Society of Law Teachers of Southern Africa Conference, 2012

Today I find myself in the esteemed company of many established as well as up-and-coming law teachers and academics from all over South(ern) Africa.

The annual conference is being held at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University campus is Port Elizabeth. Papers are being presented on a huge range of issues, from criminal law to human rights law, competition law to family, commercial law to disability law.

Of course, I am most interested in the papers being presented on disability law. Considering that disability law research is in its infancy (compared to a number of other legal research areas), it is extremely heartening to see that no less than three papers relating to disability law are being presented at this conference.

The first of the papers deals with the rights of persons with disabilities to education; the second (which I will be presenting) is on the African approach to implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the last deals with persons with disabilities who are HIV positive.

Rather an eclectic bunch, no?

Rather than focus on my own presentation, I think the more interesting of the papers is the one relating to the right to education. Not being anything close to an expert on the right to education, I believe that there is a huge gap in the area of education for children with disabilities. Think back to the early days of South African basic education: 'special classes' (or 'hulpklasse') abound, in which traditional teaching material was either disregarded or, for lack of a better word, 'dumbed down' so that learners in these classes were able to pass their respective exams. In many cases, learners of different ages and languages were put together in the same class, having to cope with the same material. The problems created by this approach are clear. One can only hope that leaps and bounds have been made in the education of learners who are not comfortable with the traditional schooling methods and materials in order that these learners leave high school with the same standard of education as learners in the 'normal' classes.


On a more personal note, I am quite confident that my presentation will be received well. I am not suggesting anything particularly controversial, although there is always potential to ruffle feathers! I am also a little intimidated by being (as usual at these events) apparently the youngest presenter. It's quite sad being called 'ma'am' by some of the student assistants at this conference! Perhaps I should start walking around with photo identification to prove that I do not yet qualify as a 'ma'am'. Ah well, such are the problems of a (very) budding academic! Not too long from now, I shall probably wish that I still get called 'ma'am' instead of 'that old prof over there'.

Nose back on the grindstone - I have a presentation to get ready for!

Disability, sexuality and rights

After a long silence, it is time for me to start (again) making inroads on the plethora of ideas I've had for blog posts.


Perhaps the easiest place to start is with the upcoming 7th Global Conference by Interdisciplinary.net conference, The Erotic. The conference blurb reads:

Mapping the field of the erotic is a complex and frustrating endeavour; as something which permeates lived experience, interpersonal relationships, intellectual reflection, aesthetic tastes and sensibilities, the erotic is clearly multi-layered and requires a plethora of approaches, insights and perspectives if we are to better to understand, appreciate and define it.

This inter- and trans- disciplinary project seeks to explore critical issues in relation to eroticism and the erotic through its history, its emergence in human development, both individual and phylogenetic, as well as its expression in national and cultural histories across the world, including issues of transgression and censorship. The project will also explore erotic imagination and its representation in art, art history, literature, film and music. These explorations inevitably touch on the relationship between sexualities, gender and bodies, along with questions concerning the perverse, fetishism and fantasy, pornography and obscenity.

Pretty interesting stuff. I will be presenting a paper discussing the sexual rights of persons with disabilities, the main premise of which is that persons with disabilities have sexual needs and urges, but society either frowns upon sexual activity between or involving persons with disabilities or denies that it exists at all.

Perhaps the lack of recognition of the sexual rights of persons with disabilities should be paid more attention when initiating campaigns for awareness and mainstreaming? Food for thought.

On a more personal note, the Conference is being held from 10 - 12 September at Oxford University. I could not be more thrilled, and I am extremely honoured that my paper has been chosen for presentation at such a prestigious University!

Covering our tracks

After having posted about the proposed re-registration of all social grant recipients in South Africa I have made a conscious decision to follow all the developments in the process with an eagle eye. As a result of this determination, I have come across another news report that quotes the same Minister on the same process. A number of inconsistencies are immediately clear in the statements made to the press, which reinforce my belief that the re-registration is not only ill-conceived, but also poorly planned and the repercussions either not considered, or considered unimportant.

In the older article which was the subject of my previous post, the Minister insists that the re-registration will be carried out in a door-to-door manner, with basically universal individual checks going on. In the new report, the Minister asserts that re-registration will be done at the pay points where the grants are collected by recipients each month. This is not only a contradiction, but also seems to fly in the fact of the supposed purpose of the re-registration. If the idea is to identify those people who should or should not be receiving grants, then simply making a note of those people who pitch up to collect the grants is pointless. Also, not all grant recipients collect their money at a pay point - many people have their grants paid into a bank or Post Office account. How will these people be re-registered?

