Minister Essop Pahad
Address: International Day of Disabled Persons
3 December 2005
Honourable Premier Ms Edna Molewa
Minister and Deputy Ministers
Representatives of disability civil society organisations
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Today we come together as a nation to celebrate the International Day of Disabled Persons to further affirm government's commitment to provide a better life for all, including people with disabilities, who are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable of our country. In celebrating this day, together with the rest of the world, we pride ourselves on the strides we have made in trying to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities but we are also aware of the challenges that lie ahead of us to do even more than we have done so far. Improving the quality of life of all our people is a continuous effort and we will continue enhancing our service delivery systems to achieve these goals that we have set ourselves as government.
Our celebration this year centres around the theme “Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Development in Action”.
This theme calls upon all of us to put our development objectives and goals around disability into practical action. We must all act to protect the rights and dignity of people with disabilities and we must act decisively to improve their quality of life. The 3 December falls within the period of the 16 Days of No Violence Against Women and Children and therefore we must also speak out loud against the prevalent abuse of disabled women and children in particular. There is a lot of abuse that disabled women and children suffer, even to the extent of children with mental disabilities being chained and locked up in backyard houses. We cannot keep quiet when we know these things are happening in our communities. We need to expose these horrible deeds and in that way we can be proud that we are indeed making a contribution in acting against the abuse of disabled women and children.
Our government is committed to increasing momentum in ensuring appropriate service delivery to people with disabilities. We are doing this, among other things, by embarking on a process to review the Integrated National Disability Strategy (INDS) of 1997. This government White Paper has done much in providing guidelines to government departments on how to deliver services to people with disabilities in an integrated fashion and sustainable way, but there is always room for improvement and in this regard we have made a decision as government that we need to advance the INDS into a fully fledged government policy that will assist us to better integrate people with disabilities into society in line with the constitutional mandates for equity, access and non-discrimination. The current focus of the INDS has been based on the World Programme of Action and the United Nations (UN) Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. It is evident that much has been done in this country to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, but much more still needs to be done.
The overarching policy review will contribute greatly towards improving the lives of people with disabilities. In the last couple of months the Office on the Status of People with Disabilities (OSDP) has been working with the Health Task Team of the Social Cluster to develop an assessment tool for qualifying for free basic health care and disability grants. The situation with regards to these two services has improved and the system has been put in place to ensure that more people with disabilities who qualify for these services can access them.
Parallel to this policy review process that the OSDP is doing, they are currently also reviewing government's service delivery to people with disabilities at a practical level through reports by government departments. This review focuses on services that government departments render to people with disabilities in terms of identifying the actual recipients on the basis of geographic location and categories of disabilities. The review will also determine which areas of South Africa are least serviced in this regard. This is another indication of government's continuous commitment and effort in equalising opportunities for people with disabilities and thus improving their quality of life. As a caring society, we all need to take responsibility to ensure that people with disabilities are afforded the dignity and respect that they deserve.
With all the advances that we have made as a country over the past 10 years to ensure the improvement of the quality of life for people with disabilities, the issue of employment and economic empowerment remains a challenge that we all need to address together in partnership. To this end, the OSDP, in the Presidency is also embarking on the economic empowerment programme for people with disabilities. Among other things, this programme will focus on the transformation of sheltered workshops for people with disabilities into viable business entities. Another component of the programme will be skills training for people in these workshops to enable them to run these facilities as real businesses with high potential for income generation. Emphasis should be placed on ensuring that this transformation process accommodates the fact that the workshops are managed by people with disabilities themselves.
This is an important principle of self representation that should be at the centre of all initiatives involving people with disabilities. It is this principle that also translates in a very powerful way to the slogan of the South African disability rights movement which says “Nothing about us without us”. This is about the self worth and dignity for people with disabilities and ensures that a disabled person is continually at the centre of all decisions affecting him or her. We all have a role to play in ensuring that people with disabilities are afforded job and skills development opportunities.
In advancing the rights of people with disabilities, we as the country continue to play a central role and make our contribution at the international level. We are currently involved in a process of developing the draft United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Our representatives in this process will attend, the seventh session in January 2006 of the UN ad hoc committee that is developing this convention. There is enormous progress that is being made in this regard and we pride ourselves with the contribution we are making as a country.
Government's commitment to improving service delivery to the nation is further demonstrated by initiatives like the 10 Review process that was undertaken to determine the advances made and the gaps and challenges still to be addressed. As part of this process we also considered the review specific to gender, disability and children's rights to enable us to assess government's progress towards realising, among others, disability rights and deepening public discourse on overcoming discrimination towards people with disabilities. There has been remarkable progress in transforming the state machinery to make it more responsive to the needs of targeted groups and the developmental issues that affect them. There has been substantive and innovative work in the policy and legislative arena and gradual change in the quality and quantity of service delivery and the civil service organisational culture.
Our government recently hosted the UN Special Rapporteur on disability who was in South Africa between the 20 and 25 November this year. The Special Rapporteur was conducting an inspection of South Africa's compliance with the international human rights standards in relation to disability including the implementation of the UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for People with Disabilities. The visit included meetings with some of the Ministers and interactions with civil society organisations. We feel privileged as a country that we have been afforded the opportunity to host the Special Rapporteur and we are confident that the report that will be produced out of the visit will project a good image about South Africa as a country that promotes disability rights.
I take this opportunity to encourage all of us here today to continue doing the best we can to contribute in the effort of creating a better life for people with disabilities, especially those in the rural areas of our country. I also thank all of those people who have given and continue to give the necessary support to the cause of people with disabilities. Your activism in raising awareness on disability goes a long way in dispelling the myths and addressing the negative attitudes towards people with disabilities.
I wish you all a very successful celebration of the International Day of Disabled Persons.
Issued by: The Presidency
3 December 2006
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