Premier Sihle Zikalala: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Speech By Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Mr Sihle Zikalala during event marking International Day for the Disabled held in Glencoe, Umzinyathi District Municipality on 3 December 2020

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

We gather on this occasion to mark this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities faced with the reality of an economy that is battling to recover from the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2013, the Cabinet approved 03 Nov – 03 Dec as Disability Rights Awareness Month, and 03 December as the National Day of Persons with Disabilities. Disability is one of the seven focus areas identified by the South African Human Rights Commission to promote, protect, and monitor the realisation of Human Rights in South Africa.

The theme for this year’s Disability Rights Awareness Month is “Together Building Communities Inclusive of Disability Rights”. This is commitment that our communities cannot continue to exclude and marginalise persons with disabilities

The pandemic has cost us our projected economic growth by almost obliterating productive economic activity and in the process leading to the closure of many businesses and the loss of jobs across the spectrum.   

Covid-19 has exposed the existing fault lines and the dichotomy of our economic system. Among the most vulnerable who are adversely affected are the Disabled who alongside women and young people lost jobs or ran out of food. It is an established fact the worst affected by emergencies like storms, natural disasters and indeed pandemics are those who are already sitting on the economic margins of society. 

The lockdown also resulted in the cutting off supplies to care centres, support facilities, old age homes and similar organisations relying on the kindness of strangers for donations to support persons with disabilities.

Many organisations that rely on donations have been forced to let go of support staff or close their doors due to risk of infection from COVID-19. Persons with disabilities are at greater risk of discrimination in accessing healthcare and life-saving procedures during the COVID19 outbreak. Due to pressure on the health system, access to healthcare, rehabilitation and assistive technologies for persons with disabilities was curtailed, with undue effects on this sector.

One of the greatest tragedies that humanity continues to reflect are misconceptions, prejudices, and stigma that disabled people continue to face. Ignorance and stigma often leads to discrimination of disabled people. This is against our Constitution which is founded on the cornerstone of dignity. It is also against Ubuntu and South Africa’s human rights culture.

Women with disabilities are discriminated even further as they are perceived as weak, worthless and, in some cases, sub-human. We find that this leads to relatively higher levels of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) directed at women with disabilities.

Research shows that disabled women are twice as likely to be victims of sexual abuse, rape and intimate partner violence (IPV) than their non-disabled counterparts. This is worse among the poor women and those with little or no education who are unable to access work opportunities and are thus dependent on others.

For this reason, the final weeks of Disability Rights Awareness Month coincide with 16 Days Campaign of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. The campaign for No-Violence Against Women and Children should also highlight the plight of women and children with disability which places them in an even more vulnerable position to Gender-Based Violence.

We applaud the launch by PanSALB of the Sign Language Charter in September in order to address issues relating to communication, access to information, facilities and social justice by the deaf.

Rebuilding and Transformation

Covid-19 has deepened poverty, unemployment, and inequality. People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by poverty and our ailing economy. It is for this reason that we must unite and accelerate our programme of economic reconstruction, growth, and transformation and ensure that people with disabilities benefit.

At Level 1 we are now rebuilding. As outlined by the President, the reconstruction and recovery plan builds on the R500billion economic and social relief package that was announced in April and which provided much needed relief to households, companies and workers.

In KwaZulu Natal we want to ensure that our recovery is underpinned by advancing transformation within KZN, particularly previously disadvantaged individuals, youth, women and people with disabilities.

The rights of the disabled are the rights of all human beings in South Africa. However because of their vulnerability, the disabled must be accorded special treatment that removes barriers in their way so that they can participate fully in the spectrum of activities that enhance their lives.

People with disabilities have a right to work, be educated and have access to health and wellness facilities. People with disabilities have a right to decent housing and a decent standard of living and being able to exercise all other rights accorded to citizens and residents of South Africa. These are rights guaranteed in our Constitution, and government is bound to ensure the realisation of these rights.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa fully protects the rights and dignity of People with Disabilities and promotes and equalization of opportunities to advance the needs and wellbeing of people with disabilities. Government, business, labour and communities are called on to ensure their integration in society within a human rights ethos.

The current State of Disability Sector

A report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) notes that persons with disabilities account for 5.1% of the population in South Africa. The SAHRC further notes that this category continues to experience lack of access to adequate health and basic education. For this and other reasons this group remains at great risk of unemployment.

The discrimination and abuse of those with disability is because of entrenched negative beliefs and attitudes about the causes of disability, their capabilities and the need to develop programmes targeting those with disabilities.

