Date: 03/12/2003
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molefe: International Day of Disabled Persons


SPEECH BY NORTH WEST PREMIER, DR POPO SIMON MOLEFE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DISABLED PERSONS, Gelukspan, 3 December 2003

Programme Director,
MECs present,
Executive Mayors, Mayors and Councillors present,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am truly delighted to join all of you as we celebrate the International Day of Disabled Persons.

This important day gives us an opportunity to raise awareness about people with disabilities, their needs and the contribution they can make towards the development of our society.

This day also gives us an opportunity to recommit ourselves to work even harder towards the objective of uprooting discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities.

As we are gathered here today we must make a solemn commitment never to allow ignorance and the stereotypical portrayal of people with disability to persist in our society.

We must spread the message that people with disabilities are part of our society and that they have an immense contribution to make in the ongoing reconstruction and development effort.

Today's event is taking place at a time when South Africans across the length and breadth of our country are preparing themselves for the historic celebrations of the end of the first decade of freedom.

This is a time when as a nation, we are called upon to honestly assess our performance in building a better life for all, including people with disabilities.

It is a time when we must savour the sweet fruits of the hard work we have put in over the past decade, while preparing ourselves for the challenges of the decade that lies before us.

We must use the period leading up to the end of the first decade of freedom, to assess the effectiveness of our policy and legislative interventions towards the goal of building a better country and province.

In this regard and more specifically, we of the North West Province, have a responsibility to do a critical assessment of our Disability Strategy.

We must be honest about our achievements and failures. We must celebrate our achievements while our failures must spur us on to do more to improve our collective response to the challenge of empowering people with disabilities.

As government, we count among our successes the fact that we have succeeded in creating opportunities for all our people, including those with disabilities, to better their lives.

We draw great courage from the enthusiasm displayed by our people as they seize opportunities brought about by the democratic order. On a daily basis, we are seeing people with disabilities being active participants in the national effort to build a better country.

Part of the progress we are making in creating opportunities for people with disabilities is evident from the establishment and success of projects such as the Ipelegeng Centre for the Disabled in Schweizer-Reneke where young disabled people are providing information technology services to the community, the Kopano Disabled Centre in Rustenburg that was involved in a project to converted no less that 14 schools such that they are accessible to disabled people and the Ikageng Centre for the Blind that runs a project to convert written documents into Braille.

Through their participation in such projects, people with disabilities have demonstrated their willingness not to sit back and complain about their conditions. They have shown the will to claim their rightful place in the mainstream of our society.

Going forward, the challenges we face remain daunting. They will require all of us to summon the collective will to do more to advance the cause of empowering people with disabilities.

As we continue to find appropriate responses to the challenges we face, we will rely heavily on the solid foundation we have laid over the past years. We will also rely on the strength of partnerships we have built among the various sectors of our society.

We must be reminded that all of us, in government, in the private sector, in community-based organisations and all sectors of society, have a critical role to play in the effort to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities.

It is for this reason that we applaud the intervention by Eskom in donating much needed equipment to the learners of Tlamelang School for the Physically Disabled. I have no doubt that the equipment being donated today, will go a long way in improving the conditions of learners from this school, many of whom are from poor backgrounds.

This donation has given learners of Tlamelang hope that society has not turned a blind eye to their plight. For that, we shall forever be indebted to Eskom.

Words are simply not enough to express our heartfelt gratitude to the management of Eskom for taking the decision to make what is clearly a worthy investment in the future of our country.

As we strengthen our response to the challenge of empowering people with disabilities, we must raise awareness about the Technical Assistance Guide released by the Department of Labour in an effort to, among others, facilitate the employment of people with disabilities.

We must also work towards the creation of a platform where information on services available to people with disabilities can be shared. Equally, we must encourage people with disabilities to take an active part in our country's democratic processes such as the general elections next year.

We must also work towards the objective of encouraging people with disabilities to be part of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the abuse of women and children.

Let this day inspire us to pay equal attention to all these objectives. Let us spare no effort in our endeavour to address the plight of people with disabilities.

I thank you!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
3 December 2003