Disabilities Awareness

By Katlego Morulane

Disability is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth or occur during a person’s lifetime. In 2013, Cabinet approved 3 November to 3 December as Disability Rights Awareness Month, and 3 December as the National Day of Persons with Disabilities. Furthermore, 3 December is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and is also commemorated as National Disability Rights Awareness Day. Disability is one of the seven focus areas identified by the South African Human Rights Commission to promote, protect and monitor the realisation of Human Rights thereof in South Africa.

I sat with Mr Rodney Lucas, SANParks’ Transformation Manager based at Groenkloof National Park and learnt about his noteworthy contribution in elevating the Disability Awareness agenda in the organisation.

How did you get involved in Disability awareness and what role do you play in raising awareness about it?

By virtue of my role as transformation manager of SANParks, it is one of my duties and my passion to ensure that all employees, irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, able bodied or living with a disability, to mention but a few, have the same opportunity as everyone else in the organisation to participate fully and freely in all and any opportunity/ ies that are available to staff within SANParks.

What is the state of Disability Awareness in our country and in the organisation?

South African Human Rights Commission notes a very critical fact that persons with disabilities currently account for 5.1% of the population. These

Mr Rodney Lucas: Transformation Manager

people continue to experience a lack of access to adequate health and basic education and have no prospect of securing employment. The sector is also particularly vulnerable to the compounded effects of discrimination and abuse.

This is attributed to the entrenched negative beliefs and attitudes about the causes of disability; about the capabilities of persons with disabilities; about the need to protect persons with disabilities through segregated programmes; and persons with disabilities are mostly unable to take up or access affirmative action opportunities or access public services provided for the general population. In SANParks however, the status of disability and

awareness around disability has been addressed and continues to be one of our focus areas. In line with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, SANParks regards people with disabilities as designated employees with regard to transformation and employment equity. Our effort to accelerate the recruitment of people with disabilities is a continuing challenge. Our target is to have 2% of our workforce comprising employees living with disabilities. As at November 2021, 1.1% of our employees are people living with disabilities.

What programmes or projects have you implemented for Disability Awareness?

To further support our commitment to our employees and our customers with disabilities, we have implemented or will be implementing the following initiatives that are aimed at improving access and providing a supportive environment: • Establishing of a ‘People living with Disability’

Forum, • Developing of a Disability Policy, • Conducting frequent disability awareness sessions, • Developing a disability etiquette guideline, • Installing an elevator at Head Office, • Implementing universal access throughout the parks i.e. mirrors in bathrooms, grabrails, ramps to enter and exit accommodation units, etc. • Providing reasonable accommodation, • Implementing a disability portal where documents and comments can be posted, • Implementing a disability helpline in partnership with Independent Counselling and Advisory

Services, • Providing adaptable vehicles in KNP.

How can staff be involved in your projects?

Communicating effectively and sharing information around disability will result in informed and caring staff and staff buy-in. Through platforms such as the Employment Equity and Skills Development Forum (EESDF) and the Disability Forum, we could spread knowledge and ideas to staff.

...continued from Page 6 official documents. This digital signature solution will be accessed by managers and their PAs who have been enrolled in this SigningHub solution. By using SigningHub Digital Signature Solution documents can be signed off within minutes since we are able to sign anywhere using any device. SigningHub uses high security features whereby the signer will receive a One Time Pin (OTP) on their mobile phones when they digitally sign documents.

Did you know that you can do Bulk Signing from SigningHub?

SigningHub Bulk Signing is a powerful feature that enables users to digitally sign multiple documents. This option will save substantial time in opening each document and signing them individually.

Colleagues are also reminded about the ECM document routing process that should be used in all regions and parks for routing documents such as submissions and memoranda. We have also shared the SigningHub self-enrollment guideline on the intranet and we urge all managers to finalise their enrolment process since we have limited licenses. Colleagues are required to contact Tumi at Tumi.Mphahlele@sanparks.org for any queries about the abovementioned digital solutions.

How to make ethical decisions

What is meant by “ ethics

We are all encouraged to make ethical choices and apply ethics in all areas. But what does ethics mean, and why do ethics matter for SANParks?

According to Rossouw & Van Vuuren (2017:5) one is ethical when one does not only consider what is good for oneself, but also consider whether what is ‘good’ for the ‘self’ is also good for ‘others’. Ethics can be defined as a set of moral or ethical principles, which discriminate between right and wrong in human and non-human interaction, including decision-making, within SANParks and between SANParks and its stakeholders.

In short, we can think of ethics as the principles that guide our behavior toward making the best choices that contribute to the common good of all.

behaviour

Making ethical decisions

Ethics in a work place is just as important as ethics in personal life. When faced with an ethical decision, for example, “can I accept a gift from a service provider?” employees can make use of the ethics decision-making model as per below: (The Ethics Institute ethical decision-making model, The Ethics Institute, 2020) Alternatively, employees can use the mnemonic PLUS to guide decision making (Ethics & Compliance Initiative)  P = Policies Is it consistent with the organisations’ policies, procedures and guidelines?  L= Legal Is it acceptable under the applicable laws and regulations?  U = Universal Does it conform to the universal principles/values that the organisation has adopted?  S= Self Does it satisfy my personal definition of right, good and fair?

workplace

Ethics Helpline!

If you are still not sure whether a decision is ethical, SANParks has created a dedicated Ethics Helpline that provides a safe channel of communications for employees to seek guidance or clarity on general ethical matters.

The Ethics Helpline aims to promote a healthy ethical culture within the organisation. It is therefore educational and not for the purposes of reporting ethical violations.

It is managed internally and available for SANParks employees, including contract workers. All information is handled with the strictest confidentiality.

Contact details

EthicsHelpline@sanparks.org NB! NB! There are no silly questions –NB! There are no silly questions - all questions are welcome! all questions are welcome!