According to the latest Draft National Youth Policy 2020 to 2030, although the notion and practice of youth development is entrenched in South African human development discourse, little is known about youth with disabilities and how they make transitions from childhood into adulthood. From childhood, individuals with disabilities do not have equal access to education and therefore lag behind with skills development.

The 2016 Community Survey found that 7.7% of South Africa’s population have a disability of some kind with disability prevalence lowest amongst young people (between 2.6% and 3.4% in the various youth age cohorts). The national disability prevalence thus increased slightly from 7.5% in 2011 to 7.7% in 2016.

Among the challenges facing the youth is that some of the disabilities including learning disorders are culturally misunderstood. This results in some youth being restricted to their homes and not fully participating in social life such as attending educational facilities, playing, being independent and active job seekers.

The challenges of learning disorders also lead to those with disabilities being hidden in their homes because of a culture that sometime attributes disability to witchcraft or the fault of the female parent. Those with disabilities find themselves not attending educational facilities even those catering to their special needs which means that they are barred from being independent and playing their part in society.

The youth complain that they are often expected to compete for the same jobs with youth that have no disabilities. Due to this practice some young people with visual, hearing and physical impairments are simply unable to compete. For instance, the majority of job opportunities require a typed CV without considering those who cannot use their hands to type or those who cannot see. Our job opportunities are not yet advertised in a disability-friendly format.

Engaging people with Disabilities

Government engages regularly with membership-based organisations for the disabled who serve as the voices of people living with disabilities. We have together with the sector made a lot of progress in securing a better life for all and protecting and promoting the rights of those living with disabilities.

Achieving this objective means that those with disabilities are also to play a leading role in formulating the solutions to their lives and to hold government and the private sector accountable for the commitment that we make to better their lives.

The Constitution, the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and internationally, the recently-signed African Union Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are just some of the instruments which protect the rights of those with disability.

On this International Day of People with Disabilities, we call on stakeholders to champion and monitor the effective implementation of our commitments. We use this day therefore to resuscitate our partnerships with all organs of civil society in driving the transformation and inclusion of the disability agenda in government programmes and in the private sector.

Disability Rights Awareness Month Theme

Programme Director, during the 2020 Disability Rights Awareness Month’s we focus on communicating the disability inclusion commitments of the Sixth Administration which are contained in the Medium Term Strategic Framework.

The 2020 theme of “Together Building Communities Inclusive of Disability Rights” speaks directly to the need to end the marginalisation and plight of those with disabilities. It speaks to the commitment made in line with the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to address the condition of the under-represented groups. This includes persons with albinism, young people with dyslexia, Deaf and blind persons and persons with psychosocial disabilities to strengthen their collective voice.

During Disability Rights Awareness Month, we must place a greater focus on economic justice and empowerment, and the mental health impact of COVID-19 on learners with disabilities, especially learners with intellectual disabilities. In the context of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, we must continue to assess the state of readiness in the provision of services for women and persons with disabilities.

Empowerment means that persons with disabilities must be involved in conceptualising, developing, implementing and monitoring economic development policies and programmes. As we say, there must be nothing about this community without their full involvement and participation.

Today’s engagement must be coupled with ongoing and regular sessions with the sector in order to improve the lives of those with disabilities. The status quo is that more work needs to be done to improve the employment status of persons with disabilities in accordance with the 1999 Employment Equity Act. There must be more people with disability in employment, but we also want to see more businesses that are run and managed by persons with disabilities.

Importantly, it is the duty of every person in KwaZulu-Natal to work for and campaign for a world in which there is no discrimination against those with disabilities. We must all be committed to opening up opportunities for them to participate in their own empowerment. We must hold hands together and work towards the achievement of a world in which there is no discrimination on the basis of one’s disability. It is surely in our capacity to build a disability-inclusive, united, non-sexist, non-racial and prosperous KwaZulu-Natal for all.

Mainstreaming disability in KwaZulu-Natal: Responses to the disability Parliament of 2019

Compatriots, through the flagship Vulindlela housing project in Msunduzi, we ensured that that 25 000 housing units costing R2.5-billion benefited 1713 workers during construction. The project targeted the poor, women-headed households and also persons with disabilities.

Through KZN’s Radical Socio-Economic Transformation, 53 black-owned companies undertook planning and construction work in the department of Transport. The project benefited people with disabilities.

We cans also state that in terms of the new KZN MTSF, our target are set at 30% for women, youth and SMMEs. We have a policy on set-asides on specific commodities for designated groups. In addition, the PGDP targets governments local procurement spend at 35% youth; 30% women, 10% Military Vets and 5% people with disabilities.

With regard to the specific issues covered during last year’s sitting of this parliament each department is here to respond to their issues. We must however indicate some of the issues that relate to the provincial government.

