Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga: SARS Deaf Accessibility and Cohort Programme

• Programme Directors, Ms Nompumelelo Masina and Mr Yanga Matandabuzo; 
• Mr Dan Zulu, Interim Deputy Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service; 
• Members of the SARS Executive Committee (EXCO), Directors and Heads joining us in person, and the rest of the SARS leadership joining virtually; 
• Dr Nondumiso Mdletshe; Mr Vusi Ntlakana; Ms Mandiza Mbekeni of the SARS Gender Equality and Persons with Disabilities Unit; 
• The Deaf Cohort of 2025, the facilitators, interpreters and language specialists who have walked this journey with you; 
• Representatives of eDeaf and our programme partners; 
• Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning. 

Section 1: Introduction and the importance of launching the programme during DRAM

On behalf of our Government, I wish to begin by congratulating the South African Revenue Service on the official launch of the SARS Deaf Accessibility and Cohort Programme. I also wish to acknowledge the seniority of the audience that SARS has convened for this occasion. The presence of members of the Executive Committee, Directors and Heads here in the Linton Auditorium, together with the rest of the SARS leadership joining us virtually, speaks to the importance that this organisation attaches to disability inclusion.  

On behalf of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, I wish to commend your determination to strengthen awareness, capability and institutional responsiveness in respect of Deaf accessibility within SARS and across the broader public service environment.  

We welcome the practical measures you are putting in place to improve communication access, enhance service delivery for Deaf persons and contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and disability-responsive public sector in general. Your work demonstrates, in the most concrete way possible, how inclusion can be translated from principle into practice through employment, skills development, accessible communication and institutional capability.  

Having studied the initiative’s concept note, I wish to appreciate SARS for what I believe is a comprehensive and organisationwide approach to disability inclusion. Through this launch, we recognise your intention to solidify the connection between your own initiative and the broader government agenda on disability inclusion, dignity, equitable participation and inclusive public service. This is a commendable   example of mainstreaming disability rights, and I thank you for allowing our department to contribute to that connection today. 

Section 2: Our government’s attitude and legislative instruments towards disability inclusion

Dear colleagues, allow me to now place this launch within the legislative and policy context that frames our collective obligations. First, For South Africa, and for this Government, disability inclusion has been, and continues to be, a constitutional imperative.  It sits at the heart of our supreme law of the land, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996; which guarantees equal rights and prohibits discrimination based on disability. 

Section 9 ensures equality before the law, while Section 29 guarantees the right to basic education for all, including learners with disabilities. Both sections recognise disability inclusion as a critical enabler of national development. Second, International Treaties. We ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and domesticated it through a Cabinet-approved White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have further ratified the Continental African Disability Protocol, as championed by the African Union. These documents are binding commitments; and institutions such as SARS play a decisive role in determining whether those obligations are honoured in the lived experience of persons with disabilities. 

Section 3: Disability Rights Awareness Month

Programme Directors, We highly commend SARS for choosing to launch this initiative during our annual Disability Rights Awareness Month (DRAM), which started on the 3rd of November until the 3rd of December, which is International Day for Persons with Disability. As a department we have advocated for the 3rd of December to be part of the National Assembly agenda through a National Debate, taking stock of the nation’s strides in building an inclusive society.  

This year, DRAM is taking place under the theme “Creating Strategic Multi-Sectoral Partnerships for a Disability-Inclusive Society.” The theme speaks directly to what is unfolding here today, under the theme “Every Hand has a Voice — Shaping an Inclusive Future”, which aligns and carries the very essence of the DRAM 2026 theme. A revenue authority partnering with a specialist Deaf education organisation, developing a cohort of Deaf Service Consultants, and committing its most senior leadership to that work, is precisely what our theme asks of every institution in this country.  

We launched this year’s DRAM with an awareness walk to reaffirm that persons with disabilities are equal rights-holders, entitled to the same human rights, fundamental freedoms and opportunities as everyone else. The walk underscored our shared responsibility — as government, the private sector, communities and society at large — to remove barriers to full and equal participation in social, economic, political and cultural life. Rooted in our constitutional commitments and disability rights frameworks, the campaign calls for an inclusive society that protects these rights and upholds accessibility, reasonable accommodation, independent living and meaningful participation. 

In the end, our aim as Government is: 

• To Unite South Africans, with and without disabilities, to build a barrier-free, disability-inclusive society where everyone can contribute to community development; 
• To Mobilise active citizenship and sustainable social compacts to advance a shared national identity that celebrates diversity and includes persons with disabilities; 
• To Build hope and confidence in partnerships between government, civil society and the private sector to address shared challenges facing persons with disabilities and society; 
• To Advocate for the accelerated implementation of the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and 
• To Communicate and implement disability inclusion commitments in the 2024–2029 Medium-Term Development Plan and national and provincial programmes of action. The initiative SARS is launching today speaks to every one of these strategic aims.

Section 4: To prepare for inclusive workplaces, we must begin with an inclusive education system

Programme Directors,  

Disability-inclusive workplaces, such as those SARS is building, begin with an inclusive education system. The young Deaf South Africans in this cohort reached this point with the support of teachers, parents and communities determined that they should not be left behind.  Throughout our awareness campaigns, we have emphasised that the greatest barriers facing learners with disabilities lie not in their bodies or minds, but in the exclusionary design of our schools, systems and curricula — and in our attitudes. 

