As South Africa marks another Freedom Day, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: liberation remains incomplete for millions of South African citizens, especially our youth. While we celebrate the dismantling of apartheid and our democratic journey, we have yet to fully extend freedom’s promise to those living with disabilities.
Three decades into democracy, too many South Africans with disabilities remain invisible, marginalised in education, employment, and public life. In classrooms across our nation, children with cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, and other disabilities are still largely segregated—a profound form of discrimination that contradicts everything our constitution stands for. True freedom cannot exist in a society where access is determined by ability.
The education system embodies this contradiction most starkly. When children with disabilities learn separately from their peers, we implicitly teach children that difference justifies division. Yet when we create inclusive classrooms, something transformative happens children develop empathy naturally, discrimination gives way to understanding, and theoretical equality becomes lived experience.
This Freedom Day, we must reimagine inclusion not as charity but as justice—a fundamental right inseparable from the freedom we celebrate. The path forward demands urgent public-private partnerships that can bridge implementation gaps where government resources fall short. Corporations, NGOs, and community organisations must step beyond occasional initiatives to forge sustained commitments that transform systems rather than merely supplement them.
Several remarkable programs across South Africa have demonstrated what’s possible when commitment meets innovation. Where inclusive classrooms have been established, both children with disabilities and their peers flourish. Where support networks for parents exist, entire families find sustainability. Where economic empowerment initiatives for caregivers take root, communities grow stronger.
The economics of inclusion are compelling: every rand invested in disability inclusion returns multiples in reduced dependence and increased productivity. Yet the moral imperative transcends fiscal calculations. As we honour those who sacrificed for our democracy, we must ask whether we’re fulfilling their vision of a South Africa that belongs to all.
Public-private partnerships represent our most promising path to scale these solutions nationwide. Government policy provides the framework, but implementation requires the innovation, agility, and resources that cross-sector collaboration uniquely enables. When businesses bring efficiency, NGOs bring community connection, and the government brings legitimacy and scale, transformative change becomes possible.
Freedom Day should remind us that our liberation story remains unfinished. The true measure of our democracy isn’t how far we’ve come, but how faithfully we extend its promise to those still waiting at the margins. Until every South African, regardless of ability, can access the opportunities this freedom promised, our celebration rings hollow.
We are called to recognise that inclusion isn’t something we do for others but something we do for ourselves, for our collective humanity. This Freedom Day, let us recommit to a freedom expansive enough to embrace everyone, a freedom that recognises that our liberation is bound together. Only then will we truly honour the legacy of 1994.
