This speech was delivered by GOOD MP, Shaun August during the Women, Children and People with Disabilities budget vote today in the Parliament of South Africa.
This budget must address accessibility to enable people with disabilities to participate in all aspects of life.
People with disabilities need access to information.
They need access to public transport and buildings.
They need access to subsidised homes that consider their needs.
Shaun August
22 July 2020
Honourable Chair
South Africa is in crisis because the safety nets for our most vulnerable citizens – women, children and people with disabilities – are in tatters.
We need more than the budget of a single department if we are to extend the umbrella of safety, equality and care to shelter these citizens.
We need the whole of government and the whole of society to roll up their sleeves and get involved.
Today I’d like to focus on discrimination against the disabled community.
It is a community that continues to feel isolated, lives in perpetual poverty, and suffers the psychological scars of being regarded as pitiful or charity cases.
Education and employment are at the centre of what is needed to uplift, develop and make progress within the disabled community.
We know that we talk about it – but we actually need to do something about it. People with disabilities still struggle to be employed due to discrimination and stigma, therefore making them dependent on social grants to sustain their livelihoods.
This is evident in national, provincial and local government departments who still fail to meet targets of employing people with disabilities.
Departments should not only meet their targets but exceed them.
The money we have to support the causes of women, children and people with disabilities must narrow the gaps between haves and have-nots, including between abled and disabled communities.
This budget must address accessibility to enable people with disabilities to participate in all aspects of life.
People with disabilities need access to information, which includes the use of internet and ICTS at a cost to the taxpayer.
They need access to public transport and buildings.
They need access to subsidised homes that consider their needs.
The health system must be more accommodating to the disabled.
Medical staff need to undergo training on dealing with the disabled, physically AND emotionally.
Persons with disabilities are vulnerable to neglect, abuse, and exploitation.
They often find it difficult to access the criminal justice system. I hear of far too many cases where a disabled victim or witness is not deemed credible due to the fact that they are disabled.
Lastly, disabled children and adults deserve equal access to educational opportunities.
There are approximately 500 000 children with disabilities of school going age who are out of school.
Children in special schools receive an inferior education. The accessibility of mainstream schools to children with disabilities needs urgent attention.
Honourable Chair.
It is time to fix our safety nets and address the dignity and humanity of disabled people.
I thank you.