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PROMOTING A MORE INCLUSIVE SOCIETY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Issued by Christina Teichmann on behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation on 21/11/25
For many years, thanks to the ongoing financial support of the Nedbank South African Charity Golf Day, of which President FW de Klerk is a Life Patron, the FW de Klerk Foundation has been able to continue its support for organisations dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities, such as the National Institute for the Deaf, the Cape Town Society for the Blind and Iris House, amongst others.
On Thursday, 20 November, Cobus van Deventer, Executive Director of the National Institute for the Deaf (“NID”) and Irene de Bod, Chief Development Officer at the NID, visited the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Office in Cape Town where they met with Christina Teichmann, the Foundation’s Deputy Chairperson, and Brenda Steyn, Manager of the Legacy Programme, to report back on how the Foundation’s financial support has been utilised and has helped the NID to improve the lives of people with hearing loss in South Africa.
Mr Van Deventer explained that the received funds were used to develop the official digital South African Sign Language “SASL” dictionary for South Africa. This user-friendly resource, accessible free of charge to the Deaf community, enhances communication equity, educational and linguistic access, benefitting both deaf and hearing individuals while fostering a more inclusive South African society.
While South African Sign Language was approved as an official language in 2023, when President Ramaphosa signed the Constitution’s 18th Amendment Bill, and is now South Africa’s 12th official language, deaf people still face enormous communication barriers that impact negatively on their freedoms, constitutional rights and life freedoms.
The FW de Klerk Foundation’s representatives thanked Mr Van Deventer, Ms De Bod and all their colleagues at the NID for contributing to a more inclusive and just society in South Africa and for helping to make the constitutional rights of deaf people a reality.