DISABLED PEOPLE SOUTH AFRICA
D P S A
Pocket Guide On Disability Equity
AN EMPOWERMENT TOOL
In support of The Africa Decade Of Disabled Persons 1st of January 1999 - 31st of December 2009
Published by the DPSA Parliamentary Office
On behalf of DPSA
Please contact
The DPSA Parliamentary Office
for any Editorial Queries, or
Braille, Large Print, Electronic and Audio-Cassette Copies at
P O Box 15, Cape Town 8000 or (Room E489), New Wing, Parliament
Email: mpdp@worldonline.co.za
© Disabled People South Africa, December 2000.
1st Edition.
CONTENTS
Foreword by the DPSA Chairperson
How to use this Empowerment Tool
1. Disability Definitions, Models and Terminology
2. Disability, Discrimination and Poverty
3. The International Disability Rights Movement
4. The Role of the United Nations in Promoting Disability Equity
5. Organisations of and for Persons with Disabilities
6. The Africa Decade of Disabled Persons
7. The Disability Rights Movement in South Africa
8. The South African Disability Institutional Framework
9. Transformation through Self Representation
10. The South African Legislative Process
11. South African Disability Policy Framework
12. Networking/Contact List
>>Back to top
Foreword by the DPSA National Chairperson
Have you committed yourself to the building of One Nation where ALL South Africans are able to contribute to the reconstruction and development of our country?
Are you however not always sure how to approach the inclusion of people with disabilities in these activities?
Then this Pocket Guide was written for you, as it aims to provide you with information about disability as a human rights and development issue.
Who is Disabled People South Africa?
DPSA came about as a direct result of the double-discrimination disabled black South Africans were facing under the Apartheid regime, and was therefore part of the broader liberation struggle since the organisation was born. Our strategy of mobilising and organising people with disabilities during the 1980's and early '90's was therefore based on the concept of resistance against oppression - first and foremost against oppression on the basis of race, and secondly on the basis of disability.
This provided us with the opportunity to conduct a significant amount of political education among our membership, and thereby building a strong cadre of disabled activists. It also enabled us to mobilise among the masses of our people, and in particular among people with disabilities living in the deep rural and impoverished peri-urban townships of South Africa. We spent a lot of time and resources during this period to listen to the frustrations, aspirations and ideas of disabled people on the ground.
The first message we delivered in our negotiations with the ANC during the early '90's was about our right to speak for ourselves - that of self-representation. The second message we delivered was about integration and full participation, which linked to the ANC's message of nation building. The third message DPSA popularised was that human rights - and therefore advocacy - was predominantly a cross disability issue, and that service delivery was primarily a disability-specific issue.
This opened the door to deployment of disabled activists into key positions in government after the African National Congress came into power in 1994.
This in turn provided DPSA with the unique opportunity of providing leadership and guidance to the ANC-led government that would ultimately ensure that disability was approached from a human rights and development, rather than a welfarist approach.
DPSA's years of building a strong cadre of disabled activists were finally beginning to pay dividends, as the opportunities to deploy activists with different disabilities into strategic positions increased.
We subsequently managed to deploy, in consultation with the African National Congress-led government, disabled activists into, among others, the SA Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Gender Equality, the National Youth Commission, the South African Broadcasting Corporation Board, the Board of the National Development Agency, the Public Service Commission, the National Economic Development and Labour Council, and so the list goes on. DPSA is also continuing to advocate for the inclusion of a Deaf person on the Pan South African Language Board to strengthen the development of South African Sign Language as an official language. The majority of personnel in the Offices on the Status of Disabled Persons have come through the ranks of DPSA, providing an essential rights perspective within these offices. These deployed activists have different disabilities, ensuring that there is a constant sensitisation around the issues of specific disability groups.
The second term of the ANC in government saw 6-disabled ANC Members of Parliament, one disabled ANC member of the National Council of Provinces, and another 3 disabled ANC members of Provincial Legislatures taking the struggle forward. A conscious decision was once again taken to ensure that this group was constituted of people with different disabilities - 4 have visual disabilities, one is Deaf, and 5 have physical disabilities. The December Municipal Elections will herald in a new era in local government in South Africa. There is therefore an urgent need to place disability issues strategically at local government level.
Mayors of the six metropolitans will for example have similar powers than provincial premiers. DPSA is looking at not only gaining political power for our constituency, but also administrative power at local government level. Our successes to date have reconfirmed that people with disabilities cannot achieve transformation alone - disability discrimination is about the attitudes of leaders and society as a whole. We therefore need the support of ALL leaders and decision-makers at ALL levels to consciously focus on the eradication of all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities, and the promotion of a Society for All.
We believe that this Pocket Guide will assist you in carrying out this daunting task.
Forward Ever, Backward Never!
Louis Nzimande
DPSA National Chairperson
Member of Parliament November 2000.
How to use this Empowerment Tool
This Pocket Guide has been developed to assist public representatives, policymakers, service providers and leaders of people with disabilities with the promotion of the rights of people with disabilities as equal South African citizens by providing a 'one-stop' information tool on the international and national institutional and legislative contexts within which the disability rights movement operates.
Direct links have been created to key disability websites and documents that are available on the Internet. The reader can therefore either click on the link provided if working from a computer, or alternatively connect to the relevant document or website by referring to the website address contained in the Reference List at the end of each chapter. Some of the documents that are hyper linked have been saved in the Portable Document Format (.pdf). To view and print PDF files, you need to download and install the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe. The most current versions of the Acrobat Reader are downloadable from the Adobe WWW site (http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html) at no cost.
Printed copies of the relevant documents can also be obtained directly from the DPSA Parliamentary or Provincial Offices. Please refer to the Resource List in Chapter 11 for contact details. Readers requiring Braille, Large Print, electronic or Audio-cassette copies should contact the Parliamentary Office.
Readers are welcome to use the information contained in this pocket guide freely, providing that acknowledgment is given, where relevant, to the DPSA Pocket Guide as a general source, in addition to the specific article.
This Pocket Guide should be read in conjunction with the White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy.
1. Disability Definitions, Models and Terminology
Why the need to define disabled people?
People with disabilities have for some time now struggled with the issue of defining disability. Policy-makers and service providers are usually quick to point out not only the advantages, but in fact the necessity, of categorising disabled people into clearly defined groups for the purposes of service delivery, education, social security, employment equity etcetera. Experience over the years however taught people with disabilities that definitions tend to become mechanisms that are used to exclude and marginalize disabled people, rather than as enabling tools for positive action, development and social integration.
People with disabilities are the only oppressed group that has to be put through often intimidating and humiliating processes in order to identify who they are. Women and black people - both target groups for affirmative action as oppressed groups - are for example not required to go through a classification process to determine whether they indeed are black or female enough to qualify for positive measures.
Disabled Peoples' International (DPI), the international assembly of disabled persons, in one of their submissions to the WHO during the revision process of the ICIDH-2, noted that there would be no need to classify people with disabilities in a perfect world. The organisation however acknowledged that, for the purposes of statistics, assessment for services and programmes, and above all for non-discrimination legislation, there is indeed some need to have a definition of whom people with disabilities are and what the challenges and barriers are that they experience. DPI therefore reluctantly accepted that some sort of classification or analysis of disablement is necessary. But the crucial point for DPI was that any classification of people with disabilities or their situation must be made in the social context and not in the individual context.
What is Disability?
There are many definitions and descriptions of 'Impairment', 'Disability' and 'Handicap'. (Refer to the World Programme of Action) The World Health Organisation built on the definitions by developing the International Classification of Impairment, Disability and Handicap - the ICIDH - in the 1980's.
It is however important to note that the international disability rights movement never really accepted these definitions, as they were developed without consultation with people with disabilities themselves, and they did not sufficiently reflect the social context - in other words the attitudinal, physical and communication barriers - that prevented people with disabilities from participating as equal citizens. Some disabled peoples' organisations have attempted to develop a more acceptable definition of disability, for example:
'Disability is the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a society which takes little or no account of people who have impairments and thus excludes them from mainstream activity.' (British Council of Organisations of Disabled People)
The disabled community is that community that shares the same kinds of problems with access and opportunity that is more commonly found among those people's who have physical, cognitive, sensory or mental impairments. The primary purpose for bringing this group of citizens into a common block is to gain for this group of citizens that which is earned by all groups organized for the purpose of collective bargaining. (Source unknown)
The disability rights movement believe that it is the right of the individual to decide whether he/she is disabled or not. No one should therefore be 'forced' to relate or belong to the group of citizens commonly known as 'disabled'.
Different Approaches to Defining Disability
The definition and classification of disabled persons have gone through a number of changes over the centuries-
Biomedical definition
Disability is identified with illness or impairment in the biomedical approach, with most emphasis falling on 'curing' the disabled individual. If this fails, the person is removed from society.
Philanthropic definition
Disability is regarded as a tragedy or object of sympathy and charity. People with disabilities are therefore pitied, given handouts and 'cared for' in separate institutions.
Sociological definition
This approach defines disability as a form of human difference or deviation from the social norms of the acceptable levels of activity performance.
Economic definition
Disability is defined as a social cost caused both by extra resources that children and adults with disabilities require and by their limited productivity at work, relative to able-bodied people.
>>Back to top
The World Health Organisation developed a classification called the 'International Classification on Impairment, Disability and Handicap' (ICIDH) in the '80's, and is currently in a process revising this classification in a process called the ICIDH-2. People with disabilities, through their Organisations, however continue to raise concerns and reject these attempts to categorise them, as a resolution taken by the South African disability rights movement at the Disability Equity Seminar held in June 2000, illustrates.
Disability needs to be defined within context, rather than focusing on the inabilities of people that inadvertently leads to stigmatisation and categorisation.
The Integrated National Disability Strategy - the South African Government's official policy framework for disability equity - has therefore adopted a socio-political approach to disability, whereby disability is located in the social environment. This takes cognisance of disabled people's viewpoint that disability is a social construct and most of its effects are inflicted upon people with disabilities by their social environment. People with disabilities can therefore actively contribute to changing the social construct by fighting for improvements in their material and legal situation and, at the same time, taking pride in who they are and what they are fighting for, proudly identifying themselves with their human rights struggle.
Medical versus Social Model
Disabled people during the 1970's used their personal experience of disability and institutional life to show that it wasn't their impairments that caused the 'problem', but the way in which society failed to make any allowances for their differences and instead locked them away. This way of thinking about, analysing and discussing disability became known as 'The Social Model of Disability'.
Medical Model Approach
Traditional approaches say that the inability to carry out activities is caused by an impairment or impairments; for example, you are not mobile because you have a spinal injury. This understanding of disability is said to be a medical model of disability because the causes of disability are attributed only to medical conditions. A person therefore has a disability if she or he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term effect on her/his ability to carry out normal day to day activities if it affects one or more of the following: mobility, manual dexterity, physical coordination, continence, ability to lift or carry or otherwise move everyday objects, speech, hearing, eyesight (unless correctable by spectacles), memory or ability to concentrate or learn or understand, and perception of the risk of danger.
If impairment is used to account for disability, other concepts, for example 'discrimination', must also be used to address the fact that many people with impairments are not getting jobs and are prevented from participating in politics, social events and the life of the community in general. But, by saying that 'disability' (the inability to participate) is caused by impairments, implies that people with impairments will always be seen as being inferior, or second rate, or inherently flawed. In this way discrimination becomes something that is done to 'limited' people who cannot carry out 'normal' activities.
There are three unintended consequences that flow from using a medical model of disability-
· Because the medical model says that a person is disabled if her/his impairment has an effect on her/his "activities", it does not take into account the many social factors that may also have an effect on "day-to-day activities". For example, although impairment can have an adverse effect on a person's walking, other social factors, such as the design of transport systems, will also have an equal if not greater adverse effect on their mobility.
· The medical model puts a value judgment on activities. For example, by saying that it is "normal" to hear, speak or see, one is stating, by omission, that activities such as using Sign Language, text phones and Braille are abnormal. ü
· The medical model allows a spurious distinction to be made between those things that state, financial and industrial organisations will be held responsible for and those things that they will not be held responsible for. For example, such organisations will be responsible for individual prejudicial behaviour; or minor architectural barriers, or slight rigidities in job design. They will not be held responsible for, among others, the systematic exclusion of disabled people from mainstream education, the systematic undermining of disabled individuals in hospitals and residential homes, or the way in which social pressures drive some disabled people to commit suicide.
But perhaps the most serious indictment against the medical model is the disempowerment it creates in the person with a disability. There is a belief that the professional is the "expert", the controller of knowledge with the right and power to direct the situation. The disabled person is regarded as the client or patient, an inferior member of the "team" - if a member at all. The latter is considered a passive recipient of whatever service. Not only are disabled people deemed incapable of making decisions about their own lives, but also the hierarchical relationship itself perpetuates passivity, ignorance and inhibits participation in every aspect of their lives.
Social Model Approach
The social model is not limited by such a narrow description of activities. It takes the wider view that the ability to undertake such activities is dependent upon social intervention. It can show that the limitation of activity is not caused by impairments but is a consequence of social organisation - hence the phrase 'social model'.
