Members of the Executive Council
Director General and Heads of Department
Our partners in the Social and Disability sector
Ladies and Gentlemen
Members of the Media

I want to start by thanking everyone that joined us here this morning for the launch of a very important programme on our calendar. Disability or the challenge to accomplish what others take for granted is a major human rights issue and it is one that grows in prominence and difficulty. Your presence today is testimony to your acknowledgement of this condition that affects more and more people daily but also your commitment to working with us to ensure that we enhance the quality of life of people who are sometimes rejected by society.

Before 1994, persons with disabilities had no rights. They had no recourse and were even denied basic services such as education, health, rehabilitation and social grants on the basis of race, geographical location, gender, age or ability, as these were deemed privileges of a few. This served as motivation for persons with disabilities to act and the release of the Disability Rights Charter of South Africa in 1992 set the tone for how disability was to be approached in our new democracy.

The inclusion of the equality and non-discrimination clause in the Bill of Rights, with discrimination on the basis of disability specifically outlawed, was the first concrete step in entrenching a rights-based approach towards disability in the new South Africa. We thus have reason to celebrate where we come from but as a Government we are saying that more can be done to offer people with Disabilities equal status in our society.

Today we join with the rest of South Africa to launch the Disability Rights Awareness Month, which takes place under the theme, "Persons with disabilities enabled to participate equally in shaping a sustainable future”. The period between the month of November until the first week of December of every year is declared and dedicated by the South African Government as the month to celebrate and observe the Rights of People with Disabilities. This culminates in the closing of the National Day of Persons with Disabilities on the 3rd December.  This is in line with the United Nations General Assembly declaration of 1993, which proclaimed the date of December 3 as an International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

During March this year, the National Department of Social Development held a National Disability Rights Summit where President Jacob Zuma officially launched the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The delegates discussed and adopted the Irene Declaration.  This declaration acknowledges that people with disabilities in South Africa continue to experience “unacceptably high levels of exclusion, marginalisation, and discrimination”. The declaration also recognised the importance of people with disabilities “taking individual and collective responsibility for ensuring that the White Paper on Rights of Persons with Disabilities is successfully implemented”. It acknowledges that the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, and guarantees the right to equality for all people with disabilities.

Key in the declaration is that every person with a disability, regardless of race, gender and age, had “a right to make decisions for themselves”. The summit also discussed issues of language, accessibility and the right to quality health-care services, education, information and communication for persons with disability.

In our collective observation of the Disability Rights Awareness Month (DRAM) the Province is provided with an opportunity to:

• Inspire hope and confidence in the ability of the province and the state machinery to work together in addressing the common challenges facing persons with disabilities and society in general
• Mobilise persons with disabilities around the gains made in protecting, promoting and upholding the rights of persons with disabilities
• Reach out to the diversity within the disability sector, and acknowledge that all humans and socio-economic rights should be equally enjoyed by all persons with disabilities; and
• Accelerate the implementation of The White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which advocates for measures that will hold duty—bearers accountable and strengthen recourse measures for rights-holders whose rights have been violated.
• Popularise the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which has its overarching principle, Leave No One Behind. This means to ensure its success, the Agenda must remain of the people, by the people and for the people, committing the world to global action for the next 15 years. This echoes the disability rights movement’s own principle: Nothing about Us without Us.
• Participate in the 10th Celebration of the Adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which remains a milestone in the international disability rights struggle.

Members of the media, ladies and gentlemen

This year holds great historical significance due to the fact that the country commemorates 98 years of women’s struggle and the 60th Anniversary of the Historic Women’s March. The relevance of this is that it provides the country with an opportunity to reflect on the role played by women with disabilities during the liberation struggle to dismantle Apartheid, as well as to reflect on which measures to put in place to ensure that especially women with disabilities benefit equally from affirmative action and equity measures.

We pride ourselves in the fact that, globally, South Africa is rated among the leading countries with anti-discrimination legislations. The passing of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Preferential Procurement Act, the release of the White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy, White Paper 6 on Inclusive Education, among others, provides an environment in which opportunities have been created.

