Mrs Maria Ramos, CEO of ABSA
Mrs Venette Klein, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer of ABSA
Mrs Joanne von Zeuner, Chairperson of Sešego Cares
Mrs Valerie Sebastian from the Robert and Claire Peter Foundation
Mrs Annemarie Mostert, National Coordinator of Sešego Cares
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is indeed a great pleasure and an honour to be at this wonderful occasion that speaks directly to the hopes and aspirations of our people. The centre we are launching today is indeed the beginning of great things to come and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate ABSA who, through Sešego Cares, have partnered with the Robert and Claire Peter Foundation and made it possible for our nation in its entirety can benefit.
I would also like to, on behalf of our government and our President, thank all of those who were involved in this inspiring venture and express our collective gratitude for all your effort and hard work to make this possible.
Since my appointment as minister responsible for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, I had the distinct privilege to travel the length and breadth of this country, to engage with our people, to meet mothers and children, to talk to fathers and traditional leaders and to explore the richness of our diversity. While doing that, I always, almost on every trip, meet someone who has a disability who looks at our department for hope. I will never forget the image of a mother of two who crawl on her hands and knees to a meeting I was addressing. She had no wheelchair. Or the gogo in the Eastern Cape who couldn’t hear and whose only wish was for a hearing aid that will enable her to hear again.
Nor will I forget a young man from KZN who could not afford another wheelchair and had to use wire and a pipe as tyres for his wheels. Mrs Ramos, all these people I have met are reflected in the data collected in Census 2001 that indicates that there were more than 2 million people with various forms of disability living in our country.
The same census reveals that the prevalence of sight disability was the highest at 32 percent, followed by physical disability, estimated at 30 percent, hearing at 20 percent, emotional disability at 16 percent and intellectual and communication disability at 12 percent and 7 percent respectively. The Prevalence of Disability in South Africa, a study also done by Statistics South Africa found that “disabled persons were generally older, had a higher percentage of persons with no education and a lower percentage of employed persons than those who were not disabled. Furthermore, disabled women experienced the disadvantage of being disabled as well as being female, which results in their lower rates of employment”.
These facts clearly illustrate the relevance of the centre we will launch today. Most persons with disabilities are unemployed, poor and unable to access the very means that will allow them to do more for themselves. That is the reality. And these realities are indeed the reason why this government, your government, is so grateful for all your efforts and hard work because we understand that your aim is not to enable persons with disabilities but to make life a little easier, to improve their mobility, their potential and to give them their dignity and self-respect, to allow them to do more things for themselves and to help them help themselves.
I am aware of the high cost of assistive devices and mobility aids and I remains concerned that these devices that can help people live normal lives, are so expensive and to some even unaffordable.
In some instances, an ordinary wheelchair can cost up to R2 000 and a motorised wheelchair can cost more than R50 000. Similarly, hearing aids can reach R10 000 and prosthetic limps even more.
We need to work together and look at ways of bringing the cost of these unaffordable assistive devices down so that we can avoid a situation where only those who can afford it, will be enabled while those who are poor and unemployed continue to depend on handouts or are doomed to a life with limited opportunities.
I would therefore like to caution that we should, in our steadfastness to address the plight of those who are living with disabilities, ensure that we are able to address all forms of disability and not focus on only addressing one form of disability.
The truth is that many people who are living with disabilities will be able to live normal lives because of centres like the one we are launching today. Many of them, with just a helping hand and a little push, are able to achieve their full potential and, achieve greater heights, dream bigger because it is initiatives like these that enable them to do so.
The sad reality is that the only thing that stands between a person with a disability and him or her achieving his or her full potential, is access. What we do today, and what we should be doing more in future, is closing the gap. Mrs Ramos, this centre cannot be the final chapter in our common resolve to address the socio-economic position of all persons with disabilities. It should be the start! This centre cannot be an event. It should be a campaign.
While appreciating what you have done, I would like to urge other corporate companies to follow your encouraging example and to also look within their own means how they, in a meaningful way, can contribute directly to the improvement of lives and the creation of the better country we all dream of.
Working together, we can do more, is no longer an election slogan. Through activities and centres such as this, what was once rhetoric, becomes reality and a way of life. I trust that this is the start of a fruitful and lasting relationship in our constant crusade to improve the lives of all our people.
The struggle continues!
