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The Department of Labour's Supported Employment Enterprises (SEE) is helping to improve employment prospects for people with disabilities.

Established after World War II to provide employment opportunities for veterans returning from the war, SEE now has 12 factories that operate in seven of the nine provinces and employs nearly 1 000 people with disabilities. Currently, 100 percent of the workers in the factories fit the profile of having physical, emotional or psychological disabilities.

The factories have the capacity to employ at least another 3 000 people, opening up opportunities for those who are often overlooked by employees because of the nature of their disabilities.

There are about 4.7 million people with disabilities in South Africa. About 10 to 15 percent probably require an environment such as the SEE.

The ownership of SEE factories is vested in the state through the Department of Labour, with SEE trading under the name Service Products.

The factories' manufacturing capacity includes 3 000 different product types and their customers include hospitals, the police and schools. SEE's mandate is to create employment with dignity for people whose disabilities make it difficult for them to find employment in the open labour market.

SEE is a non-profit organisation and people with disabilities are its sole beneficiaries.

In the rural areas, SEE has created another 1 100 jobs indirectly. SEE transports school desks and local carpenters assemble them for the schools.This outsourcing framework has created a sustainable ecosystem where school desks are also repaired by local craftsmen.