The social model does not need a separate notion of discrimination because the model already focuses on those aspects of society that disable people - discrimination and disability become one and the same thing. For example, because an employer will not provide sufficient training and support for a person with learning difficulties the employer is discriminating against and disabling her or him.
In short, the social model says that a person is disabled if the world at large will not take into account their physical or mental differences.
Disabled people internationally are effectively coming together and challenging society, those in authority and professions in the related health care fields:
· To recognize that disability is not the major barrier for people with disabilities to living fulfilling lives.
· That the external or environmental barriers, including negative attitudes towards disability, are where disabled people's oppression lies.
· That people with disabilities too are "experts" in the field of disability, and that what is needed, is a democratisation of knowledge.
· That people with disabilities can identify needs, make decisions and evaluate services.
· That people with disabilities no longer accept the inferior, passive role of the recipient.
· That if they are to work in the field of disability the only relationship acceptable to disabled people is that of equal partners.
This undoubtedly demands a great deal of change in the relationship between professionals and people with disabilities, changes that have engendered enormous feelings of inadequacy and discomfort in able-bodied professionals.
People often talk of following a 'combined' medical-social approach to disability. It is clear from the above that this is not possible. The Social Model accepts that disabled people have medical conditions which may inhibit them and which may need medical treatment from time to time. But it goes on to argue that most of the day to day problems that disabled people face are caused by the fact that they live in a hostile, disabling world which is largely designed to suit able-bodied people. Using the social model, disabled people are able to identify the factors that cause oppression and discrimination, and which disable them, and can choose to work towards doing something about them. They can feel good about themselves when their lives are not going well. Disabled people can say 'it is not me or my body that is at fault, but the society around me'. By helping to draw attention to the barriers in society, the social model offers solutions that are wider than trying to change the person or curing the individual impairment. The disabled person ceases to be a tragic failure and can be seen as someone who is discriminated against by the way society is organised.
Preferred terminology
Language reflects the social context in which it is developed and used. It therefore reflects the values and attitudes of that context, and plays an important role in reinforcing values and attitudes that lead to discrimination and segregation of particular groups in society. Language can therefore be used as a powerful tool to facilitate change and bring about new values, attitudes and social integration.
People with disabilities are very vulnerable to the misuse of language and terminology where terminology has the effect of labelling people with disabilities, stereotyping them, discriminating against them, and ultimately creating a culture of non-acceptance of diversity.
Herewith a few examples of the preferred terminology as it relates to the English language. (With acknowledgement to Patricia Digh of RealWork Group)
· Although some disabled people prefer the terms 'physically challenged' or 'differently abled', these should not generally be used. The disability rights movement of South Africa accepts both the terms 'disabled person' and 'people with disabilities'.
· Avoid "suffers from," "afflicted with" or "victim of," all of which cast disabilities as a negative. "Suffers from" indicates ongoing pain and torment, which is no more the case for most people with disabilities as it is for most people without disabilities. "Afflicted with" denotes a disease, which most disabilities are not. "Victim of" implies that a crime is being committed on the person who has a disability.
· Do not use "wheelchair-bound" or "confined to a wheelchair." People see their wheelchairs as a convenient mode of transportation, not prisons, and the "bound/confined" phrase belies the fact that many people with motor disabilities engage in activities without their wheelchairs, including driving and sleeping. The proper phrase is "uses a wheelchair."
>>Back to top
· Use "disability" not "handicap." The word "handicap" derives from the phrase "cap in hand," referring to a beggar, and is despised by most people with disabilities. Other terms to avoid: "physically/mentally challenged" (who isn't?) "cripple" and "crippled."
· Use "able-bodied" or "people without disabilities." The terms "normal" and "whole" are inappropriate and inaccurate.
· Most disabilities are not a disease. Do not call a person with a disability a "patient" unless referring to a hospital setting. In an occupational and physical therapy context, "client" or "customer" is preferred.
· Some diseases, by legal definition, are considered disabilities. Victimization imagery ("AIDS victims") or defining the person by the disease ("she is a diabetic") is still inappropriate. Use "person with diabetes" or "people living with AIDS."
· People who consider themselves part of Deaf culture refer to themselves as "Deaf" with a capital "D." Because their culture derives from their language, they may be identified as you would other cultural entities, i.e. "Shangaan." Never use the terms Deaf-mute or Deaf and Dumb.
· Avoid "deformed," "deformity" and "birth defect." A person may be "born without arms" or "has a congenital disability," but is probably not defective.
· Use "person with Down syndrome." Avoid "Mongol" or "mongoloid." ü Avoid "mentally retarded," "insane," "slow learner," "learning disabled" and "brain damaged." Use person with an intellectual disability, or person with a psychiatric disability.
· Avoid "cerebral palsied" and "spastic." Use "person with cerebral palsy".
· Use "person with epilepsy" or "child with a seizure disorder." Avoid "epileptic," either as a noun or adjective.
· Avoid "dwarf" or "midget." Some groups prefer "little/short people," but it's best to use "person of short stature."
· Use "man with paraplegia" or "she has quadriplegia." Avoid "paraplegic" or "quadriplegic" as either a noun or adjective.
Negative and patronizing language produces negative and patronizing images. Words are important, so make sure your words do not offend or reinforce negative stereotypes.
Different types of disabilities
Physical Disability
Physical disability refers to damage to muscles, nerves, skin, or bones that leads to difficulties in moving about, in performing activities of daily living (such as dressing, eating, cleaning etcetera). It is often, but not always, associated with general weakness or long lasting or acute pain. Some examples of physical disabilities include
· Cerebral palsy - resulting from damage to the brain (often during birth) that causes muscle inco-ordination.
· Quadriplegia - a substantial loss of function in all four limbs.
· Paraplegia - a substantial loss of function in the lower part of the body.
· Hemiplegia - a substantial loss of function on one side of the body (arm and leg), often due to a stroke or as a result of epilepsy.
· Post-Polio Paralysis - weaknesses in some muscles, and under-development of some limbs.
People with physical disabilities experience different barriers that limit their participation in ordinary activities, for example, in the built environment, where steps might prevent a lawyer using a wheelchair from entering a court building, thereby preventing him from practising as a lawyer.
Assistive devices are very important tools that are used by people with physical disabilities to overcome barriers, for example wheelchairs, walking frames, crutches, orthotics and prosthetics (splints, callipers, special shoes and artificial limbs), communication devices such as communication boards and specialised computers, and adjustments to motor vehicles. People with severe physical disabilities in addition often require assistance in the form of personal assistants and/or service dogs to enable them to live independent lives.
Visual Disability
The loss of sight may be total or partial.
"Blind" refers to the total loss of eyesight. Blind persons might experience difficulty in moving around and knowing where things are, doing some activities of daily living, writing, reading and following visual signs or commands. The most important enabling mechanisms for people who are blind are (1) independence training (orientation and mobility skills training; (2) literacy training (learning to read and write using Braille), (3) assistive devices such as a white cane, Braille writing tools, specialised computers, (4) personal assistance in the form of guide dogs and/or personal assistants to assist with reading, driving etcetera, and (5) access to reading materials in Braille and/or audio-cassette.
"Low vision" or "visual disability" is more accurate for people who have some degree of sight, but who have for example a limited range of sight and focus that cannot easily be corrected with spectacles, who are squint (their eyes do not focus together), who need special lighting to be able to see, who have blurred vision (e.g. as a result of cataracts or brain injury), or who have tunnel vision. They usually require very specialised spectacles, Braille or large print, and other equipment to assist them to compensate for their low vision.
Hearing Disability
Hearing loss may be mild, severe or total. Children may be born Deaf, or people might become Deaf later in life (Deafened). Hearing loss usually results in difficulties in learning a spoken language, following verbal instructions, making friends in the neighbourhood, behavioural problems due to frustration, accidents because warning signs were not heard. The first language of Deaf South Africans is South African Sign Language, which may have different dialects depending on where the person lives.
Hearing aids can assist people who are hard of hearing to communicate easier with the hearing world. Interpreters are essential to break down communication barriers between the Deaf community and the hearing world.
Cochlear implants is a very controversial procedure within the Deaf community, as it touches the essence of the identity of a Deaf person. It is therefore important that Deaf persons and parents who are considering this procedure for their Deaf children receive sufficient information and counselling not only from service providers, but also from Deaf activists. (Contact the nearest DEAFSA office for more information on this).
Mental Disability
Mental disabilities include cognitive, psychiatric and learning disabilities as well as physical head trauma. Particular attention needs to be given to the right of people with mental disabilities to advocate for their own rights, and not to always be 'spoken for'.
Intellectual Disability
People with intellectual disabilities find it difficult to learn and retain new information, and often to adapt to new situations. Children with intellectual disabilities often develop slower than their peers and require additional support to develop. One example of intellectual disability is Down Syndrome. Augmentative and Alternative communication (AAC) strategies are essential communication tools for people with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities, and include special communication boards, adapted computers, etcetera.
Psychiatric Disability
People living with a psychiatric or mental illness (who often prefer calling themselves users and survivors of psychiatry) often experience difficulties in perceiving or interpreting reality, coping with some aspects of daily life, forming and maintaining relationships, coping with difficult feelings, fears and anxieties, or often see and hear things that do not exist.
Enabling mechanisms include medication, counselling and peer support, family support and personal assistance to enable the person with a chronic psychiatric disability to live independently in the community. It is important to realise that the medication taken to reduce symptoms often cause other symptoms which can then in turn present as further signs of mental illness. It is also important to note that not all psychiatric illnesses are of a chronic nature. But perhaps the most enabling mechanism for users of psychiatry is positive and non-discriminatory attitudes from society.
Multiple Disabilities
Multiple disability means having two or more of the disabilities already described, for example people who are Deaf-blind. Access to assistive devices, specialised equipment, personal assistance and interpreters/interveners are essential enabling mechanisms to enable people with multiple disabilities to live independently (including with their family) and participate fully.
Epilepsy
A seizure is an episode caused by a sudden disturbance in the brain. If seizures are recurrent, it is called a seizure disorder or epilepsy. Seizures are usually controlled with medication. Epilepsy per se is not a disability, but often causes physical and/or mental disabilities. People living with epilepsy can for example not obtain a driver's licence unless they have been free from any seizures for a period of three years.
Albinism
Albinism per se is also not a disability, although most people with albinism identify with other disabled people due to the nature of discrimination they experience. It is an inherited condition where a person is unable to produce normal colouring of the skin, hair and eyes (lack of pigment). People with albinism therefore have common features such as a very light and pale skin, white or sand-coloured hair and very light brown or blue eyes. The absence of pigmentation makes a person with albinism very sensitive to the sun.
People with albinism usually have a normal lifespan (they do not 'vanish' during their teens!) and normal intelligence, but often develop visual disabilities that impact on their levels of participation. The most enabling mechanisms for people with albinism are
(1) positive attitudes from peers and the community;
(2) assistive devices such as large print materials, spectacles, specialised equipment and
(3) protective clothing and medication such as creams that protect their skin against the sun.
References
Ahuja, 1989.
Role of Disabled Persons & Families in the Equalisation of Opportunities. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/Ahuja.html
D'Aubin.
Power to the people.
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools3a.html
Digh, 1999.
Misplaced modifiers: Respectful language improves accuracy.
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/digh.html
ENIL. Shaping Our Futures, an ENIL Conference on Independent Living, 1998. http://www.independentliving.org/ENIL/ENILfuture.html
Finkelstein.
To Deny or Not to Deny Disability - What is disability?
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/Finkelstein.html
Gill, 1999.
Facts About Disability and "Quality of Life".
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/quality.html
Handikapp=ombudsmannen
Conference on Legislation for Human Rights - Stockholm, Sweden, 1998
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/hr00.html
Hassan.
Disabled People and Attitudinal Barriers http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPersonsInterDevelop1.html#anchor2555386
Imparato, 1999.
Toward an Inclusive Definition of Disability.
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/imparato.html
Institute on Independent Living
Seminar on Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities from a North and South Perspective - Stockholm, Sverige, 1998. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/Sem0.html
Könkkölä .
Guide for making a disability program in your local community. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/advocacy/konkkol1.html
Könkkölä, 1998.
Disabled Peoples International (DPI): Perspective on Human Rights. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/Sem1.html
Leone, 1997.
Power, Control, Confidence, and Courage.
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/Leone97.html
McLaren, Philpott and Hlophe, 1996.
Do "assistive devices" really assist disabled people
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/AssistiveDev.html
Oliver, 1999.
Disabled people and the inclusive society
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/ideology/oliver.html
Osterwitz, 1994.
The Concept of Independent Living - a New Perspective in Rehabilitation. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/Osterwitz.html
Ratzka, 1992.
Towards an operational definition of Personal Assistance. http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools15.html
Ratzka.
Prerequisites for Independent Living.
http://www.independentliving.org/CIB/CIBSthlm2.html
SA Government.
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000.
http://www.gov.za/gazette/acts/2000/a4-00.pdf
SA Government.
