​The Gauteng Department of Social Development recently hosted a dialogue for Women with Disabilities at Magaliesburg Civic Centre, West Rand.
The dialogue was part of Women’s Month commemorations during which the entire country honours Women who laid the foundation for Women’s emancipation. This year marks the 66th year since the historic Women’s March to the Union Buildings to demand the abolishment of pass laws in 1956.

Addressing the gathering, Gauteng Social Development MEC Morakane Mosupyoe said, “Like numerous organizations around the country, the commemoration of Women’s Day is a powerful occasion to heighten and re-affirm the Department’s commitment to women’s empowerment.”

The theme for this year’s Women’s Month is: “Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Resilience!”. This theme is in line with global campaigns and links South Africa to global efforts to attain gender equality by 2030 notwithstanding South Africa’s constitutional vision and Government’s policy priorities as outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP) and the 2019-2024 Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) that emphasize women’s socio-economic empowerment as an essential program toward the transformation of the lives of the most vulnerable in our communities. Sadly, research shows that women and girls with disabilities are subjected to multiple layers of discrimination. Based on their gender and disability status they often face “double discrimination”.

“While major strides have been made to include persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities in the mainstream economy, much still remains to be done to address discriminatory attitudes, inaccessible public transport systems, barriers in the built environment that may prevent people with disabilities from accessing services, lack of access to communication and information, as well as poor enforcement of key legislation impacting on disability.” Mosupyoe
added.

“I would love to see women with disabilities accessing economic opportunities. As Social Development, we want to ensure you acquire various skills from NPOs that we are funding to provide skills training. I would like to see you establishing your own cooperatives with the assistance of Care Workers and our officials”, she said.

The Gauteng Department of Social Development continues to support people with disabilities through various programmes.