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The same disability NGOs that formed the original Disability Employment Concerns Trust were the founders of the Viva Trust in 1992, assisted by the Liberty Life Foundation. The Viva Trust operated the first national scratch card lottery in South Africa from 1992 until it was forced to cease operations in favour of the National Lottery in 1999.
In 1996, the DEC Trust was formed in order to take up a fifty percent equity stake in Baygen Manufacturing (Pty) Ltd, the factory in Cape Town which manufactured the Bayliss wind-up radios and torches.
The original objectives of DEC then were essentially the same as they are now:
As much as thirty percent of the workforce employed at the Baygen factory was people with disabilities, making it a model of disability economic empowerment. The project attracted significant media attention, and was visited more than once by both Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
Although it was ultimately not commercially successful, the Baygen project served to launch DEC as a sought-after empowerment partner in the world of business. In its early years (1996 – 99), DEC went on to be an empowerment partner in three successful bid consortia:
The concept of DEC was inspired by the example of the Spanish Blind organisation, ONCE, which was given the first permission to operate a lottery in Spain in 1938. Today the ONCE lottery employs no less than 23,000 blind and other people with disabilities and generates very significant funding for services.
ONCE has become an important player in the Spanish economy and own substantial business interests. These businesses employ a further 18,000 employees and generate further significant profits in support of ONCE’s services to its members.
An indication of ONCE’s success:
South African disability NGO’s have successfully lobbied for a policy and legislative environment conducive to the economic empowerment of people with disabilities. Following on the new Constitution’s anti-discrimination provisions, and the targeting of disability by the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the Government’s Integrated National Disability Strategy White Paper provides a policy framework for the integration of people with disabilities into the economy. This is in sharp contrast to the welfare approach of the past.
A primary objective of the new policy is to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream economy.
Government’s stance on disability BEE targets is concretely evidenced in legislation such as the Employment Equity, Skills Development and Public Procurement Acts.
Black People with Disabilities are a ‘designated group’ in terms of Government’s Strategy for Broad-Based BEE, and DEC complies fully with the requirements of the finalised DTI BBBEE Codes, such that DEC investee companies are able to claim 100% of the points in respect of black ownership and 50% in respect of black women ownership on their scorecards, including an extra point in recognition of the inclusion of black people with disabilities as a ‘designated group’ and possibly another for the involvement of a ‘broad-based ownership scheme’.
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Legal Notice