacy capacity in particular.
Programme Director, for too long have political leaders, public servants and municipal officials, business leaders and the private sector in general, tried to hide behind excuses of ignorance and lack of knowledge when it comes to honouring the guarantee of our Constitution to equality.
The time has come for each and every one of us to stand up and be counted; to take personal and collective responsibility for system and action failures that contribute towards exclusion and discrimination.
I therefore challenge delegates to deliberate within this spirit during the next one and a half days. Apply the principles of criticism and self-criticism when you raise issues. Let us ask ourselves what we could have done better to ensure that employers achieve the employment equity targets set by ourselves.
Let us ask ourselves what we could have done differently that would have given equal access to children with disabilities finding themselves outside the education system because some believe they need more protection from system failures than other children. Let us ask ourselves why we live or work in a building that does not provide universal access to all South Africans?Why do we tolerate discrimination?
This summit must map a way forward as far as the process of domestication of the United Nations Country Report on Persons with Disabilities is concerned. We need to agree on the approach towards achieving this.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities to carry out our mandate with distinction by sharing with us your ideas, knowledge and aspirations.
We will not yield, nor tire, until all South Africans with disabilities are able to declare: South Africa belongs equally to us!
I thank you.
