Employment Equity in South Africa: An Appeal to Employers

By Ari Seirlis (aris@iafrica.com)

Note:  Ari Seirlis is Chairman of the South African Association of Quadriplegics.  A slightly different version of this article appeared in The Durban Daily News, July 19, 2000.

The South African Employment Equity Act was passed in 1999.   It stipulates that any company with more than fifty employees must employ people with disabilities. AIt is a wonderful piece of legislation, and once it is implemented in earnest, will offer people with disabilities the opportunity to get into the open labour market and mainstream employment.  This will be a good opportunity for employers to see this new market of employees and for people with disabilities to show their potential and prove themselves.

Will this new law work?
Will it work?  I don't think so. Sure, there will be many people with disabilities who will survive and stay, but most don't have the skills required or the potential to fill the demographic quotas.  This is often not a fault of their own or the employer but the fact that most people with disabilities do not have access to public transport (including minibus taxis), access to any schooling or post school education or skills training and the result is that a large portion of the people with disabilities within the designated group are unemployable.   This is not because they are disabled, but because their mobility impairment does not allow them access to the same facilities for training and education.

The solution?  Look at a holistic approach to the opportunity including TRANSPORT, ACCESS into your building, access to AMENITIES and TRAINING.
Give us a chance.

I say us, because I use a wheelchair as a result of a diving accident 14 years ago that left me a quadriplegic.  Luckily, I had good rehabilitation and a car that I drive myself with hand controls.  I was able to complete my studies for the Institute of Marketing Management diploma,  a three-year internationally recognized diploma in marketing. (Fellow students had to carry me up and down 18 steps between lectures). I also had the will to return to normal life again, albeit from a wheelchair with a severe disability.

Ironically, Superman was my hero, and now he is my comrade!  I do not use Christopher Reeve as an example of someone who I should strive to be.  He is a wonderful example of someone who has not quite accepted his disability but has concentrated on "prevention and cure".  His life is not nearly as displaced as someone here in South Africa in a rural area with a lesser disability.    He is financially secure and famous and does not have to take part in Employment Equity.   Many people visualise Christopher Reeves as the prospective incumbent when looking for people with disabilities to employ. They are going to get a fright, not with the disability and the adaptations and assistive devices it comes with, but with the level of competency.

If, only"
Oh, if the Government had only implemented a Bill enforcing all public (including bus & train) transport to cater to people with disabilities and then a Bill enforcing all businesses to offer some sort of training or contribute to training through a levy for people with disabilities.  If that had been done, we, the disabled would be a pleasure to employ!  The Act would not be seen as a threat to company profitability but more of an opportunity to increase profits by buying their skills & potential, not their disability.

I have had a wonderful experience in the 15 years I have used a wheelchair.  I look only upon the opportunities it has offered and decide that my "hardware", the wheelchair, will be my best and most profitable business tool.   This is all very well as I work for myself, and many of my customers love showing me off on a business site or cocktail party as their contribution to entrepreneurship and community service by using me as their sub-contractor.  They all pay on time and love me to bits.  It is wonderful.   But, would they employ me on their full time staff doing the same type of work?  Employing people with disabilities only as sub-contractors does not satisfy the conditions of the Act.

The wheelchair as a sign of ability, not disability
Using a wheelchair is my ID tag to being disabled.   If you lifted me out my chair and put me into a "directors chair", you would not call me disabled (or whatever term you use) and would never be able to identify the disability.   Put me back after our meeting and then".."he's disabled!".  What is the disability?  My wheelchair?  I completely accept my quadriplegia, using a wheelchair and being classified "disabled".  I am a proud disabled person, but look at what I'm trying to say.  People only recognise my disability by the wheelchair, which in fact in the very object that "ables" and "empowers" me.   It is my method of mobility and the very piece of "hardware" that allows me to integrate and become employable!  But, it is the very object that makes people believe I am unemployable!!

My wheelchair allows me access to everywhere you can go (albeit with a bit of help). My hand control allows me to drive and my incontinent products allow me to have control over my toileting routine.   So, I am still trying to discover while I am in my wheelchair, where is this disability?   A bit of lateral thinking will make you realise that the very object that identifies someone as being "disabled" is actually the object that minimises or negates the disability.

Most people with disabilities love to work, love holidays, enjoy travel, socialise, play sport, have relationships, enjoy sex and start families, cry, laugh, sulk & smile.  We have not become immune to normal emotions and feelings, normal activities and experiences.   We are desperate to contribute, we dream, set ourselves goals and need reward for achieving them, some of us break laws and go to jail"some of us fail, some of us are in parliament, all of us vote, just like everyone else.

Challenge to employers
The challenge to you, as an employer, is to employ your own skills in selecting your staff.  We, the disabled are good value.  We have the amazing ability to motivate fellow colleagues, mentor people and show that we have skills that are very comparable with others in your staff.  Look at our disability as another tool you can use in your company strategy.   Most importantly, employ our skill.   Allow us the chance to demonstrate our skills when in interview.   Then choose the best person for the job.   If it is me you want, beware, I will show you some interesting ways to use my wheelchair within company strategy to get closer to a goal, deal or customer.
 

This article was typed by Ari Seirlis (a quadriplegic) using Dragon Dictate (voice activated software) and completed at a speed of 98 words a minute. You can contact Ari by email at aris @iafrica.com