White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/disability1.html
United Nations.
World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/diswpa00.htm
United Nations.
International Classification of Impairment, Disability and Handicap
Website. http://www.who.int/icidh
2. Disability, Discrimination and Poverty
Disability Discrimination
The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (2000) defines discrimination on the basis of disability as follows:
"Disability discrimination includes any act, practice or conduct which has the effect of unfairly hindering or precluding any person or persons who have or who are perceived to have disabilities from conducting their activities freely, and which undermines their sense of human dignity and self worth, and prevents their full and equal participation society."
'Unfair discrimination' on ground of disability, as defined in the Act, includes
· denying or removing from any person who has a disability, any supporting or enabling facility necessary for their functioning in society;
· contravening the code of practice or regulations of the South African Bureau of Standards that govern environmental accessibility;
· failing to eliminate obstacles that unfairly limit or restrict persons with disabilities from enjoying equal opportunities or failing to take steps to reasonably accommodate the needs of such persons.
Compounded Discrimination
It is important to recognise that people with disabilities are often subjected to discrimination not only because they are disabled, but also on the basis of gender, race or class.
Race Discrimination
There is no doubt that South Africans with disabilities who are black are more likely to experience discrimination and therefore less likely than their white counterparts to benefit from positive measures that have been taken to advance disabled South Africans. Some examples include:
· The legacy of the discrimination applied in resource allocation between former white and black special schools during the apartheid years, the differences in curriculum content between these institutions, and the lack of transformation in centres of learning generally - and in particular in former white schools - continue to marginalize black learners with disabilities. Very few of the former black special schools have - in 2000 - anything 'specialised' to offer in terms of equipment, specialised teaching or curriculum adaptation, school-to-work programmes, etcetera. Finding a white learner within these former black special schools, or finding a former white special school that have truly embraced cultural diversity is like finding a needle in a haystack.
· The unemployment rate among South Africans with disabilities is significantly higher than that of their able-bodied peers. The unemployment rate of black South Africans with disabilities is similarly significantly higher than that of white South Africans with disabilities.
· More white people with disabilities than black people with disabilities have benefited to date from the provisions of the Employment Equity Act, in particular in the private sector. The public sector's record is slightly better, with black people with disabilities receiving more equal opportunities under the new dispensation.
· Black people with disabilities are however more likely to be appointed in lower rank positions, irrespective of their abilities or potential, than their white counterparts.
· Many black South Africans who rebelled against the Apartheid system or who developed mental problems as a result of the consequences of apartheid, were certified by the courts and locked away in mental institutions, where many of them still reside in appalling conditions of malnutrition, physical and sexual abuse, in cases lack of adequate shelter, lack of proper medical care.
· Very few of the former Bantustans offered any specialised medical or even basic rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities, resulting black disabled people residing in these rural areas still not having equal access to appropriate health care and rehabilitation services.
The disability NGO sector itself has not been free from the problems of racism, and very little transformation has taken place within the service sector over the past four years. The legacy of racism manifests itself in various ways within the sector. Most service organisations (traditionally called welfare councils) have focused on providing services to white people with disabilities only. Although the majority of them have now extended their services to black people with disabilities,
· They have not transformed their approach to service delivery,
· They have not developed cultural and language-sensitive services,
· Their offices are still predominantly situated in former white suburbs that are not accessible by public transport,
· They have failed to transform the composition of their governance and management structures to reflect the population of South Africa.
· Their services still focus on handouts rather than empowerment, and there is still a tendency to focus on menial tasks and unprofitable activities such as basket-weaving, crocheting doilies etcetera for black disabled workers (often with no remuneration), and clerical work for white disabled workers (seldom without remuneration). The excuse used is that the white workers with disabilities have higher skills levels, yet black workers with disabilities that leave these workshops often start and manage their own businesses successfully, or find work in the open labour market!
· Their activities seldom focus on the prevention, monitoring and reporting of human rights violations, including racism.
Reference
Nkeli, 1998
How to overcome double discrimination of disabled people in South Africa. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/hr5.html
Gender Discrimination
While it is true that disabled women are women first, then disabled, their circumstances need to be contextualised. Disabled women are considered as childlike, helpless and victims by able-bodied women. The women's movement has as a result marginalised disabled women within the women's movement in an effort to advance a more powerful, competent and appealing female image, as they often believe that women with disabilities tend to reinforce traditional stereotypes of women being dependent, passive and needy!
· Disabled women are more likely to be poor or destitute
· Disabled women are more likely to receive less food
· Disabled women are more likely to be illiterate
· Disabled women have less chances of founding a family
· Disabled women are more likely to be without family or community support
· The stigma of disability and myths and fears are more likely to increase women's social isolation
Disabled women experience the same oppression as able-bodied women without necessarily receiving the admiration and looking-up-to that women traditionally receive as mothers, wives and persons who keep the domestic fires burning. Women often have to rely on their beauty and attributes such as youth and good looks to have some control over their lives. But to be disabled is not regarded as attractive, and disabled women therefore find themselves not even at the starting point to equal opportunities. They are therefore less likely to be considered for example for employment equity based on gender than their able-bodied peers.
>>Back to top
References
DAA.
Disability Awareness in Action Resource Kit on Disabled Women. http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit61.html
DAA.
Disabled Women - Disability Awareness in Action, 1996
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit61.html
Driedger, 1989.
Disabled Women Meet. http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPersonsInterDevelop1.html#anchor2574945
Lagadien, 1997.
Disabled Women and the Media - Presentation for National Women's Day. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/fadila97.html
Mathiason, M.S.
Lobbying for Women with Disabilities.
http://www.worldenable.net/women/lobbying.htm
Mathiason, M.S.
Women with Disabilities: Lessons of Reinforcing the Gender Perspective in International Norms and Standards. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/women/wwdis0.htm
Nakanishi.
Development and Self-Help Movement of Women with Disabilities. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/Nakanishi.html
Traustadottir, 1990.
Obstacles to Equality: The Double Discrimination of Women with Disabilities. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/chp/womprt1.htm
Traustadottir, 1997
Women with Disabilities: Issues, Resources, Connections Revised. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/wpreface.htm
Traustadottir, 1997.
Teaching Others: Resources on Women with Disabilities http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/chp/update3.htm
Traustadottir, 1997.
Women with Disabilities:
World Wide Web Pages. http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/chp/update5.htm
UNESCAP
HIDDEN SISTERS: Women and Girls with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region http://www.unescap.org/decade/wwd.txt
United Nations.
Beijing + 5, A Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, 2000 http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/women/beijing5.htm
United Nations.
Issues in gender-sensitive and disability-responsive policy research, training and action. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disrppeg.htm
United Nations.
UN Report on the Seminar on Women with Disabilities, Vienna, 1990. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/women/wwdsem0.htm
>>Back to top
Disability and Poverty
People with disabilities are faced with a unique set of inter-connected barriers to economic self-reliance. These include, most importantly, fears, myths and stereotypes about the inabilities of disabled people that compound the lack of access to routine supports and resources of daily life available to able-bodied people. People with disabilities tend to lack influence, information, power, resources, access and fulfilment of basic needs more than other people. Others tend to take decisions about the lives of people with disabilities and decide even very basic things for them. Poor people tend to become disabled because of their living conditions. This makes them even poorer. They do not eat enough food or well-balanced food, they live in unhealthy houses or shelters, and they are more exposed to violence.
The consequence is that disabled people are oppressed and discriminated against in all aspects of life, resulting in shorter life-spans, poverty and dependence, and society does not realise it fullest possible return on its socio-economic investment in disabled people.
Many change agents, despite having identified the need to target people with disabilities, do not realize the need for systematic efforts to prepare disabled persons adequately for participation in skills development and other poverty alleviation programmes. Mere enrolment of disabled persons in those programmes often results in failure. Such failure, due to lack of adequate preparation, further reinforces negative stereotyping of disabled persons.
Poverty levels among people with disabilities - even in the more urban areas of the province - have remained unacceptably high compared to the average population. This has mainly been due to
· Uncoordinated implementation of poverty alleviation programmes in the past;
· Poverty alleviation programmes failing to specifically identify disabled persons as a target group, resulting in total or partial exclusion of people with disabilities;
· People with disabilities, where they have been explicitly targeted for poverty alleviation, still face tremendous difficulties in being recognized as a group with entitlements, and a group whose needs should be addressed on their terms, and not on terms dictated by others. This means, inter alia, that the physical and information arrangements related to rural poverty alleviation in particular are still not conducive to the freedom of movement and communication by disabled persons.
References
SA Gov.
Poverty and Inequality in South Africa.
Report prepared for the Office of the Executive Deputy President and the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Poverty and Inequality:
Summary Report, 1998.
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/reports/poverty.html
Statistics SA
Measuring poverty in South Africa. 2000
http://www.css.gov.za
UNESCAP.
Field Study-cum-Regional Seminar on Poverty Alleviation among Rural Persons with Disabilities: Report.
National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, India. 1999
http://www.unescap.org/decade/hydpovdisrpt.htm
>>Back to top
3.The International Disability Rights Movement
For us to understand the current approach to disability, we need to understand how and why the disability rights movement was formed. Disabled people were traditionally seen as poor helpless cripples, blind beggars, dumb idiots standing on street corners, as outcasts in the family and in society, and as objects of pity and charity in constant need of "curing and caring". The Second World War in particular resulted in tremendous high numbers of people becoming disabled in a very short space of time. The science of medicine was by now sophisticated enough to keep many of those injured alive. This led to a new industry emerging - that of rehabilitation and welfare that focused on building on the remaining strengths of these newly disabled people and teaching them new, compensatory skills. Welfare workers, doctors, nurses and therapists were now sharing the responsibility for the lives of disabled people.
The late sixties saw a whole generation of young adults who had, through the advance of medical technology in the late forties and fifties, been saved from dying from diseases such as polio, or from war injuries sustained in the Vietnam War that resulting in permanent disability. This period saw the emergence of the charity/welfare Organisations, where concerned members of society came together into Organisations that took on the responsibility of "looking after" these "helpless" people. It is at this point that the idea of institutions developed to house, "educate" and "employ" these misfits in society. While there is no doubt that a place which offers food, beds, some sort of activity and safety to people who have never had any, is a great advancement, they were nevertheless "dumping grounds" which served to get and keep the problem out of sight.
This happened at a time when people of colour, students, women and gay people were rising up in different liberation movements to fight for their rights as equal citizens in society. Issues such as consumer rights, self-help, de-medicalisation, de-institutionalisation, equal accessibility to education, employment and public facilities all had particular relevance to people with disabilities who had mostly been excluded from the society in which they belonged. Disabled activists across the USA, UK, Europe and Scandinavia in particular, united in the late 1960's and 1970's as an oppressed group by identifying the areas and context of their own oppression and discrimination. They soon began identifying with other oppressed groups and developed strategies to fight their own oppression from these groups. Disabled people began to realize that oppression was similar regardless of the disability and that their strength lay in a united force against a society that discriminated against them because they dared challenge the myth of the "normal healthy body."
By the early 1980's people with disabilities around the world have gotten together to identify issues and strategies to fight for equal opportunities and the right to speak for themselves and to take control decisions that impact on their lives. This, among others, led to the birth of Disabled Peoples' International after a walkout by people with disabilities at the World Congress of Rehabilitation International in 1980 when disabled people were denied a 50/50 partnership with rehabilitation professionals in decision-making structures of Rehabilitation International. The international disability rights movement had finally come of age.
References
Driedger, D.
Disabled People in International Development.
COPOH. Winnipeg, Canada 1991
http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPeopleinDev.pdf
Jagoe, K.
The Disability Rights Movement: its development in South Africa http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools6.html
Ratzka, 1998.
"Crip Utopia"
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/CripUtopia.html
4.The Role of the United Nations in Promoting Disability Equity
The United Nations has a long history in promoting the rights of people with disabilities. The UN focused predominantly on disability prevention and the rehabilitation of disabled persons during the 1940s to 1960s. The UN initiatives in the 1970s embraced the growing international concept of human rights of persons with disabilities and Equalisation of opportunities for them.
The 1970's saw a shift towards the promotion of human rights of persons with disabilities. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons and the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons during this period. These Declarations were however not drafted in partnership with people with disabilities, and international DPO's therefore do not recognise the "Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons" in particular.
1981 was the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). It called for a plan of action at the national, regional and international levels, with an emphasis on Equalisation of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities.
A major outcome of the International Year of Disabled Persons was the formulation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by the General Assembly in December 1982. The purpose of the WPA is to ".promote effective measures for prevention of disability, rehabilitation and the realisation of the goals of 'full participation' of persons with disabilities in social life and development and of 'equality'. This means opportunities equal to those of the whole population and an equal share in the improvement in living conditions resulting from social and economic development." The WPA focuses predominantly on the prevention of disability, the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and the equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities by providing an analysis of principles, concepts and definitions relating to disability, an overview of the world situation regarding persons with disabilities, as well as recommendations for action at national, regional and international levels.
