adminLoveness Bepete Chronicle Reporter
Zanu-PF Deputy National Secretary for Disabled and Disadvantaged Persons, Cde Joshua Malinga has bemoaned the under representation of people with disabilities in government and other corridors of power.
Speaking at a Disabled People and Various Stakeholders Conference in Bulawayo yesterday, Cde Malinga said the country has about two million people with disabilities yet they were represented by two senators. He said people with disabilities constituted 15 percent of the country’s population and only had two seats in the senate instead of 20.
“We have no adequate representation in government and parliament. As people with disabilities, we want political office, self representation in all spheres of power, from village, district, province up to national level,” he said.
Cde Malinga condemned the country’s new constitution which he says sidelines people with disabilities.
He said the country only had a single policy which stipulates that disabled people should receive $20 per month but was still to be implemented.
Said Cde Malinga: “With reference to our new constitution, Article 83 flags out the rights of people with disabilities. But there is a statement which reads ‘When resources are available.’ If resources are not available, then how do we move on?”
He said people with disabilities were at higher poverty risk and the majority of them have no access to piped water, electricity and toilets.
Cde Malinga said success for all disabled people is accidental.
“Success for disabled people is accidental. A disabled person is a child perpetually.
“The birth of a disabled child is considered taboo by the family and associated with evil by some pastors,” he said.
Cde Malinga said at the workplace, people with disabilities were last to be employed and first to be fired.
He accused able-bodied people of creating inabilities for people with disabilities by developing infrastructure that is inaccessible to them.
A representative for Zimbabwe women with disabilities, Constance Sibanda, who is visually-impaired, said whenever she attended workshops her condition was never considered.
She said sighted participants simply used projectors and flip charts in their presentations, disregarding her visual challenge. “It is painful when someone refers to a diagram or a visual when you are present and you are just feel left out and discriminated,” she said.
Zifa Moyo, a disabled woman said society has a challenge in accepting women with disabilities who fall pregnant. She said people would throw sympathetic glances towards them.
“It demeans us when people feel sorry for pregnant disabled people. Are you saying we are not fit enough to be mothers?” she asked.
Online Reporter