As a Province we are steadily moving towards addressing the needs of Disabled persons and for this reason, Provincial Government through the Office of the Premier places high emphasis on especially job equality and to this end systems are being put in place to ensure the implementation of the Job access Strategic Framework, Gender Equality Framework and the Employment Equity act.

Today we are joined by key Departments, which is their way of giving us the assurance that Government at all levels remains committed to ensuring that people with disabilities remain an integral part of our developmental agenda.

To this end, grants information as provided by SASSA as at Oct 2016 reflects that more than thirty thousand beneficiaries receive disability grants and close to seventeen thousand beneficiaries receive temporary disability grants, approximately three thousand social grant beneficiaries access grants in aid and a further five thousand children with disabilities receive care dependency grants.

In terms of Education, we have a little more than three thousand learners with physical disabilities that attend mainstream schools and close to two thousand learners with disabilities attend special schools catering mainly for deaf, blind and learners with physical, psychosocial and multiple disabilities.

More however can be done and for this reason we have In attendance today Deaf Federation of South Africa (DEAFSA), the Disabled Children's Action Group (DICAG), which is a support group for parents with children with disabilities, Disabled People South Africa (DPSA), Autism SA, Maphalane Disabled Trust and social partner, Petra Diamonds.  These partners are key in assisting us in mainstreaming of disability considerations in policies and programmes, supporting the empowerment of their members and constituencies through human rights education campaigns, supporting the implementation of the White Paper and most importantly monitoring the implementation of the White paper.

We want to reaffirm to you that in realising, promoting and protecting the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Provincial Government commits to the following deliverables for the financial year 2017-2018:

1. Health

   In terms of article 25 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which states that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, we will ensure access to health services including health related rehabilitation that are gender sensitive in their communities and without financial costs.

2. Education

   Article 24 recognises the rights of persons with disabilities to education on the basis of equal opportunities, ensuring an inclusive education system at all levels and the facilitation of access to life-long learning.

3. Sports , Arts and Culture

   Article 30 recognises the rights of persons with disabilities to take part in cultural life and develop and utilise their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, recognition and support of their specific cultural and linguistic identity, and to participate in recreational, leisure and sporting activities on an equal basis with others. The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture commits to support the participation of persons with disabilities in sports including the elimination of discriminatory and differentiated treatment of persons with disabilities in the  awarding of prizes and medals.

4. Social Development

   Article 7 recognises the full enjoyment by children with disabilities of all convention rights and fundamental freedoms in particular to ensure that all action concerning children with disabilities is in the best interest of the child. The Department commits to the establishment of accessible Early Childhood Development Centres in all districts.

The details of all the successes that we have registered thus far are too many to mention but I want to highlight that Special Programmes specific performance indicators have been infused into the provincial Monitoring & Evaluation Framework. This will allow the Office of the Premier to monitor progress and impact on target group related issues as sector departments implement their Annual performance Plans. This office in partnership with its legislative oversight body, the Select committee on Women, Children & Persons with Disabilities will from now on not approve any sector departments Annual Performance Plan and Budget if it does not have target group specific indicators.

As I conclude, let me briefly highlight some of the programmes that will unfold this month, the highlights being the training on the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the Select committee on Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities. This training will conducted by the Deputy Minister of Social Development Ms. Bopape. The same training will also be given to Members of the Provincial Executive as well a lecture on Disability Rights.

As we embark on the activities for this month, I want to, on behalf of the Provincial Administration,  salute our Disability rights activists, for your efforts not only now but even before we became this proud democracy. Your struggle was and will never be in vain.
 

As a government that cares for and understands the needs of its people; I want to give the undertaking once more that, collectively we will contribute to the empowerment of people with disabilities through accessible disability information services, inclusive early childhood development opportunities and accessible rehabilitation services, among others.

This will be by no means be a compliance or target driven exercise but to ensure that opportunities are created and taken up in much larger numbers by our persons living with Disabilities. I make a special plea to the people out there- and more so to those parents and families who have special needs children and family – to firstly accept that the child is different, but not less. I call on people to exercise greater tolerance and to not only recognise the rights of people with different disabilities, but also to celebrate and honour the achievements no matter how small.  I invite you to join us during this month in stating unequivocally with the disabled community, “Nothing about us, without us”.

 

Released by the Office of the Premier