The General Assembly proclaimed 1983-1992 as the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons in order to provide a time frame during which Governments and Organisations could implement the activities recommended in the World Programme of Action.
Marking the end of the Decade of Disabled Persons, the General Assembly proclaimed 3 December as the International Day of Disabled Persons, as this was the date on which the General Assembly's adoption of the World Programme of Action in 1982. The Decade did not result in a marked difference in the quality of life of the majority of disabled persons worldwide.
Perhaps its most important outcome was the adoption of the Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities by the General Assembly in 1993. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as the World Programme of Action constitute the political and moral foundation for the Standard Rules. The Standard Rules re-affirm the concepts and scope of the WPA, and recognize the necessity of addressing both individual needs as well as the shortcomings of society. They also re-affirm the responsibility of Governments to address disability and further emphasize the need for Organisations of disabled persons to play a leading role in the process as full partners in the process of developing policies, legislation and programmes. The 22 Standard Rules are divided into 4 chapters on
(1) Preconditions for Equal Participation;
(2) Target Areas for Equal Participation;
(3) Implementation Measures; and
(4) Monitoring Mechanisms.
So although the Standard Rules are not binding on any government, they do provide an extremely useful tool for disability equity to governments, international agencies and Organisations of and for persons with disabilities.
The new human rights approach to disability as promoted by the World Programme of Action and the Standard Rules was significantly boosted by the adoption of Resolution 98/31 of the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1998, in which the Commission ".recognizes that any violation of the fundamental principle of equality and any discrimination or other negative differential treatment of persons with disabilities inconsistent with the UN Standard Rules.is an infringement of the human rights of persons with disabilities." The Standard Rules had with this resolution become the evaluative tool and a yardstick for the assessment of the situation of disabled persons from a human rights perspective.
Mr. Bengt Lindqvist has been designated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development since 1994. His duties are to assist in the monitoring of the implementation of the Standard Rules. He does this by dividing his time between advisory functions and establishing a dialogue with Governments and non-governmental Organisations to further the implementation of the Standard Rules. The Special Rapporteur works closely with a Panel of Experts that is composed of representatives of international Organisations of persons with disabilities, Rehabilitation International, as well as with the United Nations Secretariat.
The Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Secretariat in New York is the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability. The Division's programme on Disabled Persons deals with promotion, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the World Programme of Action and the Standard Rules. In addition it;
· prepares publications and acts as a clearing-house for information on disability issues;
· promotes national, regional and international programmes and activities;
· provides support to Governments and non-governmental Organisations;
· gives substantial support to technical co-operation projects and activities;
· organizes or collaborates in international expert meetings on disability matters.
The Division has published a Compilation Of International Norms And Standards Relating To Disability, which provides Governments, intergovernmental organisations, the academic community, non-governmental organisations and civil society with a set of international norms and standards that can be cited - or applied as appropriate - in measures to promote full participation of persons with disabilities in social life and development on the basis of equality. The Compilation also provides strategic guidance on the normative and substantive aspects of strategies, policies, programmes and legislation to further equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities.
United Nations specialized agencies furthermore contribute to improvement in the status of people with disabilities through specific programmes and initiatives:
· the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) promote measures that will increase access by learners with disabilities to quality education through special needs education.
· the World Health Organisation (WHO) provides technical assistance in health, rehabilitation and prevention;
· the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) supports childhood disability programmes and provides technical assistance;
· the International Labour Organisation (ILO) promotes measures that will improve access to the labour market and increase economic integration through international labour standards and technical cooperation activities.
The full text of all United Nations Disability-Related Resolutions can be found at http://www.unescap.org/decade/resolutions1.htm
>>Back to top
References
ILO, 1983.
Convention concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/UN/ILOconv.html
ILO, 1983.
Recommendation concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/UN/ILOconv2.html
Scott Campbell Brown.
Programme Monitoring and Evaluation; The Disability Perspective in the Context of Development. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/monitor/
United Nations.
Compilation Of International Norms And Standards Relating To Disability http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/discom00.htm
United Nations.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/e1cedaw.htm
United Nations.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
United Nations.
Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development - Commitments
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/UN/wssdco-4.html
United Nations.
Decade of Disabled Persons
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disunddp.htm
United Nations.
Declaration of Mentally Retarded Persons
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/m_mental.htm
United Nations.
Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/72.htm
United Nations.
Division for Social Policy and Development
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/index.html
United Nations.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm
United Nations.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
United Nations.
Monitoring the implementation of the Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/dismsre0.htm
United Nations.
Overview of International Legal Frameworks for Disability Legislation, 1998 http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/UN/overview.html
United Nations.
Reports about compliance with the United Nations Standard Rules by country.
NGOs include Disabled People International (DPI); World Blind Union (WBU); World Federation of the Deaf (WFD); Inclusion International; Rehabilitation International (RI) http://www.independentliving.org/STANDARDRULES/countryrpts.html
United Nations
Resolution 98/31 of the UN Commission on Human Rights http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.RES.1998.31.En?Opendocument
United Nations.
Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/dissre00.htm
United Nations.
Tallinn Guidelines, 1989
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/TallinnGuidelines.html#anchor1
United Nations.
The United Nations and Disabled Persons: A Chronology
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/dis50y00.htm
United Nations.
Towards a society for all: Implementation of World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons to the Year 2000 and Beyond
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/UN/WPAD2000.html
United Nations.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm
United Nations.
World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/diswpa00.htm
Websites
Asia-Pacific Website
http://www.unescap.org/decade/index.htm
International Day of Disabled Persons
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disid99.htm
International Labour Organisation
Website http://www.ilo.org
International Year of Disabled Persons
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disid99.htm
UNESCO Special Needs Education
Website http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/sne/publications.html
United Nations International Children's Fund
Website http://unicef.org
United Nations
Website http://www.un.org
United Nations Disability
Website http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable
World Health Organisation
Website http://www.who.org
Independent Living Organisation
http://www.independentliving.org
5. Organisations of and for Persons with Disabilities
It is important to distinguish between organisations of and organisations for persons with disabilities, as this illustrates a shift in power over decision-making away from well-meaning community members and service providers to people with disabilities themselves.
· Organisations of disabled persons (DPO's) are controlled by people with disabilities themselves. This simply means that the constitution of a DPO protects disabled members' decision-making powers by ensuring that at least people with disabilities constitute 2/3 of the executive committee, and that all office-bearers are disabled
· Organisations for disabled persons in contrast are usually controlled by concerned community members and service-providers, with little or no active participation in decision-making by people with disabilities when it comes to setting priorities, the ethos of service delivery, etcetera.
Organisations of Disabled Persons (DPO's)
Disabled Peoples' International (DPI)
Website: http://www.dpi.org
DPI was founded, as already indicated, in 1983 after disabled activists walked out of the World Congress of Rehabilitation International to illustrate disabled people's anger and frustration in being side-lined in issues affecting them. Its aim is to promote the human rights of people with disabilities through full participation, Equalisation of opportunity and development. DPI is a grassroots, cross-disability network with member Organisations in over 158 countries, over half of which are in the developing world. The main functions of DPI are Development, Human Rights, Communications, Advocacy and Public Education. DPI is administered through the headquarters in Winnipeg Canada and through eight Regional Development Offices. DPI has consultative status with the ECOSOC, UNESCO and the ILO, and has official observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.
The Pan African Federation of the Disabled (PAFOD) represents the Africa Region of DPI. PAFOD is also the NGO sector's coordinating body for the Africa Decade of Disabled Persons and can be contacted at pafod@telconet.co.zw. Five sub-regions of PAFOD have been formed- Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD)
· East Africa Federation of the Disabled (EAFOD)
· West Africa Federation of the Disabled (WAFOD)
· North Africa Federation of the Disabled (NAFOD)
· Central Africa Federation of the Disabled (CAFOD)
SAFOD is by far the strongest sub-region and is constituted by disability federations of all the SADC countries. National disability federations are formed by all DPO's (including cross disability and disability-specific DPO's) that come together to form a national federation. South Africa is however an exception due to its apartheid legacy. (Refer to the Chapter on the South African disability sector)
SAFOD publishes Disability Frontline as well as Disability Dialogue for Africa (formerly known as the CBR News), and can be contacted at safod@telconet.co.zw
Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) is the South African affiliate of SAFOD, PAFOD and DPI.
World Blind Union (WBU)
Website: http://umc.once.es/index.htm
The World Blind Union (WBU) was formed in 1984 and is the international voice of over 50-million blind and visually impaired people. It has member organisations in virtually every country of the world. These members have their own regional groups for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific. The WBU focuses on securing equality of opportunity and full participation in society of people with visual disabilities through cooperation in education, rehabilitation and literacy programmes.
The African Union of the Blind (AFUB) represents organisations of and for persons with visual disabilities in Africa, and can be contacted at afub@form-net.com
The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) is the South African affiliate of the WBU and AFUB.
World Federation of the Deaf (WFD)
Website: http://www.wfdnews.org
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) was established in Rome, Italy, in 1951, and is the international non-governmental organisation representing Deaf people worldwide. A non-profit organisation, WFD works for human rights and equal opportunity for Deaf people everywhere by promoting the right of Deaf people to use Sign Language to access education, information and all other spheres of life. Membership comprises national organisations of Deaf people in 120 countries; as well as associate, international and individual members. WFD has 7 Regional Secretariats and 1 Co-operating Partner in various regions throughout the world.
There is no continental body representing organisations of the Deaf in Africa, but the WFD supports some regional programmes in Africa. A Regional Secretariat of Eastern and Southern Africa (RSESA) coordinates regional activities and programmes in Eastern and Southern Africa.
The Deaf Federation of South Africa (DEAFSA) is the South African affiliate of RSESA and WFD.
Inclusion International (II)
Inclusion International was formerly known as the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap. The organisation promotes and protects the rights and interests of people with intellectual disability, their families and their organisations by co-ordinating a wide range of activities across the world. It provides responses to political initiatives at UN and regional level as well as expertise in areas of relevance to people with intellectual disability. Mainly parents of people with intellectual disability control the organisation. Self-representation by people with intellectual disabilities is encouraged. For more information contact the Secretariat at nclus@club-internet.fr
Organisations for people with intellectual disabilities in French-speaking countries in Africa have formed FEPAPHAM, which in turn is affiliated to Inclusion International. Parents organisations and organisations for people with intellectual disabilities in English-speaking countries in Africa have formed the Parents Mobilisation Resource Group, which in turn is affiliated to Inclusion International.
The Disabled Children's Action Group (DICAG) is the South African affiliate of Inclusion International.
World Federation of Deaf-blind Persons (WFDB)
The WFDB is an emerging world federation that promotes the rights of Deaf-blind persons by advocating for appropriate and accessible service delivery and the formation of national organisations of Deaf-blind persons. For more information, contact Stig Ohlsson at Stig.Ohlson@tp44.frukt.org
Deaf-blind South Africa (DbSA) is the South African affiliate of WFDB and can be reached at dbsa@lando.co.za
World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP)
The WNUSP is an emerging network of people who make use of psychiatric services. The network advocates for the rights of people with psychiatric disabilities across the world, as this is perhaps the group of disabled persons most vulnerable to human rights violations and exclusion. For more information, contact Mary o'Hagan at mohagan@ ihug.co.nz
International Disability Alliance (IDA)
IDA was formed in 1999 when the six major international disabled peoples' organisations came together to form an alliance that aims to strengthen the voice of disabled people in world politics and the international disability arena and to develop joint strategies and inclusive positions on common issues that affect all persons with disabilities by strengthening existing international networks within which the international disability rights organisations actively participate.
Independent Living Movement
Disabled activists who are concerned with the provision of services to disabled individuals in order to make them truly independent formed the Independent Living Movement. So whilst the disability rights movement focuses on political and legal action to break down barriers, the independent living movement focuses on advocating for tariff reductions, improved services etcetera.
Organisations for Disabled Persons
Rehabilitation International (RI)
Website: http://www.rehab-international.org
Rehabilitation International is a federation of national and international Organisations and agencies working for the prevention of disability, the rehabilitation of people with disabilities and the Equalisation of opportunities within society on behalf of persons with disabilities and their families throughout the world. It is therefore a federation of service organisations and providers.
The National Council for People with Physical Disabilities (NCPPD) is the South African Affiliate of RI.
African Rehabilitation Institute (ARI)
ARI was established by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as the OAU's disability programme, focusing mainly on rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. It is as such the coordinating body of the Africa Decade of Disabled Persons for the OAU, and therefore governments in Africa.
References
Driedger, 1987
Disabled Peoples' International in International Development, http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPersonsInterDevelop3.html#anchor2601143
Dube, 1990
What Do We Mean by Development?
http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPersonsInterDevelop2.html#anchor2588890
Enns
The Role of Organisations of Disabled People: A DPI Discussion Paper,
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/RoleofOrgDisPeople.html
Könkkölä, K
et al Toolbox.