I believe the Department needs to make a firm decision on what it is that they are hoping to accomplish. If the goal is to simply have an accurate  database of grant recipients, then calling this process a re-registration is appropriate.  If, however, the goal is to compile a database in addition to making calls as to who should be stripped of their grant and making new awards of grants, then the term re-registration is a misnomer.  The Minister has alluded to both of these, but the language used and explanations given are somewhat confusing.

The idea of home visits for each grant recipient has now been scaled down to include only those people over the age of 75, and those who are confined to their beds. While the individual home visits notion was fraught with logistical problems, I do not believe that conducting home visits for a small group of persons is feasible either. What about recipients who travel long distances to and from collection points?

It appears to me that the Minister has been made aware of the problems created by her initial statement and is now trying valiantly to make it appear as if all the issues have been well though out. I believe her follow-up remarks have made it rather clear that the opposite is true. 


At last year's Disabled Peoples International 8th World Assembly, the Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities made mention of the fact that coverage provided by social grants should not only be extended to provide more people with financial support, but also that the level of financial support should be increased from the current amount of R1140 per month for disability and old age grants. However, the President made a statement in November of last year emphasising that South Africa should not fall into the trap of becoming a 'welfare state' and that general revenue should be used to further development rather than 'feeding the poor'. How can it be that the President's viewpoint differ so drastically from that of his Minister?

As I mentioned previously, I am of the firm opinion that the re-registration (if that is an accurate description) is going to create huge logistical problems, and appears to be ill-conceived and poorly planned. one can only hope that the grant recipients, who are in dire need of financial support, are not the ones who suffer as a result of the governments' decision to shake things up under the guise of fraud and corruption prevention.

The absurdity of South African government

Since I have been silent for quite some time, it had to be something big to make me come out of the woodwork and make my opinions known.  The South African Department of Social Development has announced that all of the estimated 15 million social grant recipients in the country will be investigated and made to re-register in order to create a database of grant recipients and in order to prevent fraud in relation to the receipt of grants by persons who are not entitled thereto.

There are numerous problems with this process, which I will list below.

1. Absurdly, the supposed reason for this re-registration is to create a national database of grant recipients. In terms of the South African Social Security Agency Act of 2004, the Agency (Sassa) was tasked with creating such a database in terms of aforementioned Act. What the Minister is saying is that no such database exists, which means according to my supervisor Professor Kitty Malherbe, that Sassa has been operating illegally since its inception.

2. The Minister has said that Sassa will run this re-registration, the aims of which is to combat fraud and corruption. Hang on - isn't Sassa currently involved in illegal activity, since it apparently does not have the legally required database?

3. 15 Sassa officials have been arrested for engaging in illegal activity relating to grant recipients' fraud. This is the same Sassa who will be running the re-registration to combat fraud..... Talk about circular logic.

4. One of the aims of this process is to determine a) those persons receiving grants who are not entitled to and b) which persons who are not currently receiving grants but who are entitled thereto. The Minister has said that people will be sent door to door to facilitate this investigation. There are a number of problems with this. Firstly, how can you determine who shouldn't be getting a grant, if you cannot adequately identify those people who should? This is where disability comes in. South Africa has no workable definition of disability. We can therefore not identify exactly who is disabled for purposes of receiving the grant. how, the, can we assert that a particular person should have their grant taken away, if we cannot provide some solid proof that they are not disabled for purposes of the grant?

The other major problem is that this process is going to require manpower. Which means people need to be trained and hired. Which requires funding. Which will come from.....? Public funds that could be better utilised in providing better social services for disadvantaged individuals, rather than engaging in this time consuming waste of resources.  As for the door-to-door thing, what this process amounts to is a review of each one of the 50 million people in South Africa. How else can it be determined who should or should not be receiving a particular grant?

Mention must again be made of the notion of combating fraud and corruption by means of this re-registration.  What makes anyone think that the official doing the door-to-door investigation is above reproach and could not be swayed by a few thousand rand or similar offer? There is nothing preventing the individual involved in the review from incorrectly recording the details of individuals to ensure that their social grants are not ceased.

The mind boggles.

While the objectives of re-registration are certainly admirable, this is NOT the means to achieve those ends. One cannot in the same breath accuse Sassa of having failed to meet its legislative obligations, employing corrupt officials and then expect that same institution of solving all the problems relating to fraud and the non-compliance with legislation! In other words, some other mechanism of reviewing the awarding of social grants needs to be implemented. All this process is going to achieve is angering the public and possibly depriving those individuals who need social grants the most from those funds.

We will have to wait and see how the debacle unfolds.

Nose to the grindstone

If I have been extremely quiet for a little while, it is because I have now immersed myself so deeply in the next chapter of my doctoral thesis, it is hard for me to tell where I end and the thesis begins.

