At the end of South Africa's rainbow

Most people's memory of World Cup 2010 in South Africa is likely to be, not the football, but the rasping buzz of the vuvuzela. But disabled people are hoping for a more tangible legacy according to Muzi Nkosi, Chair of Disabled People South Africa

I got involved in disability politics as a youngster in 1981 when I became disabled. At that time, living in the township of Soweto, as young people we were fighting the apartheid government. But also, as disabled people, we came together and we decided, let's form ourselves into a movement, an organisation which would fight for and champion the rights of disabled people.

And that became what is now Disabled People South Africa (DPSA).

Life for disabled people during the time of apartheid was extremely difficult. It was double discrimination. Not only was I discriminated against through apartheid as a black person, but also I was discriminated against as a disabled person, because I couldn't access the environment. I didn't even have access within my own home. It would have needed a lot of renovation for me to be able to move around.

So, both as black people and as disabled people we were discriminated against socially, politically and economically. You couldn't access employment as a disabled person back then.

Having founded this organisation, we went on in 1982 to hold the DPSA congress. A lot of people attended that congress which showed the need for establishing a movement which would speak with one voice.

Now, with the World Cup going on, people are recognising South Africa as this Rainbow Nation. From my point of view, disabled people are now part of that Rainbow Nation.

Since the arrival of that icon Nelson Mandela, opportunities have opened up for us. People tended to shy away from the apartheid regime, shy away from the apartheid thinking and that led to a willingness for greater inclusion of disabled people.

But, for the disability sector, there were still some challenges which are still there now. If I may make an example with public transport, in South Africa we don't have an accessible public transport system. And while, in a city like Durban, they introduced integrated buses on which anyone could ride, we hoped that this might help solve our problem. But it hasn't.

Elsewhere, throughout South Africa, disabled people are facing a lot of challenges with regard to employment and quite a lot of other issues which still affect us.

A report on the place and status of disabled people in South African society was recently published, following research conducted at the University of Johannesburg. It showed that disabled people here are still considerably marginalised. Some of them are living in real poverty because they are not claiming benefits to which they may be entitled due to lack of awareness of their entitlement or even that the benefit exists.

While what the report says is, to a great extent, true and accurate - a lot of disabled people are denied fundamental human rights and it's also true that many of them will not be getting benefit which is due to them - for me, as

I've said, the more important challenges are to do with real equality in an economic sense. Too many disabled South Africans are still not employed and don't have access to employment. We're asking the Government to address that problem. So we're engaged in political thinking and political activity to get better access for disabled people to become part of the workforce. But the Government is still far from meeting that challenge.

Opportunities for change are certainly there because in South Africa today we've got very good legislation like the Employment Act of 2008 which advocates for the employment of disabled people. So the opportunities are there, but the challenge is for government and companies both to demonstrate a commitment to the employment of disabled people. And they need to be willing to show that commitment by employing more disabled people. So for me it's to do with attitudes, we've got legislation, we've got a very good constitution, but companies are not observing it.

Of course, South Africa is a very diverse nation with lots of different racial and ethnic groups. To some extent this is reflected in the disabled people's movement. But disabled people's organisations tend more to be divided in terms of the services their members need. So people are more likely to group together according to their impairment and the types of support they'll need.

But what we've done recently in South Africa - and it's been running for two years now - is form what we call the South African Disability Alliance. It's comprised of all these different organisations in the country coming together to speak with one voice, trying to develop a common agenda so that when we approach government we do so with one agenda and with one voice.

It's always difficult to make a generalised statement, but from my point of view as a wheelchair user I'd say that life is not very accessible here. There are still too many places where I simply cannot get in with my wheelchair.

About 50 per cent of places are not very good like that. Maybe another 40 per cent are trying to get better, especially for people who live in cities. But it's still true that, as a wheelchair user, if I don't have a car, how can I travel to my workplace or to town without accessible public transport?

I would hope that out of this World Cup would come, from the experiences of people visiting from other countries, something that this Government can learn from and perhaps come up with a pilot project which would then be used. That's what I'd like to see as an aftermath of this World Cup.

Muzi Nkosi was talking to Ian Macrae