1. Communication between spheres of government

We agreed last year that there is a need to align and strengthen communication between the various spheres of government.

We can assure all stakeholders that disability structures have been created specifically to ensure that there is clear communication between spheres of governance. Their function is to mainstream disability issues into government processes. The Provincial Disability Forum (PDF) is a practical forum where Departments and Municipalities meet and discuss all matters related to disability. It needs to be pointed out that without a fully functional national, provincial, district and local disability fora, the lines of communications can be adversely affected.

As OTP we recognise that the provincial disability forum is not functioning optimally as most departments do not have disability focused officials. OTP is currently working with departments towards addressing this challenge.

Although municipalities are part of the Provincial Disability Forum, participation and the establishment of disability focal points at local government level remains a major challenge.

2. Call for Braille use to be compulsory

We have also noted the call for it to be compulsory for government departments to provide documents in brail at all events hosted by the government. We must also state that ideally government major events are supposed to have brailed documents. In fact we are constrained severely by the lack of brailing capacity in government. As a result we have been unable to provide braille during government events.

We can report that the Office of the Premier has written to all government departments requesting that they buy braille machines and train their focal persons accordingly. The circular will again be sent to all government institutions to remind them of the need for braille machines in government.

With regard to concerns that there should be alignment between the strategic plan and the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities we can report that this has been attended to.

The 2020-2024 Five Year Disability Plan has been aligned with the White Paper on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and has also been aligned with MTSF disability indicators.   

3. The call for the Provincial Disability Forum (PDF) to be revived and strengthened

There was a call for the PDF to develop the terms of reference for provincial executive council which was to be approved by Cabinet by April 2020. The call was for the terms of reference to clearly define consequence management for officials who do not adhere to the decisions of the Forum.

The Office of the Premier realises that because most government departments have not been able to establish disability offices this has caused the Provincial Disability Forum to be weakened. We can assure this forum that the issue has been raised with government departments through the correct platforms. We can also report that the terms of reference were presented at the PDF meeting held on 27 January 2020 and it was agreed that the PDF would need to approve them at the Disability Summit. The summit was to take place in March 2020 and unfortunately did not because of the corona virus pandemic. 

4. There was also a call for government departments and municipalities to allocate budget for programmes for people with disabilities

As part of rolling-out the 2020-2024 Disability Plan, the Office of the Premier is set to monitor budget allocation going forward as some of the indicators are specifically designed to monitor budget expenditure on disability.

The disability training of senior management in government targeted all government departments. The project in 2019-2020 with COGTA was a pilot project and it became a success. The next phase of the project is focusing on senior management in the province.

The Office of the Premier continues to remind departments to establish focal points. The implementation of Sector Parliament resolutions is now being coordinated at COHOD level, and this has been done with the view of ensuring that government prioritises the implementation of the resolutions.

5. On the resolution to approach the DPSA to issue a prescript to increase employment of people with disabilities to 7%. The Office of the Premier was asked to facilitate that this happens in the first quarter of 2021.

We must state that the resolution is greatly affected by the doctrine of ‘separation of powers’. The Office of the Premier can only bring the resolution to the attention of the national department without giving any directives. What we can assure this gathering is that this is within the competence of the DPSA and national government can decide on the employment of persons with disabilities being increased to 7%.

6. There was a call that Government Departments should devise a strategy to be able to prioritize people with disabilities from other applicants. Recruitment process to be favourable to people with disabilities Integrated approach to address employment equity targets in the province through the development of KwaZulu-Natal Employment Turnaround Strategy which includes persons with disabilities. The Strategy is due to be tabled at Cabinet for adoption.

7. The programme on profiling persons with disabilities must be rolled-out in all District Municipalities.

As OTP we can say that this is a province-wide project involving all municipalities. It will be recalled that the pilot project at Harry Gwala District Municipalities was intended to gauge the availability of the necessary information for profiling persons with disabilities. It needs also to be pointed out that currently the project has stalled due to the corona virus. With the easing of lockdown regulations, it the programme is being revived.

Conclusion 

In closing, we wish to reiterate our position that we are accelerating the transition from social welfare to social development as we embrace the plight of the most vulnerable in our society.

This government is also providing opportunities for persons with disabilities to develop skills and earn an income with products that they make in workshops to supplement their disability grants. To this end, we have developed a Provincial database of persons with disabilities that will serve as a hub from which government departments can tap into when they target persons with disabilities for recruitment purposes.

We will continue to make every endeavour to ensure that those with disabilities are given priority, fair treatment. All compatriots and citizens with disabilities will eventually be fully mainstreamed into an inclusive system where they can play their role in society alongside everyone else. 

Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal!

I thank you!

Province

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