So since I am so wrapped up in my on troubles, a little voice has been telling me that I need to step out of this bubble I've created for myself and remind myself of what is happening out in the real world. What I have found interesting are the following articles:

Boris Johnson attacks planned cuts to disability payments:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/06/boris-johnson-attacks-disability-payments-cuts

Disabilities disappear on slopes:
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Weekend+Extra+Disabilities+disappear+slopes/5959748/story.html

Ontario disabilities act creates compliance confusion:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-marketing/customer-service/ontario-disabilities-act-creates-compliance-confusion/article2292901/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2292901


The latter really raises some important issues - it's all good and well to theorise about improvements, better protection, universal design etc etc, but how does one go about allowing these issues to be implemented in a practical way?

It's a conundrum, I say!

I plan on being more active on this blog once this chapter has been completed. It's hard going. If anyone has any tips or support, feel free to comment or email me at ywiid16@gmail.com.

Get down and give me 20 000 words, stat!

As some you may know, I started this blog as a sort sideline project to my doctoral thesis on the definition of disability in South Africa.

I have written two chapters this year, and have now embarked on the third. I thought this chapter would be a breeze after the last one, since the subject matter is South African legislation and I am, well South Africa.

How wrong could I be?

I think I am only just beginning to realize the enormity of the task I have taken on. Doctoral level thinking is just so entirely different to masters level thinking that I don't quite know whether I'm coming or going with this chapter. What do I put where? DO I really have to write as if my reader knows very little about the subject? Let's be honest - experts are going to grade this thesis. Dare I write as I am explaining things to a first year law student? I am a little stumped. Granted, it's more about stylistic issues than writing issues (I have never, ever had writer's block), but the effect is the same - a downturn in my productivity.

I am probably not the first, nor will I be the last doctoral candidate to have this problem. But it's still hard to try and get over it right now. My mind turns to the possible solutions - carry on writing, even though I may have to redo it at a later stage (but at least I will be increasing the length of the chapter for the moment) or stop working entirely and hope that the problems will have disappeared at their own leisure? Any advice welcomed.

In other news, the issue of awareness of the challenges facing disabled persons has been raising its head more and more in my daily life. Of course, as I have mentioned previously, the most prominent type of disability is physical. Although at this point, overexposure of physical disability may lead to a greater awareness of other disabilities. I think I will be spending some time doing research on this topic, to try and see what can be done in the way of gaining media and civilian attention to the issues of accessibility and reasonable accommodation.

Lofty goals, no? I see a New Year's resolution coming on.


Happy Christmas to all of you, and may you have a joyous New Year.

Intellectual disability in the workplace

I came across this article today, and it links closely with a concept that I have been struggling to come to grips with for some time: how does one make reasonable accommodation in the workplace possible for a person with a disability that is not a physical disability?

Reasonable accommodation for persons with physical disabilities seems reasonably straightforward - a ramp here, an elevator there and hey presto! A (physical) disability-friendly workplace! But what of those of us experiencing intellectual, mental, communicative etc disabilities?

Food for thought, indeed. A respected researcher whom a consulted recently said to me on that occasion: if you cannot even get out of bed because of depression / bipolar disorder or a similar condition, how can you be expected to work? And, if you do somehow make it to work, how can the environment be adapted to assist you? The remedy is certainly not as simple as installing a ramp. In fact ask anyone how you make a workplace 'friendlier' for persons in these situations, the response takes quite some thought and probably does not result in an adequate answer.

If you will indulge me, I am copying the article I happened upon today.