A guide for making a disability program in your local community http://www.independentliving.org/Library/content2.html
Pfeiffer, 1988
Divisions in the disability community,
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools3b.html
Ratzka, 1997
Independent Living and Our Organisations: A Definition,
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools7.html
UNESCAP
Management Of Self-Help Organisations Of People With Disabilities
http://www.unescap.org/decade/publications/z15006mg/z1500601.htm
Resource Kits:
Disability Awareness in Action Resource Kit on Fund-Raising
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit51.html
Disability Awareness in Action Resource Kit: Consultation and Influence
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit21.html
Disability Awareness in Action, Disability issues: Organizing Community Support
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools13a.html
Disability Awareness in Action, Resource Kit on Campaigns
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit31.html
Disability Awareness in Action, Resource Kit on Media Information
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit1.html
Disability Awareness in Action, Resource Kit on Organisation Building
http://www.independentliving.org/DAA/DAAKit41.html
6. The Africa Decade of Disabled Persons
The United Nations declared 2000-2100 as the African Century. This has brought new hope to disabled people on the continent, as the focus on the prevention of wars and conflict on the continent, on the search for a new morality, on an affirmation of African culture, and renewed efforts for economic renewal as central themes of the African Century, also form integral themes of the UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
Disabled people organisations (DPO's) in Africa started mobilising for an Africa Decade of Disabled Persons after the 5th DPI World Assembly in December 1998, at their Africa meeting, adopted the idea of a Decade. The six major international organisations of disabled people IDPO's), namely: Disabled Peoples' International, Inclusion International, World Federation of the Deaf, African Union of the Blind a WBU affiliate), the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, and the World Federation of Deaf-blind Persons, gave their unwavering support to the Declaration of an African Decade for Disabled People at their meeting held in January 1999 in Cape Town, South Africa.
These calls followed the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons between 1983-1992, and the Asia-Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons declared from 1993 - 2002 by the Governments in the Asia-Pacific.
The 70th Session of the Council of Ministers and the 35th Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) subsequently declared 03 December 1999 - 03 December 2009 the Decade of Disabled Persons in Africa, with the following objectives, among others:
· Strengthening the African voice of disabled people;
· Putting disability on the social, economic and political agendas of African governments;
· Spearheading the implementation of the United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for People with Disabilities; leading to the adoption of a Convention on Disabled People by the OAU member states;
· The application of UN Instruments on the Declaration of Human Rights;
· Address of issues pertaining to children, youths and women with disabilities;
· To use UN Standard Rules as basis for policy and legislation to protect the interests of disabled people in Africa.
President Mbeki launched the South African Chapter of the Decade on 05 December 1999 during the SA Federal Council on Disability National Conference in Johannesburg.
The fact that the Africa Decade of Disabled Persons kick-starts the African Century is of particular importance, as this will provide governments, the private sector, the international community, society at large and organisations of people with disabilities in particular, with an ideal opportunity to ensure that barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating equally in the development of their communities, are addressed right from the start of the African Century.
People with disabilities will therefore be able to equally participate in the moral and economic renewal of Africa, and of benefiting from debt relief, expanding international markets and by ensuring that the strengthening of Africa's infrastructure is barrier-free. We as Africans will be able to determine what these barriers are, and how best to remove them within the contexts within which we live.
It is important to remember that the Africa Decade is not about South Africa per se. It is about Africa. There is therefore a need to relate national issues to its relevance and impact on Africa by looking beyond national issues only and trying to find solutions within a broader perspective.
The South African theme for the Africa Decade has been confirmed as 'Disability Renaissance - from Poverty to Social, Economic and Political Empowerment in Africa'.
The Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP) in the Presidency and DPSA has formed a joint working group to plan (provide direction), co-ordinate and monitor the implementation of the Decade in SA. The SAFCD will play a proactive role in disseminating information to, and fostering communication between disability organisations in South Africa.
References
Majiet, 1998
Human Rights from Disabled Peoples' Perspective in Africa.
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/Sem3.html
Silwimba
Possibilities of Independent Living of persons with disabilities in Africa,
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools5.html
Asia-Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons website:
http://www.unescap.org/decade
7. The Disability Rights Movement in South Africa
The foundation of the disability rights movement in South Africa was laid in 1981, which was designated by the United Nations as International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). While the South African Government chose not to recognize this year, disabled activists in South Africa came together to discuss their oppression and marginalisation.
These activists had learnt from the international experience of the previous year, and had realised that the welfare sector had in fact weakened groups formed by people with disabilities by splitting people with disabilities into different disability groups - supposedly to deal more effectively with specific problems - as it created division among people with disabilities. They realised that, regardless of whether they were blind or used a wheelchair, their strongest handicap was society's view of people with disabilities.
They also realised that oppression and discrimination is a human rights violation, irrespective of whether the discrimination takes place on the basis of race, gender, class, religion or disability. This was particularly true in a country which was torn apart by systemic racism through the apartheid system. A large number of South Africans were disabled as a direct result of the liberation struggle, either as a result of the armed struggle, as a result of the brutality of the security forces, or through poverty created by the apartheid system.
Oppressed people therefore share a common goal towards the eradication of discrimination and the creation of a just society, and the only way of effectively challenging this and changing people with disabilities' destiny was to form a united front first and foremost as people with disabilities, and secondly as part of the broader liberation struggle of South Africa.
People with disabilities therefore started organising themselves into local organisations of disabled persons or self help groups. One of the most well known of these self-help groups was the Self Help Association of Paraplegics in Soweto - better known as SHAP. Its founder member, the late Friday Mavuso, was the first black person with a disability in South Africa to sue a Minister of Police for his injuries. This resulted in him becoming almost a cult figure in the townships and an inspiration to people with disabilities way beyond the borders of South Africa.
These self-help groups, together with some individual disabled activists, came together in 1984 to formally constitute Disabled People South Africa.
A question that obviously confronted the disability rights movement at the time was how to legally confront discrimination against people with disabilities in a country that did not recognize the equal rights of all people. It was therefore logical for Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) to join the National Democratic Revolution in the form of the Patriotic Front during the Apartheid years.
DPSA as a result became the only South African disability organisation with international recognition as a legitimate and democratic organisation representing disabled South Africans. It was therefore admitted as a full member of the Southern African Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) in the mid-eighties, even though it did not constitute a federation of different national organisations of disabled persons as such.
The disability rights movement, initially active mainly in urban areas, moved into the vast rural areas and former Bantustans of South Africa in the late eighties and early nineties with the assistance of the Rural Disability Action Group (RURACT). RURACT was formed by disabled activists and service providers working in rural areas that mobilised and organised for improved service-delivery, education and poverty alleviation in the deep rural areas of South Africa. The RURACT programme was suspended with the opening of DPSA's regional offices and the opening of the Disability Programme in the RDP Ministry (the fore-runner to the OSDP).
References
D'Aubin, 1991
Soweto's Self-Help Factory: An Empowerment Lesson. http://www.independentliving.org/DisabilityandDevelopment/DisPersonsInterDevelop3.html#anchor2597442
DuToit, M.
Self Help Association of Paraplegics, SHAP, Republic of South Africa.
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools31.html
Jagoe
The Disability Rights Movement - its development in South Africa.
http://www.independentliving.org/ToolsforPower/Tools6.html#anchor427066
Nkeli, 1998
Human Rights Commissioner reflects on achievements obtained by people with disabilities,
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/HumanRightsConf/Sem5.html
Lawyers for Human Rights, 1992
Disability Rights Charter of SA
http://www.womensnet.org.za/humanrights/discharter.html
8. The South African Disability Institutional Framework
Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)
DPSA is recognised as the democratic cross-disability umbrella body of organisations of people with disabilities in South Africa. The organisation has as such always strived to unite South Africans with disabilities across race, gender, language, religious and class boundaries.
Mission
To be an effective and efficient democratic national assembly of all persons with disabilities, which mobilises us to advocate for our rights for the attainment of equal opportunity in an integrated social, political and economic environment.
Objectives
· To organise, mobilise and empower people with disabilities so that they can champion their own development, fight injustice and society's discrimination, thus creating conditions for increased unity of purpose, interdependency, and a reinforced spirit of self-help.
· To build a strong national movement of people with disabilities by strengthening our organisational structures at local, provincial and national level through leadership training, organisational development and the transfer of skills.
· To advocate for the rights of people with disabilities by contributing to the development and monitoring of an enabling legislative framework that will strengthen the building of a just society where citizens with disabilities enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as their able-bodied peers.
Membership and Structure
DPSA is made up of more than 150 organisations across the country, the majority of which are local self help initiatives by people with different disabilities in rural areas and peri-urban townships, but also including a number of national organisations of disabled people.
Affiliated organisations with full membership (organisations who qualify as organisations of disabled persons) come together at district level to form District Development Teams, and/or at provincial level to form Provincial Development Teams (PDT's). Provincial Executive Committees are responsible for the monitoring of delivery at provincial level. Coordination of provincial activities take place from the nine provincial offices, staffed by the Provincial Development Coordinator and his/her support staff. (Refer to the Resource List for contact details)
The chairperson and deputy chairperson of each of the nine PDT's form the DPSA National Council. Council has the prerogative to co-opt additional members to facilitate cross-disability representation and skills diversity.
The National Executive Committee is elected by Council and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the organisation, supported by the Secretary General and his/her Deputy, national programme staff as well as Provincial Development Coordinators (PDC's). The Head Office is in East London and can be contacted at sg@dpsa.org.za
>>Back to top
Programmes
DPSA operates the following national programmes:
· The Membership and Policy Development Programme (MPDP) promotes the participation of people with disabilities in the process of policy development at national and provincial levels by advocating for the adoption by Government of policies that promote and protect the rights of disabled persons through social, economical and political empowerment. The Parliamentary Office is responsible for coordination of the MPDP and can be contacted at mpdp@dpsa.org.za
· The Disabled Women's Development Programme (DWDP) enables women with disabilities to be at the forefront of their own development. Recognising the additional disadvantage experienced by disabled women, this programme seeks to promote the participation of disabled women in the national movement for gender equality, and facilitates the acquisition of leadership and other essential skills for self help development of disabled women.
· The Disabled Youth South Africa (DYSA) was formed in 1998 and strives to promote the empowerment of disabled youth. A National Committee overseas the planning and implementation of activities at national and provincial level.
· The Economic Empowerment Think Tank was established to develop, monitor and support sustainable socio-economic opportunities for persons with disabilities. Activities include research to provide critical qualitative and quantitative analysis that will assist persons with disabilities, the business community, civil society and the public sector to realise the potential outcomes of the Economic Empowerment Framework Programme that have been endorsed by the 1998 Jobs Summit and the OSDP as a framework for economic development.
Additional programmes are also being spearheaded in selected provinces, mainly based on the availability of funds:
· The Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) provides a comprehensive subsidised business development support service to entrepreneurs with disabilities, either as individuals or in self-help income generating projects.
· The Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Disability Support Project is a peer and family counselling service provided by disabled consultants that provides people with disabilities, their families and communities with information on disability and disability-related social services and opportunities, as well as referral services to relevant health, rehabilitation, education and employment services for assessment and intervention.
>>Back to top
Leadership
The following leaders were elected at the 1999 DPSA Congress. Congress comes together every two years to elect a new leadership:
· Louis Nzimande was elected as the DPSA National Chairperson.
· Dudu Mokoena was elected as Deputy Chairperson: Disabled Women.
· Vincent Daniels was elected as Deputy Chairperson: Development.
· Peter Matthews was elected as Deputy Chairperson: Human Rights.
· Shirley Makutoane serves as Deputy Chairperson: Children in her capacity as DICAG national chairperson.
· Hendrick 'Master' Modise was elected as Treasurer.
Mzolisi 'Mike' ka Toni was appointed as Secretary General in November 2000. He works from Cape Town.
President Thabo Mbeki accepted patronage of DPSA in 1998.
DPSA has also facilitated the establishment of the National Working Committee (NWC). The NWC is a forum for disabled activists who have been deployed into key institutions, or who are working for these institutions, to come together to debate issues that impact on the lives of people with disabilities in general, or the disability rights movement in particular, and thereby foster unity among leaders of the movement.
The South African Federal Council on Disability (SAFCD)
The SAFCD is the national umbrella body for all national disability NGOs. It is the national forum where all national welfare organisations, as well as national organisations of disabled people and parents, come together to negotiate and develop common visions for the equalisation of opportunities for people with disabilities.
The following organisations for and of persons with disabilities are affiliated to the SAFCD:
· Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)
· Disabled Children Action Group (DICAG)
· The Deaf Federation of South Africa (DEAFSA)
· The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB)
· Down Syndrome Forum of South Africa (DSSA)
· The National Council of Quadriplegic Associations in South Africa (QUASA)
· The National Council for People with Physical Disabilities (NCPPD)
· Epilepsy South Africa (ESA)
· The South African Federation for Mental Health (SAFMH)
· The South African Foundation of Cheshire Homes
· The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA)
· National Division for Persons with Cerebral Palsy (NDPCP)
· South African Council for the Aged (SANCA)
The SAFCD can be contacted at safcd@ability.org.za
The Offices on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP's)
Offices on the Status of Disabled Persons have been established in the Office of the Presidency as well as in the Offices of the provincial Premiers. These offices are responsible for working together with, and parallel to, the various state bodies, departments and disability NGO's in order to further the development of a disability-friendly environment. They are therefore responsible for the overall co-ordination and monitoring of the implementation of the Integrated National Disability Strategy.