The programme SARS is launching today takes an important step towards challenging these attitudes within the organisation. These barriers are especially acute in resource-constrained townships, rural areas and farming communities. Many special schools occupy buildings that remain inaccessible; classrooms without ramps, corridors too narrow for wheelchairs and toilets that children with mobility needs cannot use. 

As I have often said, if a child cannot enter a classroom with dignity, inclusion has failed before the lesson begins. Unless we address this exclusion at school, we risk reproducing it in the workplace. Infrastructure is only part of the challenge. Access to resources, particularly assistive devices, also demands urgent attention. A learner with low vision in an affluent suburb may have a tablet with accessible learning software, while a learner in a rural community may wait months for a Braille textbook or rely on photocopied materials. 

For Deaf learners, these gaps may include the absence of qualified South African Sign Language (SASL) teachers, interpreters during examinations and visual learning materials that make the curriculum accessible. Based on our research findings many teachers have not received adequate preparation for inclusive classrooms. This is not a personal fault, but a systemic gap in teacher training and professional development. 

Without the necessary support, teachers struggle to equip learners for the workplace, making our employment equity goals harder to achieve. This brings us back to the very important purpose of today’s gathering. Beyond infrastructure and resources, attitudes remain among the most persistent barriers. Stigma continues to shape experiences in schools, workplaces and communities. Too often, learners with disabilities are viewed as “extra work”, rather than as learners entitled to support and equal opportunity. Technology also offers opportunities. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and emerging educational tools can help tailor learning to the needs of learners with disabilities. Automated captioning, sign language recognition, speech-to-text and tactile reading technologies illustrate this potential. 

But these opportunities must be accessible to all. Without deliberate investment in devices, connectivity and teacher training for special schools and universal schools the benefits of inclusive technology risk remaining available only to the wealthy. This programme must therefore address both the opportunities and the barriers associated with emerging technologies. With its technological capabilities, SARS has an important contribution to make. 

Section 5: Catalytic projects and areas of partnership between the DWYPD and SARS

Programme Directors, I also wish to place before SARS concrete catalytic projects on which we would like to partner going forward. First, as government and private sector we need to enhance employment prospects and promote economic inclusion amongst persons with disabilities. For such prospects to materialize into tangible employment opportunities, largely rely on our department collaborating with experts in the field of disability inclusion. I therefore wish to work with SARS’s Deaf Accessibility and Cohort Programme in this regard, so that what you have built here can be scaled through a dedicated employment stream for Persons with Disabilities. 

Second, Pairing Special Schools with State-Owned Enterprises and CSI Budgets. One of my passion projects is a legacy initiative that seeks to pair every special school in South Africa with a State-Owned Enterprise capable of supporting both the educational and the infrastructural needs of our special schools.  

As part of this effort, we hope to bring together the CEOs of StateOwned Enterprises, Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), and Industry Associations to commit a percentage of their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) budgets towards turning around the state of special schools and improving the prospects of youth with disabilities.  

SARS, while not strictly an SOE in the conventional sense, carries significant convening power across the public finance ecosystem. Let us also work together to make this project a reality. Third, the National Development Plan sets a 7% employment equity target for persons with disabilities which must be met by 2030. We will leave nothing to chance in achieving this goal. Cabinet has approved an annual increase of one percentage in employment equity representation, which all government departments and private-sector organizations must implement to reach the 2030 target. 

The target for financial year 2026/27 is 5%. As the DWYPD we are leading by example at 5.56%. To this effect Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) requested by our department issued a circular to every department adhere to the annual target.  Our department further circulated a practice note on the same.  

Ladies and gentlemen; Cabinet has also made the appointment of persons with disabilities to the boards of state-owned entities mandatory.  All these efforts are to ensure that inclusion becomes lived realities for person with disabilities. Across the public service, we can no longer plead with our colleagues. Those who continue to pay lip service to employment equity will be named, and they will be shamed. However, we cannot achieve this goal alone.  

We are working with organisations of persons with disabilities to compile a credible database of persons with disabilities from which departments and public entities can readily recruit to meet the minimum target. SARS, through the Deaf Cohort Programme, already has operational experience in this space. Let us work together in this initiative too. It is worth mentioning that through the Department of Labour and Employment, to create employment for Persons with Disabilities; we have also advocated for an exemption for the Supported Employment Enterprises companies (SEE – Companies) which are companies that are owned by the State and employ Persons with Disabilities. To create more empowerment opportunities, we therefore ask government departments at all levels, the private sector and society at large to buy and procure good and services from SEE Companies.  

In closing

Programme Directors, allow me to close by reiterating our department’s appreciation to SARS, and to every stakeholder involved in this work.  The theme of this launch, “Every Hand has a Voice — Shaping an Inclusive Future”, carries the entire meaning of why we are in this room. In the South Africa we are building, every voice counts. Our department is committed to walking this journey with you. It is therefore my honour and priviledge to declare the official launch of the SARS Deaf and Accessibility Programme.

I thank you. 

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