Jobs still ‘distant dream’ for the blind

THE Cape Town Society for the Blind says it’s a disgrace that only 3% of the country’s 1.4 million visually impaired people are formally employed, in spite of the efforts by NPOs to empower them.

The organisation said it was time that government and corporates start acquainting themselves with the reality of visually-impaired workers.

“The aspirations of many thousands of unemployed visually-impaired people to find employment and develop a career in SA’s formal work sector will remain a distant dream, unless government can review its poorly enforced policies and corporates can change their ‘charity’ and ‘company quota’ mentality towards hiring visually-impaired workers,” said the society’s chief executive, Lizelle van Wyk.

She said although government has several policies for those living with disabilities, it often reverts to type along with the corporate sector.

“As for the private business sector in general, they should get rid of their ‘culture’ of excluding workers with disabilities from employment. Stop pleading budget constraints, space, health or, safety concerns,” Van Wyk said.

“Rather appoint visually-impaired workers based on their individual skills/ qualifications and not simply as an act of charity – there are many well-qualified people with visual impairments wishing to be employed.

“As NPOs we call for the pro-active commitment and involvement from both government, corporate SA as well as from the private sector. We cannot do it alone anymore.”

The South African National Society for the Blind said it would meet the Labour Department to discuss the extension of placement offices for the blind. The society said there are placement offices providing assistance for blind job-seekers, in Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Free State.

Its social inclusion division manager, Chris Budeli, said there was uncertainty about government’s commitment to addressing the issue.