Pretoria — President Jacob Zuma will on Tuesday undertake a Siyahlola presidential monitoring visit to Mbombela Municipality in Mpumalanga to monitor progress made by the province in mainstreaming disability programmes and policies.

This will be government's main celebration of the International Day for Persons with Disability, which is marked internationally on 3 December.

The visit follows the celebration of Disability Awareness Month held in November under the theme "Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all", as proclaimed by the United Nations for the International Day for Persons with Disability held on the 03 December.

During the visit, the President will monitor the progress made by the province -- which is home to 133 333 persons with disabilities -- in mainstreaming disability issues and challenges.

There are 18 special schools distributed throughout the three districts. These include eight in Nkangala, seven in Gert Sibande and three in Ehlanzeni.

The visit is also expected to address a number of issues, including critical challenges with regards to disability issues like reaching the minimum target of 2% employment of persons with disability; accessibility of most public buildings and reasonable accommodation; access to information; mainstreaming disability in government programmes; inaccessible public transport; access to housing as well as unemployment and poverty.

President Zuma is also expected to visit three projects for persons with disability at Tentele Activity Centre in Daantjie, a centre which provides skills to people with disabilities; and Kanyamazane Community Health Care Centre, which is a health care centre that provides services to the Kanyamazane community.

He will then visit Tenteleni Primary School at Kanyamazane, a school that caters for both disabled learners, and in the afternoon, he will hold a community meeting at Bergvlam Primary School in Mbombela City.