Annual Workshop
Disability Advocacy Workshops
Held as a precursor to the main sports event, the disability engagement workshop gives grassroots disability voices a structured platform — and holds government and civil society accountable for follow-through.
About the Workshop
The disability engagement workshop, although hosted and supported by The Gijima Foundation, SANAC civil society, and the KZN Office of the Premier (OTP), is organised and implemented almost entirely by our two partner disability organisations — Siletha Ithemba and Siphilisizwe.
Themes, topics, speakers, programme facilitation, and content are entirely at their discretion — as it should be when grassroots voices need to be heard.
Both issues raised at the workshops are well documented nationally but little has changed in practice. Parliament investigated the dire state of KZN's ambulance fleet, finding only 50% were functional. Education for children with disabilities remains a persistent gap. What the workshop provides is a local space where these national failures become visible at individual level — and where individual-level redress can begin even as systemic change is pursued.
Recurring Themes (3 consecutive years)
2023–2025
Access to schooling
Both mainstream and special schooling, including scholar transport barriers for learners with disabilities — especially those in remote areas.
2023–2025
Planned patient transport
Challenges affecting wheelchair users' access to specialist and tertiary care — a systemic failure with profound personal consequences.
Three years on
Where Are We Now?
Both immediate individual redress and long-term systemic change are needed. Here's the progress.
Individual wins
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2 of 3 community members without access to tertiary care have received operative interventions — one now competes in Gijima events in his wheelchair.
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A wheelchair user who could not be linked to transport now travels independently to school on a 4x4 Segway wheelchair funded via Backabuddy.
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2 children with disabilities without documentation were integrated into school, upholding the constitutional mandate that no child is left behind.
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Modular wheelchair ramps constructed at 3 schools in 2026, with a fourth pending.
Systemic wins
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Local DPOs formally invited to attend ward 1 'war rooms' — the routine intersectoral meetings where community challenges are escalated.
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Local DPOs now invited to community meetings on road maintenance and infrastructure.
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KZN OTP received the full list of Manguzi disability sector grievances and committed to tracking departmental progress.
Who Sits at the Table
Want to be Part of the Conversation?
Government departments, NGOs, and community organisations are welcome to engage with the workshop process.
Get in touch