Hon Deputy Speaker, hon members, 53 years ago the Freedom Charter was adopted, as I said, on 26 June 1955. It outlined a vision that South Africa belongs to all of us regardless of race, colour, religious belief, economic status and, importantly, irrespective of whether we have a disability or not.
Indeed, the principle of equality as contained in the clause which states, "All shall be equal before the law", is enshrined in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In fact, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act gives legislative effect to this principle of equality and outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or disability.
This Equality Act, together with the Employment Equity Act, the Skills Development Act, the Skills Development Levies Act, the Social Assistance Act and our Constitution, is part of a basket of legislation introduced by the ANC-led government to protect and advance the rights of disabled people who, for decades if not centuries, were treated as people with lesser dignity, objects of pity, a burden to society and as not being able to contribute to the good of humanity.
This legislation not only prohibits discrimination on the basis of someone's disability, but together with key policies also introduced by our ANC-led government such as the Integrated National Disability Strategy, creates opportunities for employment, education, the right to independent living, restoration of one's dignity and achieving one's dreams despite one's disability.
Deputy Speaker and hon members, it is with a great sense of pride that we realise that our beloved South Africa is looked upon as a leader in the enactment of progressive legislation that impacts positively on the lives of people with disabilities and that advanced democracies such as the USA are learning from our experience.
This is without a doubt thanks to the visionary leaders of our ANC-led government, led by President Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor, Nelson Mandela. President Mbeki has pioneered the White Paper on Disability Rights as well as the Integrated National Disability Strategy. And he is also the patron of the leading disability rights movement in South Africa, namely Disabled People South Africa.
These two statesmen, both past presidents of the ANC - which as a liberation movement consistently demonstrated over the decades of struggle for a just society and a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa - emphasised that the struggle faced by disabled people to overcome societal barriers is interwoven in the struggle for a just and humane societal order and that disabled people are not excluded from the efforts of a better life for all.
The ANC at its national conference held in Mafikeng in 1997 expressed its commitment to the integration of disabled people into the broader South African society and also supported the White Paper on disability that, among other things, sought to ensure that the full integration and empowerment of disabled people in our South African society takes place.
The 51st conference of the ANC held at Stellenbosch in 2002 built on this point by stating in its strategy and tactics document that its vision for building a national democratic society must give greater acknowledgement to the rights, dignity and prominence of disabled people as equal members of South African society.
These points are entrenched in the ANC post-Polokwane programme of action that, among other things, strives towards the equalisation of opportunities, life-long learning and economic opportunities for people with disabilities. Previous policy biases towards institutionalisation, social exclusion and deprivation of disabled people from mainstream society and opportunities to live productive lives have been done away with by successive ANC governments. And we are confident that the future ANC government under the leadership of Comrade Jacob Zuma will continue to pursue policies of the mainstreaming, integration, inclusion and empowerment of disabled people into all facets of South African society.
The struggle for the improvement of the status and quality of life of disabled people is essential to remove all societal barriers that prevent disabled people from developing to their fullest potential and break the shackles of poverty, underdevelopment and disempowerment. People participating in the equality review processes in the public hearings and the People's Parliament in Oudtshoorn raised the question of social and economic barriers very sharply. Overcoming some, if not all, of these barriers holds the key to unshackling the chains of poverty, inadequate education, disempowerment and despair.
The former director of the World Bank's Social Protection Department, Mr Robert Holzmann, once said, and I quote:
Poor people are disproportionately disabled, and people with disabilities are disproportionately poor.
Indeed, there is no doubt that societal barriers generally banish disabled people to lives of poverty where their only possible means of income is a disability grant. And due to administrative deficiencies even this income becomes unreachable.
An article in one of our national newspapers reported on the plight of a disabled woman whose attempt to obtain an identity document was frustrated by the fact that the official of Home Affairs demanded her fingerprints when in fact she has no hands. It goes without saying that this disabled woman will not be able to access government services and, indeed, will not be able to receive disability grants as a result of having no identity document. This, indeed, constitutes a definite violation of the rights and dignity of this disabled woman. Home Affairs must surely find other ways of identification processing, because the loss of one's hands cannot be used as a basis to deny one an identity document.
Deputy Speaker and hon members, disabled people rank amongst the poorest of the poor. Some of the factors that contribute to the state of poverty among disabled people include lower skills levels due to inadequate education, discriminatory attitudes and practices of employers, past discriminatory and ineffective labour legislation, lack of enabling mechanisms to promote employment opportunities, inaccessible public transport, inaccessible and unsupportive work environments, inadequate and inaccessible provision for vocational rehabilitation and training and generally high levels of unemployment.
A Development Bank of South Africa case study on the employment of people with disabilities in our first decade of democracy found that disabled people continue to face significant challenges with respect to employment opportunities. At the root of these challenges are attitudinal and institutional barriers that perpetuate a cycle of dependency, segregation, isolation and exclusion.
More specifically, some of the constraints and challenges relating to employment that impact negatively on disabled persons include negative attitudes of others in the workplace leading to isolation and separation as well as feelings of depression. Many respondents in the study felt anger and frustration at the fact that despite many years of service they had not been integrated into the mainstream work environment.
We as the ANC support the recommendations in this report. Thank you.