LATEST NEWS
APRIL 2025 EDITION
A TRIBUTE TO ROSEMARY DE WAAL
In this newsletter we pay a special tribute to Rosemary who was a founding member of the WCFID. Words cannot convey the true impact of the
role she has played in the lives of so many people within the intellectual disability community. The WCFID Team will continue to build upon the legacy of
Rosemary and all those that have helped to shape the 'Forum'.
SECOND TERM
TRAINING PROGRAMME
Click on the link below to view the details for Term 2 (April, May & June). Early registrations are encouraged to avoid disappointment.
What's next?
Face-to-Face Training, Wednesday, 23 April 2025 - PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) Feeding. Please direct enquiries to Shakira at: coordinator@wcfid.co.za
AN ONLINE COURSE
WHATSAPP!
Are you ready to learn the basics of WhatsApp and connect with friends, family, and supporters like never before? Then register for the WCFID's first online, accessible Digital Literacy Course for People with Intellectual Disability - The Basics of WhatsApp. The WCFID has developed this course in collaboration with young adults, with intellectual disability, who shared their needs and concerns about engaging on social media platforms.
To find out more about this online course, please click on the link below or email Melanie: trainer@wcfid.co.za
ADVANCING CONSITUTIONAL RIGHTS
THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
Read and share our new booklet tracking WCFID’s fight for the education rights of children with intellectual disability who are still systemically excluded from public schools. While the education department defers meaningful action to realise their Constitutional rights, under-resourced community-based organisations and NGOs (called special care centres) continue their decades-long struggle to provide education and care for them.
Should you have any questions, please contact the Advocacy Manager at: advocacy@wcfid.co.za
DISABILTY RIGHTS BILL - WCFID SUBMISSION
URGENT: TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THE DISABILITY RIGHTS BILL
This submission is in part prompted by the commitment the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (with DSD and DBE), made in the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development (01 March 2023):
“The Department's work was proving to be limited due to the lack of disability legislation to assist it in enforcing requirements in instances of non-compliance. … The intention was to ensure a Disability Rights Bill was tabled before Parliament before the end of this sixth administration.”
Our submission focuses on the urgency for tabling of the Disability Rights Bill to accelerate access to equitable, inclusive, quality education for children with severe to profound intellectual disability to address the violation of their immediate and positive Constitutional, legal, and jurisprudential right to education.
WCFID SUBMISSION TO THE NCOP: BELA BILL B2B
1. The Bill, in its current form, perpetuates and entrenches the practice of progressive access to basic education for children with disabilities, rather
than the immediate, positive right enshrined in the Constitution.
2. Sections of the Bill conceal the systemic policy and legal gaps and practice of refusing children with disabilities admission at public schools (or
placing them on waiting lists). These sections, although directed at parents/caregivers, etc., place reciprocal obligations on the Minister and
education officials. The Bill exposes the Minister and education officials to criminal charges for preventing a learner from attending school.
3. The BELA Bill is silent about:
- The Constitutional, legal and jurisprudential mandate of the Department of Basic Education to provide education and its components to
learners with disabilities, of compulsory school-going age, at special care centres.
- The court order to provide funding to special care centres for children with severe to profound intellectual disability.
- The amendments that should be made to personnel, funding and resourcing legislation to enable equitable access to education for children
with disabilities, in and out of public schools.
UPDATE ON PROGRESS
WCFID made a submission to the Committee on Basic Education that draws the attention of the Committee to several concerns that the DBE presentation elicits about the education rights of children with severe to profound intellectual disability.
1. DBE does not provide ‘remedial measures’ for problems it identifies in the ‘problem statement’ despite civil society organizations repeatedly
raising these concerns with them, parliamentary committees, and the President, e.g.:
2. DBE’s inadequate and inequitable implementation of the court order WCFID obtained (2010) (Case No 18678/2007) on the education rights of out-of-school children with SPID who attend special care centres because public schools refuse to admit them based on their disability.