Minister Essop Pahad is the Minister currently responsible for disability in the Presidency.
Other Institutions that Impact on the Lives of People with Disabilities
There are a number of institutions that play a very important role in the equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities. A number of these institutions have as a result been targeted for the deployment of disabled activists.
The Constitutional Court
Website: http://www.law.wits.ac.za/court/courtpam.html
The Constitutional Court is the highest court in the land for all constitutional matters. The judgments of the Court are based on the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. These judgements guarantee the basic rights and freedoms of all persons. They are binding on all organs of government, including Parliament, the Presidency, the police force, the army, the public service and all courts. This means that the Court has the power to declare an Act of Parliament null and void if it conflicts with the Constitution and to control executive action in the same way. When interpreting the Constitution, the Court is required to consider international human rights law and may consider the law of other democratic countries.
Anyone wishing to bring a constitutional case before the Constitutional Court must usually start in the High Court. Legal aid will be provided in certain circumstances.
ParliamentWebsite:
http://www.parliament.gov.za
Parliament is the legislative authority of South Africa and has the power to make laws for the country in accordance with the Constitution. It consists of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The National Assembly is elected every five years through a system of proportional representation. The NCOP is responsible for representing provincial interests in the national legislative process. A Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and Persons with Disabilities have been established. This committee is responsible for monitoring and evaluating progress with regard to the improvement in the quality of life and status of children, youth and disabled persons in South Africa, with special reference to the Government's commitments in respect of any applicable international instruments and to duties and responsibilities in respect of any applicable legislation. The Committee may also make recommendations to National Assembly and/or NCOP committees. The Parliamentary Monitoring Group was established in 1995 as a partnership between Black Sash, Human Rights Committee and Idasa with the aim of monitoring the South African Parliamentary Committee meetings. Minutes of all meetings are available through the PMG website.
Provincial Legislatures have similar functions as Parliament, but at provincial level. One can link up through the provincial legislature website on http://www.gov.za/contacts/prov.htm
The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)
Website: http://www.sahrc.org.za
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) derives its powers from the Constitution and the Human Rights Commission Act of 1994. The SAHRC works with government, civil society and individuals, both nationally and abroad, to fulfil its Constitutional mandate and serves as both a watchdog and a visible route through which people can access their rights. The Commission's objectives are to:
· Develop an awareness of human rights among the people of South Africa;
· Make recommendations to organs of state in order to enhance the implementation of human rights;
· Undertake studies and report to Parliament on matters relating to human rights; and
· Investigate complaints of violations of human rights and to seek appropriate redress.
Disability forms one of the focal points of the Commission's work -
· A Disability Policy has been adopted to guide the work of the SAHRC.
· A Section 5 Committee on Disability was established to advise the Commission on disability matters.
The Commission on Gender Equality (CGE)
Website: http://www.cge.org.za
The Commission on Gender Equality is a state institution that supports Constitutional democracy. The aim of the Commission, as set out in section 187 of the Constitution is to promote gender equality and to advise and make recommendations to Parliament or any other legislature with regard to any laws or proposed legislation which affects gender equality and the status of women.
Public Service Commission (PSC)
Website: http://www.gcis.gov.za/gov/psc/home/psc.htm
The Public Service Commission is an independent and impartial body created by the constitution to enhance excellence in governance within the public service by promoting a professional and ethical environment and adding value to a public administration that is accountable, equitable, efficient, effective, corrupt-free and responsive to needs of the people of South Africa. The Commission carries out its mission by investigating, monitoring, evaluating, communicating and reporting on public administration.
The National Youth Commission (NYC)
Website: http://www.nyc.gov.za
The National Youth Commission was established to coordinate and promote the development of young women and men through the design and implementation of a holistic and integrated National Youth Policy and national youth development plan by ensuring inter-ministerial, inter-sectoral and inter-governmental collaboration for the advancement of young people through the involvement of all stakeholders. Its Head Office is in the Office of the Presidency and it works closely with the Provincial Youth Commissions that have been established at provincial level.
The Youth Information Service keeps youth informed about developments and progress, and also provides a toll-free line for youth who are looking for information about youth issues.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)
Website: http://www.ccma.org.za
The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (the CCMA) is a dispute resolution body established in terms of the Labour Relations Act, number 66 of 1995. It is an independent body.
The National Economic Development, Labour and Labour Council (NEDLAC)
Website: http://www.nedlac.org.za
The National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is a representative and consensus-seeking body where government, organized labour, business and the community seek to reach agreement through negotiation and discussion based on proper mandates. The community constituency comprises representatives of the women, youth, rural, disabled and civic sectors. DPSA represents the disability sector.
The Nedlac Act identifies the work of the organisation as follows:
· Seek to reach consensus and conclude agreements pertaining to social and economic policy.
· Consider all proposed labour legislation relating to labour-market policy before it is introduced in Parliament.
· Consider all significant changes to social and economic policy before it is implemented or introduced in Parliament.
· Encourage and promote the formulation of coordinated policy on social and economic matters.
Independent Complaints Directorate
Website: http://www.icd.gov.za
The Independent Complaints Directorate was established to promote proper police conduct with the aim of developing public confidence in the efforts of the SAPS, as well as facilitating the criminal prosecution of those SAPS members found to have engaged in criminal conduct.
The ICD considers complaints or allegations relating to:
· Deaths of persons in police custody or deaths that are as a result of police action.
· The involvement of police members in criminal activities such as robbery, theft of motor vehicles and assault.
· Police conduct or behaviour that is prohibited by the Police Regulations, such as neglect of duties or failure to comply with the Code of Conduct.
Compensation CommissionerWebsite:
http://www.wcomp.gov.za/index.html
The Compensation Commissioner (formerly known as the Workmen's Compensation Commissioner) oversees the implementation of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries or Diseases Act, which aims to provide for compensation for disablement caused by occupational injuries or diseases sustained or contracted by employees in the course of their employment, or for death resulting from such injuries or diseases; and to provide for rehabilitation, personal assistance, medical costs, pension, etcetera related therewith.
The Pan South African Language Board
Website: http://www.pansalb.org.za
The Pan South African Language Board was established to promote multilingualism and develop previously marginalised languages. The Board's responsibilities is outlined in the SA Constitution and includes the promotion and creation of conditions for the development and use of official languages, including South African Sign Language.
The Public Protector
Website: http://www.gov.za/structure/protector.htm
The National Public Protector receives, investigates, recommends and reports on complaints from aggrieved persons against government agencies or officials.
The South African Law Commission
Website: http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/salc.html
The Commission is an advisory body whose aim is the renewal and improvement of the law of South Africa on a continuous basis. It does this by conducting research with reference to all branches of the law of South Africa in order to make recommendations for the development, improvement, modernization or reform of legislation, including the repeal of obsolete or unnecessary provisions; the removal of anomalies; the bringing about of uniformity in the law in force in the various parts of the Republic; and the consolidation or codification of any branch of the law.
The Independent Electoral Commission
Website: http://www.elections.org.za
The Independent Electoral Commission is a permanent body created by the constitution to promote and safeguard representative democracy in South Africa. Its immediate task is the impartial management of free and fair elections at all government levels.
Click on http://www.gov.za/yearbook/govsys.htm for more detailed information of the South African Government System.
Thabo Mbeki Development Trust for Disabled Persons (TMDTDP)
The Thabo Mbeki Development Trust for Disabled Persons was formally launched on 5 December 1999 after the successful transformation of the former SAFCD Development Fund for Disabled Persons. The TMDTDP is an independent Trust that is governed by a Board of Directors, and has its Head Office in Johannesburg. The Trust will maintain a strong focus on economic empowerment of people with disabilities, as well as on core funding for organisations of disabled persons. It will also focus on individual empowerment such as the provision of assistive devices and education support.
Disability Employment Concerns (DEC)
DEC is a registered Trust that was established as a vehicle for the NGO Disability Sector to engage in business ventures and to promote the employment and economic empowerment of people with disabilities in ventures with which DEC is associated. DEC's main objectives are;
1. To make sound medium to long-term investments with the aim of generating sustainable sources of income for social and economic empowerment programmes of DEC's founding organisations.
2. To promote policies and practices that will facilitate economic empowerment of people with disabilities within the companies in which DEC invests.
3. To develop a cadre of people with disabilities that are empowered with business knowledge and skills and that can (i) be employed within DEC;
(ii) represent DEC on Boards of Companies in which DEC holds investments; and
(iii) be contracted to DEC to perform specific consultancy tasks.
References
SA Gov.
Integrated National Disability Strategy
http://www.independentliving.org/LibArt/SANatlDisStrat.pdf
SA Gov
Nedlac Act
http://www.nedlac.org.za/act.html
Website Addresses (not provided as part of text of Chapter)
Disability Policy
http://www.sahrc.org.za/5_disability.pdf
Human Rights Commission Act
http://www.sahrc.org.za/human_rights_act.PDF
Idasa
http://www.idasa.org.za/
National Assembly
http://www.parliament.gov.za/na/index.htm
NCOP
http://www.parliament.gov.za/ncop/
Parliamentary Monitoring Group
http://www.pmg.org.za/
SAFCD
http://www.ability.org.za/safcd/index.html
The Deaf Federation of South Africa
http://www.deafsa.co.za/
The South African National Epilepsy League
http://epilepsy.iafrica.com/
Youth Information Service
http://www.yis.co.za/
9. Transformation through Self Representation
The disability rights movement of South Africa took a conscious decision in 1994 to work towards the transformation of society through a policy of self-representation in mainstream institutions, rather than establishing separate institutions that focus specifically on the social, economical and political empowerment of South Africans with disabilities. This policy position flowed partly from the lessons learnt internationally, and partly from the negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC) leadership in the run-up to the 1994 elections.
National Assembly
The first targeted institution was Parliament, and DPSA and the ANC reached agreement on the inclusion of two leaders of persons with disabilities on the ANC proportional list for the National Assembly. Maria Rantho was sworn in as a Member of Parliament in February 1995.
Six leaders of persons with disabilities who were included on the 1999 ANC Proportional Lists took up their seats in Parliament after the 1999 National Elections:
· National Assembly - Louis Nzimande, Joseph Mzondeki, Hendrietta Bogopane, Michael Masutha, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, Maxwell Moss.
· National Council of Provinces - Boyce Willem.
Provincial Legislatures
Another three DPSA leaders took up their seats as Members of the Provincial Legislatures after the 1999 provincial elections:
· Free State Legislature - Butana Khompela; Zanele Dlungwana.
· Northern Province Legislature - Florah Masakhona Raedani.
Local and District Councils
The 2000 Local Government Elections on December 5 will see another large contingent of DPSA leaders being deployed as local and district ANC councillors.
Public Sector
Another strategic target for transformation was the public sector. Agreement was reached to ensure that the coordination of disability matters within the public sector took place from a central and authoritative office. Negotiations therefore ensued with the former Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) Ministry in the Office of the President, which culminated in the establishment of the Disability Programme in the RDP Ministry in January 1995. The Disability Programme was the forerunner of the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP) in the Presidency. The OSDP is staffed by people with disabilities themselves, and headed by Shuaib Chalklen. Leaders of people with disabilities lead the majority of provincial OSDP's., except for the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, which are not ANC-governed provinces.
Institutions supporting Constitutional Democracy
The first test for our approach to integrate rather than segregate came during the development of South Africa's new Constitution, when a decision needed to be taken whether to advocate strongly for a separate Disability Commission equal to the SA Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Gender Equality, or whether to advocate for a specific disability focus within these institutions.
Deliberations with senior ANC leaders however guided the decision to follow through with the integration approach, which led to the deployment of Jerry Nkeli to the SA Human Rights Commission, and Beatrice Ngcobo to the Commission on Gender Equality.
The ANC deployed Maria Rantho to the Public Service Commission in 1998.
Other Institutions
Tsietsi Louw was deployed as a part-time Commissioner to the National Youth Commission in 1996. Pansy Hlapane subsequently replaced him in 1999. Ngwanakopi Rasmushu is currently the full-time disabled Commissioner.
The following leaders in the disability rights movement have been deployed to drive the transformation process in strategic institutions not already mentioned:
· South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC): William Rowland (Board Member)
· The National Development Agency (NDA): Dudu Mokoena (Board Member)
· National Training Board (NTB): Mike Toni (Board Member)
· Ntsika and SEIBSA: Mike du Toit (Board member)
· SATOUR: Phillip Thompson (Board Member)
· Road Accident Fund (RAF): Moses Mahlangu (Board Member)
DPSA has furthermore ensured that the disability sector is recognised as a specific sector within the community constituency of NEDLAC, and that experienced leaders of the disability rights movement form the majority of the Board of the Thabo Mbeki Development Trust for Disabled Persons.
