The City of Johannesburg has partnered with DeafSA Gauteng to commemorate the International Week of the Deaf with a focus on the full inclusion of sign language in people’s daily lives.
MMC for Health and Social Development, Dr Mpho Phalatse, said the main objective of the campaign is to ensure that as many frontline officials as possible are educated and understand the basics of sign language.
“There are approximately four million people in South Africa who are hard of hearing or deaf. South Africa is also on the verge of embracing sign language as the country’s 12th official language. The idea is to bring the deaf and the hearing community together to start a conversation which promotes tolerance and social inclusion of the deaf,” Phalatse said.
Representatives will embark on basic sign language education through public service spaces and a Silent Walk at the Zoo Lake sports club on 30 September. MMC Phalatse will also be part of a roundtable discussion at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The International Week of the Deaf is globally celebrated from the 18 to 24 September. However, in South Africa, a lot of the initiatives are scheduled to take place during the last week of September.
The MMC said the City already has a Persons with Disabilities Unit that focuses on providing support programmes to persons with disabilities, including the deaf community.
“The main objective of the unit is to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, and lobby other departments within and outside the City to ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all the City’s activities.”
Additionally, she said, the City has a continuous relationship with organisations that are providing services to the hard of hearing and deaf community, which includes DeafSA, which is a member of the Joburg Disability Forum.
“We continue to strive for inclusion of all our people. In the [previous] financial year, we provided sign language training in partnership with DeafSA to 50 family members of deaf people. This is part of doing our part as a City to support the deaf community in their call to Parliament to consider South African Sign Language as one of the official languages.”
The City said takes issues of persons with disabilities seriously, and will continue with this programme and involve its employees.
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