On 28 August 2025, the Neema Foundation, in partnership with the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Social Development, officially launched Deaf Awareness Month.

This annual event, which takes place every September, is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the deaf and hard of hearing. It also serves as a time to promote South African Sign Language as a vital means of communication.

The launch was attended by Mapaseka Steve Letsike, the Deputy Minister for the Department of Women, Youth and People with Disability. Mapaseka emphasised the importance of inclusion, stating, “Excluding disabled people is economically costly. The global economy loses about 7% of GDP due to excluding people with disabilities.”

During the event, it was highlighted that deaf people often struggle to find employment opportunities, with communication barriers excluding them from full participation in society. South Africa has only 44 schools for the deaf, with just 10 of them offering matriculation. However, organisations like Foschini are playing a significant role in employing deaf people, with 150 currently working at their Gauteng factory.

Fatima Cele from the Neema Foundation said South Africa has approximately 400,000 hearing-impaired people and 600,000 who are completely deaf. She stated that her organisation is advocating for more information to be translated into sign language and for it to be mandatory for civil servants to know sign language.