‘Nothing about us, without us’

Officials from Witbank Correctional Centre attended the Disability Forum at the Govan Mbeki Municipality at Kinross.

The forum was held from November 8 till 9. The programme was planned for two days to ensure that issues of disability are clearly outlined and addressed.

The objective of the forum was to investigate the progress of the implementation of people with disabilities in government and stakeholder departments. Each department presented their status on the National Employment Equity on People With Disabilities and the challenges thereof.

Mr Dutoit Nkambule, manager in the office of the Status of Disabled People at Mpumalanga Province emphasised on the need to create an environment for disabled people.

“Departments must come up with programs to raise awareness on disability for every month of the year,” he said.

“Disability must not be addressed only during disability month.”

He added that although the minimum is two percent, some companies are reluctant to hire disabled people; they are comfortable paying the fine instead of transforming the workplace to accommodate people with disabilities.

It was discovered that most departments are not disability inclusive and they are not accessible. This poses a challenge for effective service delivery and limits employment opportunities for disabled people.

Cabinet requires each department to employ a minimum of two percent of disabled people but the presentations revealed that South Africa still has a long way to go.

Mr Patrick Mahlakwane, programme director, indicated that the misconception is that disabled people are born with disabilities; he said people often forget that anyone can become disabled any day due to the rife times that we live in.

He pointed out that many are involved in car accidents daily and become disabled at that instant. He reiterated that able bodied people need to refrain from making decisions on behalf of disabled people, ‘Nothing about us without us’.