South Africa: Forcing Open the Doors of Delivery
By William Rowland
"Umkhonto we Sizwe! Umkhonto we Sizwe!" It is the name of the armed wing of the ANC; these are also the words of a freedom song. The bus bounces up and down wildly as the youths stamp their feet and sing; it is a day of celebration and the joy of the people is unbounded.
We de-bus and become part of the human mass converging on Johannesburg's FNB Stadium. "Freedom come, freedom come; freedom come, through the barrel of a gun!" The words of the singing comrades thunder through the loudspeaker system as we wrestle our way to our seats, Carla Zille and me. The disability movement has been part of the political struggle, like the women's movement, the churches, the trade unions, and many other groups - and we are all here to receive the liberated leaders.
A praise poet takes the stage to hail the returning heroes. The crowd roars "Viva the struggle of the people! Long live Nelson Mandela! Long live Fidel Castro! Long live ...."
And suddenly they are there: "the first eight" to be released from prison; Walter Sisulu, after 27 years in jail, Achmed Kathrada and all the others, after decades of incarceration. And their speeches are almost anti-climactic - reflective, philosophical, fragments of history, but, oh yes, defiant and uncompromising.
And now it is 11 February 1990 and the entire nation is waiting for the unbelievable to happen. Carla describes what she is seeing on TV and I tell her what I hear: Mandela walks through the gates of the Victor Verster prison ... the motorcade speeds to Cape Town ... Mandela steps out on to the City Hall balcony to address the jubilant crowd, and for the first time in our lives we hear that singular voice. It is the same voice that four years later, after the first democratic election, will proclaim: "Free at last!"
First day of the future
That was the first day of the future in South Africa, in my opinion. We in Disabled People South Africa --DPSA had long prepared ourselves for the coming negotiations, but what we had not anticipated was the chaos of a country in transition. Racial barriers were gone. Every social system was under review. Old laws were being scrapped. New people were in charge everywhere, people without any background in disability and with other priorities. Who to speak to? What to say? How to say it? Where to say it? How to be heard at all amongst the hundreds of activist groups making demands and clamoring for influence.
Almost by default we begin to focus on the provisions of the draft constitution, specifically on the Bill of Rights. We argue for an anti-discrimination clause, but the Constitution writers say that sufficient safeguards are provided elsewhere. We persist and certain wording is included, but then dropped, reincluded and dropped again. Fortunately we have allies and the gay lobby in particular voices support for our position. In the end a clause is adopted outlawing discrimination on a variety of grounds, including disability. It is our first victory in the new South Africa, giving disabled people a real sense of ownership of the constitution.
The Constitution contains a second provision of which we can be proud. Having recognized eleven official languages, it goes on to name sign language as a further language to be developed. Even though we would have preferred to have sign language recognized as an official language, the existing wording does have important policy and funding implications. In actual fact, sign language is today often referred to as " the twelfth language" of the country, even in official circles.
Disability in this way was put into a human rights context, but the development dimension was still lacking. Here the flagship programme of government was to promote reconstruction and development ("the RDP programme"). Again it proved extremely difficult to get our message across until, just days before publication of the policy paper, we met in emergency session with RDP Minister Jay Naidoo to extract from him the promise of inclusion. The result was a single paragraph committing the government to policy formulation and identifying disabled people as a "vulnerable" group in society along with women, youth, and people in rural areas. Although the term "vulnerable" has since been expunged from our vocabulary, an important principle had been established.
Our first official tasks
It was soon after this that Maria Rantho was deployed by the movement into a special office on disability within the RDP Programme. In time this office would become a fully fledged Office on the Status of Disabled People (OSDP) which is today located within the Presidency itself and reports directly to a cabinet minister. The first task to hand at that time, though, was the drafting of what came to be called the Integrated National Disability Strategy (INDS) in consultation with the disability sector.