3. The misalignment of DBE’s description and definition of intellectual disability (ID) with DSM-5 and WHO descriptions and definitions, in particular, the definition of severe and profound intellectual disability (SPID) with resulting inappropriate programmes and curricula and resourcing and questionable reporting.
IMPACT OF LOADSHEDDING
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
DISASTROUS IMPACT OF LOADSHEDDING ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, THEIR FAMILIES AND OUR MEMBERS
We call on the President to address this matter urgently and share with the disability community and the general public:
- An implementation plan to safely resolve the energy crisis in plain English (and translations) with clear timeframes and performance indicators
and responsible entities.
- A turnaround plan to address budget cuts in real terms for socio-economic rights in the health, education and social development sectors.
- A turnaround plan to address the delay in progress to reach the objectives of the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its
Implementation Matrix, and the National Development Plan. This delay exacerbates the suffering of persons in the disability community and
limits their enjoyment of equitable access to all their human rights.
Should you have any questions, please contact Vanessa Japtha, Advocay Manager: advocacy@wcfid.co.za
THE NATIONAL SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMME
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES HAVE A HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD:
ACCESS TO THE BASIC EDUCATION NATIONAL SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMME (NSNP) FOR LEARNERS WITH SEVERE TO PROFOUND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY (SPID) AT SPECIAL CARE CENTRES
Since 2017, we have been advocating for access to the NSNP for children with intellectual disability (high support) who are excluded from public schools. In 2021 we sent a letter of motivation to the Western Cape Right to Education Task Team established in response our court order (Case 18678/2007).
• Our letter was submitted to the WCED HOD, who submitted it to the DBE DG.
• DBE responded with a visit to, and survey of, centres in August 2022.
• Currently, children with SPID at centres are still excluded from the NSNP.
At a time when poverty levels and the cost of living are soaring, children with SPID are left even more vulnerable. The Care Dependency Grant (CDG) cannot address their poverty and nutrition adequately.
Hungry children with disabilities demand DBE’s implementation plan with time frames to ensure that children with SPID at special care centres have urgent and accelerated access to the NSNP.
MEDIA STATEMENT: LEARNER TRANSPORT
DELIVERY OF A BUS FOR CHILDREN WITH SEVERE TO PROFOUND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY ATTENDING A SPECIAL CARE CENTRE
Cape Town, 26 September 2022
The Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability shares the relief felt by one of our member centres, as they take delivery of a bus for the children at the centre in Khayelitsha. This is the fourth centre to receive a bus for children with severe to profound intellectual disability. The children have high support needs and require buses that are safe, accessible, and appropriate. For more information please contact Vanessa Japtha, Advocacy Manager: advocacy@wcfid.co.za
HEAR OUR VOICES - HEAR OUR MESSAGE
During 2021 the WCFID chatted to some young people with intellectual disability about their lives, their hopes and dreams. Young people with intellectual disability have the same interests, hobbies, hopes and dreams as their peers but feel they are not given the same opportunities to explore this and that they are unfairly judged. The International Disability Awareness Day, 03 December 2021, had the theme of ‘The Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke – Create and Realise an Inclusive Society Upholding Rights of Persons with Disabilities’. Let’s listen to the voices of young people with disabilities and aim to build an inclusive society for their future.
SUBMISSIONS TO PARLIAMENT
WCFID SUBMISSION TO PARLIAMENT (portfolio Committee on Basic Education) BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL. A missed opportunity to legislate and fund inclusive education and education for children with disabilities.
WCFID made a written submission and requested an opportunity to make an oral submission on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill) `{`B2-2022`}` in June 2022. The written submission notes the Bill’s silence on inclusive education and education for children with disabilities, and specifically its silence on the right to education of learners with severe to profound intellectual disability.
It is silent on the systemic exclusion of learners who attend special care centres (NGOs). This silence undermines the rights of these learners to care, protection, dignity, equality, non-discrimination and education.
For more information, please contact Vanessa Japtha, Advocacy Manager at: advocacy@wcfid.co.za
