Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has admitted that provincial government departments are falling short of SA’s mandated 3% employment target for people with disabilities.
While some departments had met the requirement, others continued to lag.
He said it was an unacceptable situation that had to be addressed by identifying and developing potential among people with disabilities until more graduates entered the workforce.
Speaking on behalf of the disability sector, Disability, Economic, Empowerment Trust chief executive Thabiso Phethuka agreed that more needed to be done.
Both men were speaking at the provincial commemoration of the International Day for Persons with Disabilities in Gqeberha.
Wednesday’s session examined progress, challenges and outstanding commitments related to the implementation of a White Paper on the rights of people with disabilities, with a strong focus on strengthening accountability in the practical implementation of disability inclusion.
“We’re still having challenges of inaccessible public transport, inaccessible environments, such as your buildings that are not fully accessible,” Phethuka said.
“We still have kids who are subjected to special schools instead of inclusive schools, and we hope that today we will also pave the way forward on how to deal with universal accessibility going forward.”
He said civil servants posed a problem by not wanting to adjust their behaviour to accommodate disabled employees.
“They’re just used to how they do things. They don’t want to change.
“You know, we always say disability is a passion sector, so some people’s attitudes are based on what they know.
“They compartmentalise or think disability is a compound, marginalised sector, that if you see a person with a wheelchair, you think all disabled people or persons with disability are like that person.”
Speaking on the sidelines, Mabuyane used his own experience as a parent of a child with special needs.
He urged parents to pay close attention to their children and, should they see signs, to get them to doctors for tests.
“You must immediately look for help. Come to the government, come to the health centres to get the help that is necessary for the child.
“Sometimes, we sit with a situation where a parent wakes up when the child is 15 or 18, and indeed, it’s difficult to do anything about that.
“Well, these kids, they can do things, even if they are autistic.
“I’m saying that from my own personal experience with having a child on the spectrum.
“A situation like that needs parents to parent their kids.
“When you talk about inclusion, we talk about exactly that, that no child must be left outside, no child must be stranded.
“We don’t want street kids simply because parents couldn’t do what they were supposed to be doing when the child needed support.”
The Herald
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