The INDS draws on the UN World Programme of Action and the UN Standard Rules for its contents. It declares disability to be a human rights and development issue and indicates the priority areas to be targeted, these being education and training, employment, income maintenance and social security, and housing. Each area is assigned to a line department to be integrated into its policies and programmes. The INDS records environmental access as a concern of disabled people and recognises the needs of "sensitive" groups that are disabled, such as women, children, elderly and rural persons. Provision is made for the OSDP, as well as for the establishment of a national co-ordinating committee. Drafted under the guidance of Maria Rantho, it was later strengthened and expanded under the direction of her successor in the OSDP, Shuaib Chalklen, and finally launched in November 1997.
Taking activism into the corridors of power
Called to Parliament by the ANC, Maria took her activism into the very corridors of power. One by one, disabled men and women began to be appointed to positions in public life - The Human Rights Commission, the Gender Commission, the Youth Commission; the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the South African Tourism Board, the National Development Agency, and Ntsika (the agency for small business development). Not only is each of us required to advocate on behalf of disabled people in these positions of authority, but we are expected to report back to our constituency, that is the community of disabled people in the country. The principle of self representation is fully accepted by government and the appointments are continuing, recent additions being the Public Service Commission, the national lottery distribution agency, and the transport parastatal.
But we can never depend on goodwill alone. Progressive legislation and enlightened policies are necessary to provide us with the longer term guarantees of fairness. Labour legislation prescribes affirmative action in relation to race, gender, and disability. Larger employers have to register employment equity and skills development plans on which they have to report periodically. In the public sector two percent of jobs have to be occupied by persons with disabilities by 2005. Compared with American and British legislation, however, enforcement mechanisms in South Africa are weak, while the disadvantages experienced by disabled persons in the fields of education and transport remain as negative factors.
Black economic empowerment
One of the most positive policy directions has been that of black economic empowerment, which is inclusive of women and disabled persons. At an October 1998 Presidential Jobs Summit of the "social partners" - government, organized business, trade unions, and community - our representatives were able to negotiate some challenging guideline targets, including a commitment by government that five percent of public sector spending to promote small business would be directed to the enterprises of disabled persons and a further commitment that five percent of government procurement would be allocated to businesses owned by disabled people or employers with at least five per cent of disabled workers. There was also an undertaking to develop incentives for equity partnerships empowering disabled people economically. How we have leveraged this undertaking is a story in its own right and the subject of another article.
The impressions I have given are optimistic, and rightly so. South Africa is the envy of disabled people in most developing countries and hopefully some of the elements of our transformation will be replicable elsewhere. But at times the pace has been agonizingly slow and policy does not always translate into practice.
Telescoping a dozen years
Telescoping the events of the past dozen years into a selective account such as this does tend to minimize the frustrations and disappointments suffered along the way, especially at the beginning. At one point Friday Mavuso and I seriously discussed a possible invasion of the Union Buildings. He would arrange a special tour and when they reached Mr. Mandela's offices they would stage a sit in and demand to speak to the President. I would be the spokesperson on the outside priming the media. Happily, though, it never came to that. But there is a lingering impatience that cannot be ignored and which found vivid expression in the slogan chosen for the 2001 DPSA Congress: "Forcing open the doors of delivery and equity!"
I end with another positive impression. In this instance I have been invited to witness the briefing of the new disabled parliamentarians by Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency. Wilma is concerned about the positioning of her interpreter on the floor of the house. They need to face each other for good communication. Louis wants to know about the immediate surroundings. Whether there is a garden if he needs to take his guide dog outside. Joseph asks about transport and parking. As a wheelchair user he has to be sure about the practical arrangements. Michael wishes to know what materials will be provided in braille.
Wilma Niewoudt-Druchen, Louis Nzimande, Joseph Mzondeki, and Michael Masutha, with Hendrietta Bogopane - women's leader and AIDS activist - are the five persons deployed to Parliament by the movement in the 1999 general election. What strikes me about the briefing is the matter of fact way in which issues are dealt with. Our parliamentarians are there by right. They ask for no favours, but they do expect equality of access to facilities and information. It is the new generation of leaders preparing to do their work; to force open the doors of delivery, as the slogan says.
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