Pretoria - While the march to the Union Buildings and music performances which took place on Thursday were intended to celebrate disability, many people living with disabilities face a daily struggle.
Moses Komane uses a wheelchair and says “We have to fight for employment, regardless of our level of education. Nobody is enforcing the 2% target for jobs taken by people with disabilities.”
Mobility is an issue for many people with disabilities, with the lack of access to public transport a common concern.
Johannes Matyemi broke both legs in a taxi accident in 1987 and has had limited mobility ever since. He says sometimes the taxi drivers don’t stop when they see him.
Lesedi Gobela has been a quadriplegic since a car crash in 2004. He says his employer does not make allowances for his disability.
“I am sitting all day and I get bedsores. I need time off in the day to deal with this, but I am still trying to arrange this with my employer.”
Deputy Minister for Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu has announced that the Gauteng provincial government was well on its way to becoming the first province to achieve the national target of employment equity for persons with disabilities.
Bogopane-Zulu announced this at the Union Buildings celebrations.
“The elusive 2% set by the Cabinet in 1996 to ensure a 2% employment equity for persons with disabilities seems to be closer for the Gauteng province.
“The provincial government has managed to improve from 0.25% in December 2013 to 1.6% by March this year,” she said.
Bogopane-Zulu said that even though her department was addressing the challenges faced by persons with disabilities, the biggest hurdle still remained the attitude of society towards such people.
“We do recognise the need to pick up the pace in making more of our infrastructure more easily accessible to persons with disabilities, but then you find that when they do get in those places people shy away from them (persons with disabilities) or don’t even greet them.
“It is that attitude that still needs to be changed in our communities,” she said.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura expressed delight at the improvements the Gauteng province had made in the past 18 months for the betterment of disabled people.
“We have done business worth R136million with entrepreneurs with disabilities which is a massive improvement on the R4.6m we did last year,” he said.
The Premier noted that “Persons with disabilities have a lot to offer the country. They have skills and talents to be drawn upon in numerous fields.
“They too fought in the Struggle and were exiled, so we recommit ourselves on this day to continue to re-double our efforts so we can reach the 2% target set.”
In attendance were the South African Disability Alliance alongside hundreds of persons living with disabilities who marched to the Union Buildings as well to deliver a memorandum to the stakeholders present to align legislation more speedily.
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