adminCharles Mushinga in LILONGWE, Malawi
AFRICAN leaders must be able to make independent decisions without any undue influence from outsiders, President Mugabe has said.
Delivering a keynote address at the on-going African Leaders Forum on Disability here yesterday, the President challenged Africa to do more for people living with disabilities and not be dictated upon by outsiders.
“We shall not have outsiders telling us what to do,” he said. “The people of Malawi will make their own decisions, the people of Zimbabwe will make their own decisions.”
Themed “Ability in a New Africa”, President Mugabe’s address challenged educational institutions and workplaces to consider the abilities of people living with physical, mental and developmental disabilities. “Universities did not have the necessary facilities (for people with disabilities),” he said.
“Can they move from one area of the university to the other, from one floor to the other? Our institutions of learning as well as workplaces must take into account that there are people . . . who cannot move like the able bodied.”
The President said children living with disabilities should be treated like any other and included in sporting and other activities. He said people with disabilities in Zimbabwe looked forward to the local version of Paralympic Games that was managed by First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe.
“Perhaps they don’t have an arm, but they still have their two legs and can still run,” he said.
President Mugabe said countries like Botswana sent athletes to participate in the Zimbabwean Paralympics and urged Malawi to be part of the next edition of the games.
“The starting point is ourselves, people in government, to provide for the disabled physically and morally,” he said. “The responsibility is ours, together with people at the grassroots to cater for the needs of people with disabilities.
“They should know that when we say disability is not inability we mean it. We are not just saying so to please them. I am glad that the AU has taken up the issue, but I would have loved to see a greater presence of the AU here.”
President Mugabe gave an account of how Zimbabwe was catering for the disabled. He spoke of how he noticed that families with children living with disabilities were often ignorant of the children’s abilities.
“Often, children like that are not given a chance to develop that part which is not affected . . . you have to develop whatever is their talent, whatever they are able to do,” President Mugabe said.
He said being disabled could befall anyone as accidents that happen on the roads could physically or mentally maim able bodied people.
President Mugabe joked about how he was feeling disabled himself as he tried to pronounce some words, having had dental surgery moments before coming to Malawi on Sunday.
He hailed Malawi President Dr Joyce Banda for appointing a minister of Disability and Elderly Affairs, Rachel Kachaje, who is living with a disability herself and uses a wheelchair.
“What we have not done, which Mai Banda has done, is to have a disabled minister,” said President Mugabe. “We have given them an able-bodied representative, but they deserve to be represented by one of their own.” Speaking at the same forum, Dr Banda said intellectual disability was different from mental illness and people with intellectual disabilities should be given platforms to express their abilities.
Other speakers included former US president Bill Clinton (who sent his speech on video), chairman of the Special Olympics International Timothy Shriver, Ms Kachaje and former Bafana Bafana captain Mark Fish.
President Mugabe is accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services George Charamba and other government officials.
The two-day forum seeks to improve the welfare of people living with intellectual disabilities in both their social and economic circumstances and their access to basic human rights.
President Banda, in partnership with Special Olympics and its board chairman Shriver, convened the forum to challenge the inequalities facing people with disabilities.
Sexual abuse of people with developmental disabilities is common because of their greater risk of victimisation, and often goes unreported.
Many times, the perpetrators are people in authority who are closely associated with the victims.
The developmentally disabled are more prone to such abuse due to reliance on a caregiver, emotional and social insecurities and a lack of understanding of their situation.
Research suggests that 97 to 99 percent of abusers are known and trusted by the victim.
Online Reporter