The challenge now remains to maintain the level of political commitment gained to date, and to strengthen the network created between deployed activists so that they can together work towards the creation of an environment in which all South Africans with disabilities can champion their own development.
10. The South African Legislative Process
When a change in policy is being made, the government often first puts forward its proposals in a Green Paper, which is a discussion document on policy options. It originates in the department of the Ministry concerned and is then published for comment and ideas. A submission date is usually given for input from civil society. This document forms the basis for a White Paper, which is a broad statement of government policy. Comment may again be invited from interested parties.
Once these inputs have been taken into account, the Minister and officials within the State Department concerned may draft Legislative Proposals. At this stage the proposals are also considered by the Cabinet. Occasionally this document may be gazetted as a Draft Bill, for comment by a defined date, or given to certain organisations for comment.
Once these inputs have been taken into account, the Minister and officials within the State Department concerned may draft Legislative Proposals. At this stage the proposals are also considered by the Cabinet. Occasionally this document may be gazetted as a Draft Bill, for comment by a defined date, or given to certain organisations for comment.
Once all comments have been considered the document is taken to the State Law Advisers who check the proposals in detail and their consistency with existing legislation. These proposals are then printed by Parliament, given a number and go to be Tabled or introduced in either the National Assembly or the National Council of Provinces. The document is now no longer a Draft Bill. It is a Bill and the introduction or tabling is called the first reading. After the reading it is put on the Order Paper and it goes to a Committee for consideration.
The committee consists of members of the different parties represented in Parliament who discuss the Bill. They sometimes call expert witnesses or invite submissions to help refine it, after which they may amend it. When the committee has approved the Bill, it goes for Debate in the House in which it was tabled. Once that House has agreed to the Bill, it is transmitted to the other House and the same procedure is followed.
When both Houses have passed the Bill it is allocated an Act number and then goes to the State President to be signed. It is then published in the Government Gazette as an Act and it then becomes a law of the land.
Sometimes there is no Green and White Papers and the process begin with the legislative proposals originating in the Ministry or Department.
References
Acts
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/legislation/index.html
Bills
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/bills/index.html
Green Paper
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/green_papers/index.html
Order Papers
http://www.parliament.gov.za/papers/
Parliament
http://www.parliament.gov.za/
Parliamentary Committees
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/parliament/committees/index.html
White Paper
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/index.html
11. South African Disability Policy Framework
Disability Statistics
There is a serious lack of reliable information on the nature and prevalence of disability in South Africa. This is because, prior to 1994, disability issues were viewed and therefore defined mainly within a health and welfare context. This led to a failure to integrate disability into mainstream government statistical processes.
Statistics tend to be unreliable for the following reasons:
· There are different definitions of disability;
· Different survey technologies are used to collect information;
· There are negative traditional attitudes towards people with disabilities;
· There is a poor service infrastructure for people with disabilities in underdeveloped areas, and violence levels (in particular areas at particular times) have impeded the collection of data, affecting the overall picture.
Statistics South Africa is responsible for the collection of population data in South Africa, through, among others, the National Census and the October Household Surveys.
The 1996 Census recorded the disabled population as follows:
Disabled population by type and province*
| Eastern Cape | Free State | Gauteng | Kwazulu- Natal | Mpuma- langa | N.Cape | North. Province | North West | Western Cape | South Africa | |
| Sight | 161,898 | 133,614 | 211,769 | 183,758 | 98,322 | 18,529 | 113,088 | 129,442 | 40,603 | 1,091,022 |
| Hearing | 68,531 | 33,045 | 59,868 | 76,034 | 31,895 | 6,083 | 51,416 | 37,571 | 18,965 | 383,408 |
| Physical | 115,717 | 41,960 | 69,936 | 129,894 | 41,381 | 9,052 | 60,078 | 54,706 | 35,051 | 557,774 |
| Mental | 41,432 | 13,947 | 24,033 | 42,646 | 12,211 | 3,791 | 22,578 | 17,768 | 14,146 | 192,553 |
| More than one | 35,997 | 16,461 | 26,030 | 24,895 | 9,019 | 2,403 | 16,019 | 16,913 | 6,499 | 154,236 |
| Unspecified | 38,604 | 18,127 | 63,906 | 44,863 | 19,085 | 7,137 | 33,690 | 23,134 | 30,174 | 278,720 |
| Total | 462,179 | 257,154 | 455,541 | 502,090 | 211,913 | 46,995 | 296,870 | 279,534 | 145,438 | 2,657,714 |
* Excluding institutions
Disabled population by type, gender and population group*
| African/ Black | Coloured | Indian/ Asian | White | Unspecified/ Other | Total | |
| Sight | ||||||
| Male | 397,449 | 15,308 | 7,239 | 9,764 | 2,142 | 438,484 |
| Female | 605,396 | 19,254 | 8,384 | 16,620 | 2,884 | 652,539 |
| Total | 1,002,845 | 34,561 | 15,623 | 32,967 | 5,026 | 1,091,022 |
| Hearing | ||||||
| Male | 154,538 | 7,716 | 2,601 | 14,906 | 1,091 | 180,851 |
| Female | 177,708 | 7,841 | 2,348 | 13,380 | 1,280 | 202,556 |
| Total | 332,246 | 15,557 | 4,948 | 28,286 | 2,370 | 383,408 |
| Physical | ||||||
| Male | 223,680 | 19,032 | 5,653 | 13,821 | 1,638 | 263,824 |
| Female | 263,337 | 13,674 | 4,111 | 11,291 | 1,537 | 293,950 |
| Total | 487,017 | 32,706 | 9,764 | 25,112 | 3,175 | 557,774 |
* Excluding institutions
| African/ Black | Coloured | Indian/ Asian | White | Unspecified/ Other | Total | |
| Mental | ||||||
| Male | 95,550 | 8,471 | 2,391 | 6,162 | 842 | 113,416 |
| Female | 66,054 | 5,877 | 1,659 | 4,960 | 587 | 79,137 |
| Total | 161,604 | 14,349 | 4,050 | 11,122 | 1,429 | 192,553 |
| More than one | ||||||
| Male | 53,031 | 2,880 | 1,498 | 5,873 | 413 | 63,694 |
| Female | 79,739 | 3,196 | 1,445 | 5,653 | 509 | 90,542 |
| Total | 132,771 | 6,076 | 2,943 | 11,525 | 922 | 154,236 |
| Unspecified | ||||||
| Male | 99,081 | 12,273 | 2,680 | 18,277 | 1,770 | 134,081 |
| Female | 109,250 | 12,445 | 2,821 | 18,259 | 1,864 | 144,639 |
| Total | 208,331 | 24,718 | 5,502 | 36,536 | 3,634 | 278,720 |
| Total | ||||||
| Male | 1,023,329 | 65,680 | 22,061 | 75,385 | 7,894 | 1,194,350 |
| Female | 1,301,484 | 62,287 | 20,769 | 70,163 | 8,661 | 1,463,364 |
| Tota | 2,324,813 | 127,967 | 42,830 | 145,548 | 16,555 | 2,657,714 |
* Excluding institutions
It is however important to note that national census methods usually result in an undercount of disability incidence as a result of the stigma attached to disability, different definitions and yardsticks being used, etcetera, and that the real incidence of disability in South Africa most probably is much higher.
It is also important to realise that disability does not only affect the individual with a disability, but the entire family. It is estimated that as many as one out of four (or 25%) of households are affected by disability on a household size of 6 persons.
SA Constitution (1996)
The first democratically elected South African Government prioritised the creation of an enabling environment within which all South Africans, irrespective of race, gender, ability, age, language or class, could develop with dignity and hope for the future when it came into power in 1994.
The first step Government took was to ensure that discrimination against children and adults with disabilities is specifically prohibited in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights provides for both political and socio-economic rights for all South Africans within a framework of non-discrimination and equality. Of particular importance to people with disabilities are;
·Section 9 - the right to equality - which provides for equality before the law for all South African citizens, and which prohibits discrimination on the basis of age and disability, among others;
· Sections 10 & 11 - the right to dignity and the right to life;
· Section 28 provides specifically for the rights of children, among others the right of every child to family or parental care, shelter, basic nutrition, basic health care and social services, protection from abuse, neglect, etc;
· Section 29 - the right to basic education Another significant provision in the Constitution is the recognition of Sign Language as an official language for Deaf South Africans.
Another significant provision in the Constitution is the recognition of Sign Language as an official language for Deaf South Africans.
Equality Legislation
The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (2000) - commonly known as the Equality Act - recognises the existence of systemic discrimination and inequalities, particularly in respect of race, gender and disability in all spheres of life as a result of past and present unfair discrimination, as well as the need to take measures at all levels to eliminate such discrimination and inequalities.
The Act outlaws unfair discrimination on ground of disability and places a responsibility on government to "take special measures to promote equality" with regard to disability by providing for "measures to facilitate the eradication of unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment, particularly on the grounds of race, gender and disability".
The Act goes further by identifying the following focus areas that should be addressed by government in carrying out its obligation to promote equality of, among others, people with disabilities:
· audit laws, policies and practices with a view to eliminating all discriminatory aspects thereof;
· enact appropriate laws, develop progressive policies and initiate codes of practice in order to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of race, gender and disability;
· adopt viable action plans for the promotion and achievement of equality in respect of race, gender and disability; and
· give priority to the elimination of unfair discrimination and the promotion of equality in respect of race, gender and disability.
White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy
The White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy (INDS) was released in 1997. The purpose of the INDS is to facilitate the realisation of disabled South Africans' rights to equality and dignity through full participation in a barrier-free society for all.
The INDS recognises that development within inclusive environments form the cornerstone for the development and successful outcome of an integrated society. It therefore strives to provide government departments with guidelines that will enable people with disabilities and their parents to
· be as free as possible from needing permanent medical treatment and care, while having access to such care whenever necessary;
· retain as much personal responsibility as possible in the planning and implementation of their rehabilitation and integration processes;
· exercise their rights to full citizenship and to have access to all institutions and services of the community, including education;
· have a minimum livelihood, if appropriate by means of social benefits;
· have as much mobility as possible, including access to buildings and means of transport;
· play a meaningful role in society and to take part in economic, social, leisure, recreational and cultural activities.
The INDS does this by providing government departments and society-at-large with guidelines for the equalisation of opportunities for people with disabilities by interpreting the spirit and provisions contained in, among others, the SA Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and the Standard Rules for the Equalisation of Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities.
The disability rights movement took a decision in June 2000 not to call for a revision of the INDS as the sector might loose some of the progressive recommendations made in the document.
The disability rights movement also reached consensus at the Disability Equity Seminar held in June 2000 that development of disability-specific legislation be postponed until the equality legislation has been used and tested, as it would be very difficult to develop and pass disability-specific legislation such as the ADA without instruments such as the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act not having been used or tested. The disability sector will therefore continue to focus their resources on the development of enabling sectoral legislation.
Important Sectoral Policies
People with disabilities have equal rights and responsibilities under the SA Constitution. This means that ALL policies and laws impact on their lives - either negatively or positively. There are however a number of policies and laws that are of particular importance to people with disabilities, as these directly impact on their lives. The INDS provides broad guidelines on these areas, and should be read in conjunction with the list of policies and laws listed below.
Disability Specific Legislation
It is important to note that the INDS is not a policy document, but rather a framework that provides guidelines for sectoral policy development. Sectors therefore need to develop disability-affirmative and sensitive legislation.
