adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
PEOPLE with disabilities from across the country last week called for the creation of a stand-alone ministry to advocate for disability issues and establish a national disability strategy. The call was led by Zanu-PF secretary for the Disabled and Disadvantaged Persons, Cde Joshua Malinga at the National Disability Expo 2015 held in Bulawayo last week, where he bemoaned that the status quo was fragmented and proposed that a ministry will provide the framework for Government’s overall direction for the disability sector and for improving disability support services.
Cde Malinga also called for the swift ratification of the Disability Act, which President Mugabe has signed, but was not yet domesticated and taken to Parliament.
Cde Malinga said although Zimbabwe had pioneered the promulgation of laws that promoted disability, the laws gathered dust on shelves as they remained unimplemented.
“We should resolve this; we need this convention to be ratified by Parliament.
“At the moment the Disability Act is not part of the domestic laws of this country. It should go to parliament then it will be an important piece of legislation,” he said.
“I have been talking about a mechanism of co-ordinating issues of disability and discussed with National advisor on disability issues in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Retired Brigadier-General Dr Felix Muchemwa that his office be elevated to a ministry so that disability issues can be coordinated,” he said.
“It has been 30 years and still those laws haven’t been implemented. This has been an unfunded mandate.
“I say to you my colleagues, I ask of you that we me must continue to intensify, lobby and advocate for full recognition of our rights and honours. If there are skills provided, we must make sure people with disabled are represented in a much stronger sense than now,” he said.
The disability expo attracted more than 40 organisations that exhibited at Bulawayo Large City Hall car park.
Manicaland was represented by the Odzi-based organisation District Outreach for Care and Support (DOCAS) whose efforts has won national, regional and international admiration after becoming the first organisation in Zimbabwe that caters for people with Muscular Dystrophy.
Zimbabwe had no mechanism to treat or prevent the disease, which is suspected to have encumbered more than 4 000 who are totally excluded from the mainstream health delivery system and are dying unnoticed mostly in the rural areas.
In 2012, DOCAS identified 12 children from three sisters who are victims of the deadly Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and in its attempt to assist the children, noted that many such children were suffering and dying of the disease without any assistance from government and other duty bearers.
The boys are unable to walk, climb and run and now as they approach their teens, the severity of their condition has degenerated into a mortal threat.
Their condition deteriorated at the hands of primary healthcare providers such as clinics and physiotherapists, who had absolutely no idea of what condition the boys were suffering from.
Muscular Dystrophy is a neuromuscular condition caused by the lack of a protein called dystrophin that results in progressive muscle weakness and eventually condemn its victims to wheelchairs by their teens and death in their 20s.
There is general lack of knowledge about the disease at both community and medical levels.
In a bid to popularise the disease, DOCAS, in partnership with Croco Motors and Duly’s has launched the Datsun Go Raffle in which the two vehicle suppliers will avail brand new cars for raffles as fundraisers.
Retail giants MFS, Progress Marketing, Tinty’s Hardware and Coloursel Furniture will participate in the promotion dubbed the Grand Partnership for Action Against Muscular Dystrophy (GrandPAA Promotion).
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