Building a more inclusive South Africa: progress and pitfalls in disability rights and inclusion

Abstract

For disabled South Africans, the legacy of protracted conflict and conflict resolution has led to a paradoxical situation. The struggle of people with disabilities within the larger politics of struggle helped produce major gains through constitutional recognition, self-representation, legislated advances and institutionalisation (or ‘mainstreaming’) of disability issues countrywide. Yet these advances have lost momentum, well short of full equity, and disabled South Africans continue to be systematically disadvantaged in all spheres of society. In short, a stubborn gap persists between aspiration and implementation. We document this gap, and offer five propositions as explanations for its persistence.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• disability
• mainstreaming
• neo-liberalism
• human rights
• civil society

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Shuaib Chalklen and Anlia Pretorius for their insights and advice, Kristi Kenyon and the journal’s anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions, and Ricardo Sao Jao, Esmerelda Theunissen and Emmaline English for research assistance.

Notes

1. Southall, “Inequality in South Africa.”

2. See Government of South Africa, White Paper, 22–27.

3. Census 2011, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.

4. Ibid.

5. ENCA, “Over 2.8m People.”

6. Interviews with DPO representatives, August 2016.

7. Human Rights Watch, Complicit in Exclusion.

8. For a map and further information about South Africa’s 9 provinces, see http://www.sa-venues.com/maps/south-africa-provinces.htm.

9. See note 3 above.

10. According to the 2011 census, Black Africans constituted nearly 80% of the total of just over 51 million people, with Whites and Coloureds at just under 9% each, and Indians or Asians at roughly 2.5%.

11. See note 3 above.

12. Though widely and often casually used, vulnerability should be recognized as a contested and socially mediated concept, in relation to age and others forms of social marginalization. To quote Stienstra and Chochinov, ‘Vulnerability arises not only in response to environmental risk and the ability to respond to it, but from more broadly held social attitudes or assumptions about specific groups of people. Vulnerability manifests in the context of social relationships, and the societal attitudes and assumptions that shape, inform, and often taint these relationships.’ See Stienstra and Chochinov, “Vulnerability, Disability, and Palliative,” 167.

13. See note 3 above.

14. Government of South Africa, Education White Paper 6.

15. See note 3 above.

16. See note 3 above.

17. Human Rights Watch, Complicit in Exclusion.

18. http://dsd.gov.za.

19. Employment Equity Report, South African Government, Pretoria.

20. See Census 2011, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria and Employment Equity Report, South African Government, Pretoria.

21. See note 3 above.

22. See note 19 above.

23. See note 20 above.

24. See note 19 above.

25. See note 20 above.

26. Pieter van Niekerk & Gail Glover, SA Guide-Dogs Association; Ari Serlis, QuadPara SA; Cathy Donaldson, BlindSA; Bruno Druchen, DeafSA & chairperson of the South African Disability Aliiance.

27. http://dsd.gov.za.

28. Loeb et al., “Poverty and Disability,” 311–321. The distinction between the charity/welfare, medical, and social models of disability is the focus of an extensive literature. For more on these approaches in the South African context, see de Matos-Ala and Black, “Promise Unfulfilled”. For an accessible description of the distinction between the medical and social models, see Disability.i.e. (DisAbility Ireland), “Social and Medical Models.”

29. See Marx, Lessons of Struggle; and Black, “The Long and Winding Road.”

30. In 1984, the National Party government introduced separate, elected parliamentary chambers for the country’s minority Colored and Indian population groups, but continued to exclude the African majority from electoral participation.

31. See Howell et al., “A History of the Disability Rights Movement,” 51; Swartz and Watermeyer, “Introduction and Overview,” 1–3.

32. On the high-stakes drama of the transitional period, see Friedman, The Long Journey; and Sparks, Tomorrow is Another.

33. Howell et al., “A History of the Disability Rights,” 56.

34. Lawyers for Human Rights was partially funded by the Canadian Embassy in South Africa.

35. Howell et al., “A History of the Disability Rights,” 58.

36. Mandela, “South Africa’s Future,” 86–97.

37. See http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml.

38. Dube, “The Role and Effectiveness,” 15.

39. For example in its prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, its protection of socio-economic rights, and its prohibition of capital punishment.

40. Author interview with former senior official in the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons, the Presidency of South Africa, October 2014.

41. Howell et al., “A History of the Disability Rights,” 68.

42. Naidoo, “Operationalising South Africa’s,” 108–125 and Naidoo, Fighting for Justice, 250–255.

43. This situation was not unique to the disability rights movement. Much of South African civil society struggled to adapt to a new political landscape in which its ‘struggle allies’ in the ANC were now the party of government, and in which many civil society leaders were co-opted into government.

44. South Africa Department of Labour, Employment Equity Act No. 55 1998 (19 October, 1998).

45. South African Social Assistance and Services, Social Assistance Act No. 59 1992 (26 April, 1992).

46. See Macgregor, “The Grant is What I Eat” and Loeb et al., “Poverty and Disability.”

47. Loeb et al., “Poverty and Disability.”

48. Interviews with representatives of South African DPOs, August 2015.

49. SADA was established in 2007 as an alliance of DPOs and disability service providers. Now comprised of 16 national Disability Organizations and 2 national Professional Associations, it has been increasingly at odds with the DPSA as the latter’s profile and effectiveness have declined. See http://www.ncppdsa.org.za/latest-news/60-south-african-disability-alliance-walks-out-of-disability-caucus.

50. John, “No Place for Disabled.”

51. Ibid.

52. See Southall, “Inequality in South Africa.”

53. Moser and Moser, “Gender Mainstreaming since Beijing.”

54. Walby, "Gender Mainstreaming.”

55. Tiessen, Everywhere/Nowhere.

56. We are indebted to an anonymous reviewer for these points.

57. See “SADA Walks Out.”

58. To borrow Giorgio Agamben’s famous phrase.

59. Interview with DPO representative, May 2016.