Arts and Culture
· Pan South African Language Board Amendment Act [No. 10 0f 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a10-99.pdf
· PANSALB's position on the promotion of multilingualism in South Africa: A draft discussion document, February 1998 http://www.gov.za/reports/1998/pansalb.htm
· White Paper on Arts and Culture - June 1996
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1996/artscult.htm
Education
· Draft Adult General Education and Training Bill (Gazette 21052, Notice 1505)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2000/21052d.pdf
· Draft General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Bill (Gazette 21052, Notice 1446)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2000/21052a.pdf
· Draft National Policy on HIV/AIDS for learners in public schools, and students and educators in further education and training institutions http://education.pwv.gov.za/DoE_Sites/AidsPolicy.htm
· Draft Education White Paper 1
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/educ1.html
· Education White Paper 2
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/educwp2feb.html
· Education White Paper 3 (A Programme for the Transformation on Higher Education)
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1997/eduwp3.htm
· Education White Paper 4 (A program for the transformation of further education & training)
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1998/19281.pdf
· Establishment of the National Education and Training Council (Gazette 20044, Notice 6526 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/documents/1999/20044.pdf
· Guidelines for the consideration of governing bodies in adopting a code of conduct for learners
http://www.gov.za/gazette/1998/18900.pdf
· Higher Education Act [No. 101 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a101-97.pdf
· Higher Education Amendment Act [No. 55 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a55-99.pdf
· Norms and Standards for Educators (Gazette 20844, Notice 82)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/notices/2000/20844.pdf
· SA Schools Act of 1996
Elections
· Amendment of the Elections Regulations (Gazette 20160, Notice 6560 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/elections/legislation/20160.pdf
· Amendment of the Elections Regulations (Gazette 20139, Notice 6552 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/elections/legislation/20160.pdf
· Electoral Act [No. 73 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a73-98.pdf
· Electoral Amendment Act [No. 20 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a20-97.pdf
Health
· A Draft National Strategic Framework for Children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, January 2000 http://www.welfare.gov.za/Documents/2000/childrenHIVAIDS.htm
· Amendment of the Regulations relating to Communicable Diseases and the notification of Notifiable Medical Conditions (Gazette 19946, Notice 6494) http://www.gov.za/documents/1999/19946.pdf
· HIV/AIDS/STD Strategic Plan for South Africa
http://www.gov.za/documents/2000/aidsplan2000.pdf
· Mental Health Care Draft Bill, (Gazette 20848, General Notice 344)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2000/20848.pdf
National Policy on Testing for HIV (Gazette 20710, Notice 1479)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/notices/1999/20710.pdf
· Sterilisation Act [No. 44 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a44-98.pdf
· Transformation of the Health System White Paper
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/health.html
>>Back to top
Housing
· A New Housing and Policy Strategy for South Africa
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/housing.html
· Housing Act [No. 107 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a107-97.pdf
· Housing Amendment Act [No. 28 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a28-99.pdf
· Housing Second Amendment Act [No. 60 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a60-99.pdf
· Rental Housing Act [No. 50 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a50-99.pdf
Labour
· Basic Conditions of Employment Act [No. 75 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a75-97.pdf
· Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration: Rules regulating the practice and procedure for resolving disputes through conciliation and at arbitration proceedings (Government Gazette 20981, Government Notice 245)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/regulation/2000/20981.pdf
· Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Act [No. 61of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a61-97.pdf
· Creating jobs, Fighting poverty - An Employment Strategy Framework
http://www.gov.za/reports/1998/jobs_poverty.htm
· Draft Code of Good Practice on key aspects of HIV/AIDS and employment (Gazette 21089, Regulation Gazette 6782) http://www.gov.za/gazette/regulation/2000/21089.pdf
· Employment Equity Act [No. 55 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a55-98.pdf
· Labour Relations Act Skills Development Act [No. 97 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a97-98.pdf
· Skills Development Levies Act [No 9 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a9-99.pdf
· Public Service ü Public Service Amendment Act [No. 5 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a5-99.pdf
· Public Service Commission Act [No. 46 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a46.pdf
· Public Service Laws Amendment Act [No.47 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a47.pdf
· Public Service Laws Second Amendment Act [No. 93 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a93-97.pdf
· White Paper on a New Employment Policy for the Public Service (2nd Draft)
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1997/employ2.htm
· White Paper on Affirmative Action in the Public Service
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1998/91102-a.pdf
· White Paper on Public Service Training and Education
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1998/19078.pdf
· White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery (Batho Pele)
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1997/18340.pdf
SMME's
· National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/smallbiz.html
Welfare
· A Draft National Strategic Framework for Children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS,
http://www.welfare.gov.za/Documents/2000/childrenHIVAIDS.htm
· Child Care Amendment Bill [B14B-99]
http://www.gov.za/bills/1999/b14b-99.pdf
· Domestic Violence Act [No. 116 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a116-98.pdf
· Draft Developmental Welfare Governance Bill (Gazette 20711, Notice 2702 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/bills/1999/20711a.pdf
· Non-profit Organisations Act [No. 71 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a71-97.pdf
· Draft Non-profit Organisation Amendment Bill (Gazette 20711, Notice 2701 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/bills/1999/20711b.pdf
· Financing Policy - Developmental Social Welfare Services (Gazette 19888, Notice 463 of 1999)
http://www.gov.za/documents/1999/19888.pdf
· Maintenance Act [No. 99 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a99-98.pdf
· National Development Agency Act [No. 108 of 1998]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1998/a108-98.pdf
· Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: Final Report, 13 May 1998
http://www.gov.za/reports/1998/poverty/index.html
· Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: Summary Report, 13 May 1998
http://www.gov.za/reports/1998/pirsum.htm
· (Proposed) Model Narrative Report for Non-profit Organisations, (Gazette 20877, Notice 431)
http://www.gov.za/gazette/reports/2000/20877.pdf
· Welfare Laws Amendment Act [No. 106 of 1997]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1997/a106-97.pdf
· White Paper for Social Welfare
http://www.gov.za/whitepaper/1997/soswel97.htm
· Guidelines about How to Apply for a Disability Grant
http://www.womensnet.org.za/humanrights/disgrant.html
· Guidelines about How to Apply for a Care Dependency Grant
http://www.womensnet.org.za/humanrights/discare.html
>>Back to top
Other
· Constitution.
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/constitution/index.html
· Bill of Rights
http://www.sahrc.org.za/bill_of_rights.htm
· Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act [No. 5 of 2000]
http://www.gov.za/gazette/acts/2000/a5-00.pdf
· Promotion of Access to Information Act [No. 2 of 2000]
http://www.gov.za/gazette/acts/2000/a2-00.pdf
· Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act [No. 4 of 2000]
http://www.gov.za/gazette/acts/2000/a4-00.pdf
· Statistics Act [No. 6 of 1999]
http://www.gov.za/acts/1999/a6-99.pdf
· Towards the 21st Century Public Works White Paper
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/dwp.html
· Transport White Paper
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/transwhite.html
· White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/disability1.html
· White Paper on Broadcasting Policy
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/broadcastingwp.html
· White Paper on Sports and Recreation
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/sportswp.html
· White Paper on the Road Accident Fund
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/raf.html
· Examples of National Disability Policies in other Countries
http://www.independentliving.org/Library/Library_Contents3.html
DPSA Offices
Secretary General
Mzolisi Ka Toni
Room 705, 7th Floor Dumbarton House1 Church St 8001 Cape Town
Tel: 021-422 0357
Cell: 082 2020188
Fax: 021-422 0389
sg@dpsa.org.za
Parliamentary Office
Matthew Parks
P O Box 15, Cape Town 8000 or Room E489, New Wing, Parliament
mpdp@dpsa.org.za
Disabled Women Development Programme (DWDP)
P O Box 15682000 Johannesburg
Tel: 011-333 4505
Fax: 011-333 4822
dwdp@dpsa.org.za
Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Office
Sipho Mdletshe
PDCP O Box 39604000 Durban
Tel: 031-304 3555/8
Cell: 0828224235
Fax: 031-304 3559
kzn@dpsa.org.za
Northern Prov. Office
Raymond Mabuza PDC
P O Box 19180870 Letaba
Tel: 015-303 1637
Cell: 083 4266432
Fax: 015-3033656
np@dpsa.org.za
North West Prov. Office
PDCP O Box 239252735 Mafikeng
Tel: 018-381 8652
Cell: 083 5314776
Fax: 018-381 6642
Gauteng Prov. Office
P O Box 15682000Johannesburg
Tel: 011-333 4505
Fax: 011-333 4822
gp@dpsa.org.za
Free State Prov. Office
PDCP O Box 42629460 Welkom
Tel: 057-396 5600
Cell: 0824012078
Fax: 057-3961722
fs@dpsa.org.za
Northern Cape Prov. Office
PDCP/Bag X50338301 Kimberley
Tel: 053-8311192
Cell: 0825307662
Fax: 053-8316436
nc@dpsa.org.za
Eastern Cape Prov. Office
Bernard Kwaaiman
PDC2 St James Street5201 East London
Tel: 043-7431579
Cell: 0822020186
Fax: 043-7229470
ec@dpsa.org.za
Western Cape Prov. Office
Gillian Burrows
PDCP O Box 34678000 Cape Town
Tel: 021-422 0357
Cell: 0822006375
Fax: 021-422 0389
wc@dpsa.org.za
Mpumalanga Prov. Office
PDCP O Box 15841200, Nelspruit
Tel: 013-794 1711
Cell: 082 4330780
Fax: 013-794 0689
mp@dpsa.org.za
>>Back to top
OSDP's
National OSDP
Sebenzile Matsebula
Office of the Presidency
P/Bag X911 Pretoria
Tel: 012-3375222
Fax: 012-3264176
E-mail: shuaib@po.gov.za
OSDP Northern Province
Ike Thema
Premier's Office
P/Bag X94830700 Pietersburg
Tel: 015-291 3678
Fax: 015-291 1156
OSDP Eastern Cape
Portia Loyilane
Premier's Office
P/Bag X00475605 Bisho
Tel: 040-639 2076
Cell: 082 4025 833
Fax: 040-635 0124
OSDP Mpumalanga
Robert Masambo
Premier's Office
P/Bag X112911200 Nelspruit
Tel: 013-759 3718
Cell: 082 7726 029
Fax: 013-755 3383
E-mail: rmasambo@nel.mpu.gov.za
OSDP Northern Cape
July Ntwaso
Premier's Office
P/Bag X50168300 Kimberley
Tel: 053-830 9312
Cell: 083 2558 865
Fax: 053- 831 4475
OSDP Gauteng
Jabu Blose
Premier's Office
P/Bag X612107 Marshalltown
Tel: 011- 355 6023
Fax: 011- 355 6019
OSDP North West
Manthipi Molamu
Premier's Office
P O Box 62302735 Mafikeng
Tel: 018-387 4282
Cell: 083 4302 463
Fax: 018- 387 3913
E-mail: manthipi@ nwpg.org.za
OSDP Western Cape
Marie Hendricks
Office of the Premier
Western Cape Provincial Government8000 Cape Town
Tel: 021-483 5878
Fax: 021-483 2698
E-mail: mahendri@pac.wcape.gov.za
OSDP KZN
Mzwandile Gumede
Office of the Premier
Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Government
Tel: 033-395 2205
Fax: 033-3422854
E-mail: gumedej@premier.kzntl.gov.za
OSDP Free State
Paul Prins
Office of the Premier
Free State Provincial Government
Tel: 051-405 5799
Disability NGO's
Autism South Africa (ASA)
Janeatta Moreton
PO Box 84209 2043 Greenside
Tel: (011) 486 3696
Cell: 083 414 5933
Fax: (011) 486 2619
autismsa@iafrica.com
Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA)
Steve Lepita PO Box 25943 0105 Monument Park
Tel: (012) 347 2625
Fax: (012) 347 6248
flepita@cansa.org.za
rpotter@cansa.org.za
Leonard Cheshire South Africa (Cheshire Homes)
Maurice Kilduff
PO Box 234 7720 Newlands
Tel: (021) 685 6169
Fax: (021) 685 6066
Deaf Federation of South Africa (DEAFSA)
Kobus Kellerman P/Bag X04 2142 Westhoven
Tel: (011) 482 1610
Cell: 082 339 1295
Fax: (011) 726 5873
kkman@iafrica.com
Disabled Childrens Action Group (DICAG)
Bernadette Liederman 16 Broad Road 7800 Wynberg
Tel: (021) 797 5977
Cell: 082 772 9426
Fax: (021) 797 5077
dicag@iafrica.com
Down Syndrome South Africa (DSSA)
Peter Muller 64 Strubens Road 7700 Mowbray
Tel: (021) 910 0753
Fax: (021) 689 2035
Cell: 083 679 1200
National Council for Person with Physical Disabilities South Africa (NCPPDSA)
National Division for Persons with Cerebral Palsy (NDPCP)
Dorothy-Anne Howitson 3 Saratoga, 16 Synagogne Street 8300 Kimberley
Tel: (053) 833 3706
Tel: (011) 726 8040
Cell: 082 926 5754
Fax: (053) 832 8431
Fax: (011) 726 5705
apdnk@iafrica.com
Quadriplegic Association of South Africa (QASA)
Amor Malan PO Box 48756 2129 Rooseveldt Park
(011) 679 2857
(011) 679 3865
natquads@icon.co.za
South African National Council for the Aged (SANCA)
Mrs W J M Bryan PO Box 2335 8000 Cape Town
(021) 419 5831
(021) 418 2145
South African National Federation for Mental Health (SAFMH)
Lage Vitus P/Bag X46 Braamfontein 2017
(011) 242 9600
South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB)
William Rowland PO Box 31149 0028 Hatfield
Tel: (012) 346 1171
Fax: (012) 346 1177
rowland@sancb.org.za
jenny@sancb.org.za
Epilepsy South Africa (ESA)
Filicity September
PO Box 73 7935 Observatory
Tel: (021) 447 3014
Fax: (012) 448 5053
felicity@epilepsy.org.za
Human Rights Institutions
SA Human Rights Commission
Private Bag 2700 2041 Houghton
Tel: (011) 484 8300
Fax: (011) 484-1360
E-mail: jnkeli@jhb.sahrc.org.za
The Public Protector
Private Bag X677 Pretoria, 0001
Tel: 012 - 322 2916
Independent Complaints Directorate
Private Bag X463 Pretoria, 0001
Tel: 012 - 339 1554
Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration
Private Bag X94 Marshalltown, 2107
Tel: 011 - 377 6625
Commission on Gender Equality
10th Floor Braamfontein Centre 23 Jorrissen Street 2017 Braamfontein
Tel: 011 - 403 7182