Employment and intellectual disability

by Mauro Farrugia Article published on 14 December 2011 People with intellectual disability are one of the most vulnerable groups in today’s society. A person with intellectual disability is four to 10 times more likely to be sexually abused1, is much more prone to suffer from physical and social isolation, and to have no control over his/her living environment. Defining intellectual disability is not easy; such term includes a huge spectrum of disabilities mainly the developmental and specific learning disabilities, brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore over the years, the terms ‘intellectual disability’, ‘mental retardation’ and ‘learning disabilities’ although having slightly different meanings, have been used interchangeably creating further confusion. In the British White Paper, Valuing People, the term ‘learning disability’ is preferred and such term is defined as “A significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), with a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning), which started before adulthood, with a lasting effect on development”. (Department of Health, 2001, p.14) In addition, we also have to consider that the term ‘mental retardation’, apart from being derogatory in nature, is also subject to a euphemism treadmill, especially after the passing of Rosa’s law2 in United States, thus the terms ‘intellectual and learning disability’ are the terms that should be used. In Malta, the idea that people with intellectual disabilities engage into work is not new. Government-run day centres have been around for more than 30 years and although the primary objective of these centres was to offer respite services for parents, other objectives included the training of service users in basic artisan skills like needlework, pottery and cane; and to provide a form of sheltered working environment. Such environments, if used effectively, can become a perfect stepping stone for training and other work options, but if certain quality control measures are not taken, they become just segregated non-productive units. Unfortunately when it comes to learning disability and employment, it seems that the predominant trend embraced by carers and parents alike is that if people with intellectual disabilities work at all, it would primarily be in sheltered settings. Moreover, people with more significant intellectual impairments (particularly those using the developing social care services) are, by definition, seen as ‘incapable’ for work (Simons, 2000). In reality, different work options exist and have to be explored. First and foremost, full-time open employment should never be excluded from the agenda of the person with intellectual disability. Then, if this option is deemed as not suitable, supported employment schemes, social enterprise cooperatives, should be considered. If all of the above fail, then one can resort to sheltered employment. Voluntary work is another important option that is not sufficiently tapped in the Maltese environment. When a person engages in voluntary work, he/she is not only preparing for the demands of employment, but it also encourages the development of personal and social skills. In addition, when a person with disability is engaged in voluntary work, he or she may feel that s/he is not just at the receiving end but also contributing towards his/her own society. Why should people with intellectual disabilities work? Service providers suggest that employment positively affects people with disabilities in a variety of ways. Research proves that people with disabilities who work, show an increase in self-confidence and self-esteem. Employment often creates a connection with the real world, a connection that gives the person a sense of self-worth, and relief from boredom that often characterises the life of a person with intellectual disability. Being employed also creates opportunities for making friends and social activity. But what is the view of people with intellectual disabilities themselves? People with learning difficulties mention other positive factors which include the attainment of financial independence, and keeping themselves occupied. The former is important because they feel that getting paid is a great way of paving their way into society and as a motivator for the person to maintain the work. Personal development is also seen as an important aspect of work, especially when employment involves taking on new responsibilities as this is seen that it gives them status in the eyes of others. Finally, for some people, working is a golden opportunity to change their social status from someone traditionally seen as in need of help, to someone who could help others and do something important3. Barriers at work Having an inclusive working environment will always give rise to challenges both for the employer and the employee; accessibility, type and expense of support needed by the person are usually the first problems that crop up in the employer’s mind. Furthermore, it is important to note that extra attention must be given on how information such as policies, working procedures and other vital information are written, especially for people with intellectual disability. The type of jargon used and the availability of data are also worthy of note. From the employee’s perspective, people with intellectual disabilities are often worried that the demands for a job are too high for them to achieve. Moreover, rates of pay are usually lower and they have a negative impact on their benefits. Another problem that people with intellectual disabilities find is that some may consider the workplace as a place to make friends or for genuine social inclusion, but this may not always be a reality. Concerns are real for both the employer and the employee, but positive aspects do also exist! Research shows that people with disability stay in one job for longer, have fewer workplace accidents, and are absent from work less often than their colleagues. Furthermore, during the recruitment and barrier-free selection processes, companies widen their talent pool and ensure they choose the best person for the job. So what is the way forward? In the report Quality of Life of Disabled People: Some answers from the 2005 Census produced by the National Commission Persons with Disability, only 9.2% of people with intellectual disability are effectively in employment. The picture is quite bleak but of course, one has to consider that in the last five years, the number of support services aimed at facilitating the entry of people with disabilities into the labour market has increased exponentially. It seems that government, its state corporations and agencies, and NGOs directly involved in this sector are taking the step towards increasing work opportunities. Therefore, one augurs that better statistical results are obtained in the next census. Apart from direct support, more work-friendly oriented benefits, flexible working schemes and specialised training are required as a person with intellectual disability needs to learn how to empower him/herself and to fight for him/her rights. I believe that when it comes to people with intellectual disabilities, both service providers and parents are making two simple yet fundamental mistakes; we are neither taking into consideration the voice of the direct stakeholders, nor training this cohort to start voicing their opinion. Unfortunately in Malta, self-advocacy is still considered by most as fiction material, yet if we don’t give people with intellectual disabilities the tools and experience to take control over their own lives they won’t have the motivation to keep their hard earned job nor the necessary skill to ameliorate it. 1 Sobsey, D. Violence and Abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities: The End of Silent Acceptance? Baltimore, Maryland: Paul H Brookes Publishing Co, Inc., 1994. 2 Rosa’s Law is a United States law which replaces several instances of “mental retardation“ in law with “intellectual disability”. Law came into effect on 5 October, 2010 3 Stephen Beyer, Bob Grove, Justine Schneider, Ken Simons,Val Williams, Anna Heyman, Paul Swift and Emma Krijnen-Kemp (2004); Working lives: The role of day centres in supporting people with learning disabilities into employment; Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 203 Mauro Farrugia is Services Manager, Aġenzija Sapport URL: http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=136911 Makes for interesting reading, no?