South Africa opens Disability Rights Awareness Month with a walk to the Union Buildings
People with disabilities, officials and campaigners will walk from Church Square on Friday to call for equal rights and an end to the barriers that keep people out.
Pretoria — South Africa's Disability Rights Awareness Month opens on Friday with a walk by people with disabilities from Church Square to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the government news agency SAnews reports.
The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, will launch the month. Government representatives, organisations of people with disabilities, civil society and campaigners will join the walk.
The department's spokesperson, Cassius Selala, said the walk affirms that people with disabilities have the same rights, freedoms and opportunities as everyone else, and calls on government, business and communities to remove the barriers to their full participation in social, economic, political and cultural life.
Over the month the department plans to:
- build public understanding of disability rights
- challenge stigma and discrimination
- promote accessible public spaces and services
- bring people with disabilities into national development priorities
The campaign rests on the Constitution's commitment to equality, the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Source: SAnews, 15 October 2026.
