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Pretoria - Society needs to prioritise the issue of economic participation by people with disabilities, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.
Accompanied by Zambian President Rupiah Banda, Zuma visited the Johannesburg-based Adelaide Tambo Skills Development Centre as part of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Government has set a target of two percent of employment of people with disabilities as part of the total workforce.
Zuma said it was "disturbing" to note that the country was not making sufficient progress towards meeting this target, with 0.9 percent having been achieved, according to the latest annual Report of the Employment Equity Commission.
"The report indicates that people with disabilities in the private sector was at one percent, which is about 35 000 employees in 2009," he said.
Companies needed to be encouraged to direct their social responsibility programmes towards socio-economic empowerment of women, children and persons with disabilities.
This can significantly complement the efforts of government to eradicate poverty and provide social security to these marginalised groups.
"Amongst these poverty eradication efforts, is the social security programme of government. The number of people accessing disability grants increased from 694 000 and in 2002 to 1.2 million this year."
Zuma said as part of the social security net for people with disabilities, government is providing a care dependency grant of R1 080 per month, to assist families to care for children with special needs in their homes.
There is also a disability grant for adults over the age of 18 years, who are unlikely to find employment because of their disability and have no or limited sources of income.
In addition, the Presidency established the Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, its primary responsibility being to promote and protect the interests of vulnerable groups by mainstreaming gender, disability and children's rights.
"We need to ensure that every government department meets its individual obligation with regard to employment of persons with disabilities," added Zuma.
As part of the process of monitoring and evaluation, government will measure progress made by all relevant government departments in delivering services to persons with disabilities.
