adminFrancis Mupazviriho Correspondent
As we mark belated commemorations of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, issues around disability should strike the right cord by defining a new national tone towards disability.
Since 1992, Zimbabwe has held commemorations on this day every 3rd of December, along with the rest of the world, with each year bringing a contextual theme introspecting on the strides made thus far in integrating Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) across all settings.
The “long wait” which had crept in was finally over as Caledonia hosted historic and potentially biggest commemorations thus far, with an estimated 15 000 people in attendance, at an event which was graced by the then Acting President Kembo Mohadi.
Ultimately, a national dimension emerged defiantly, undoing the canonisation of disability as purely social welfare issue.
Prior to the event, another escalation had come with the visit to Zimbabwe by the South African Deputy Minister for Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane Zulu, ostensibly to promote the empowerment of PWDs between the two neighbouring countries.
In the process disability issues morphed into the diplomatic discourse as Harare and Pretoria sought to consolidate the gains of disability rights in the Constitution and other normative frameworks, especially the Convention on the Rights of PWDs, which is the centrepiece international treaty on disability, all constituting efforts towards enhanced social cooperation.
Significantly, another notable concession which came prior to the Caledonia event was the creation of a Disability Affairs Department, to be manned by a Person with Disability, in terms of the provisions of the Disabled Persons Act (1992).
The chairperson of the National Disability Board, Mercy Maunganidze, said this was a step in the right direction towards the empowerment of PWDs.
It was also commendable to hear the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Mr Ralph Watungwa, who said he can compete with anyone out there, and his disability is not a condition to deter him from continuously climbing the professional ladder.
The story of Caledonia
The national commemorations for the Day of Persons with Disabilities, are held on a rotational basis across provinces on a yearly basis with the view of reaching out to all corners of the nation.
Last year, the nod fell on Mashonaland East Province, on the set date, December 3.
As we headed towards the annual fixture, the nation went through a defining national political process, which instructively brought vigour to the nation, including in disability issues in the process departing from the routine and mundane tendency of hosting the day in terms of fulfilment of a calendar date set aside by the United Nations General Assembly and localised to the nation, but without locating its fundamental value to the nation, Zimbabwe.
With the ascendancy of Petronella Kagonye to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, she immediately found fervour with disability issues and in the process, disability issues were further enmeshed centrally to the 100-day targets of the ministry.
At least this is the background story unbeknown to many, but befitting given that PWDs constitute 7 percent of the population and this is a critical demographic for Zimbabwe.
Commemorations or Communion?
At this stage, I refuse to call it a commemoration, but a communion of stakeholders bound by the need to activate partnerships with Government to empower PWDs.
It was symbolic that these national processes took place at Mushawedu Community Centre known for hosting 250 fully built houses belonging to PWDs, a ringing message showing that disability is not inability.
The event could have been held at a city hotel, but Caledonia unravelled the grassroots aspirations of PWDs and it also showed the real-life conditions which they live under, and also demonstrated some of the inspirational and yet untold stories of Caledonia, a settlement which has become synonymous with negative stories. The different organisations represented, all came with a view of working together towards the betterment of PWDs.
This explains why representatives of disabled persons organisations spoke and called for more inclusion, given that disability issues fit into every pertinent area of our national discourse.
It fits into numerous other areas such as: education, employment, gender, health, industry and commerce, small to medium enterprises, access to services such as transport, information communication technology and facilities which include buildings and tourism products.
Each of these areas and many other unmentioned ones, speaks to disability issues contextually. For education, the question is how many PWDs are absorbed into the formal economy by way of access to employment opportunities in our industries, or perhaps in the public service.
In her interview with a local radio station, Dr Tsitsi Chataika from the University of Zimbabwe spoke about the broader dimension of disability following the setting up of the National Disability Board earlier this year.
Today one cannot talk about ICTs, without focusing on how assistive technologies can be utilised by PWDs.
A few months ago, there was a viral video of a construction site, somewhere in China, fully manned by PWDS. The tasks which are physically demanding were all made possible thanks to assistive technologies. With the consideration of PWDs in all facets of life, there is no doubt that we can see similar stories including here in Zimbabwe.
Disability and Inclusion
There is now a big shift which defines disability purely from annals, from humanitarianism and from philanthropic organisations to that of inclusion across all settings.
The corporate world is already beginning to shift all its efforts from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) alone, to the question of empowerment, especially in terms of employment creation of PWDs, through engagements with the Government.
Government basically knows how many PWDs it has. What is now needed is the computerisation of this database which is then used to refer PWDs, say to employment opportunities. What this means is that there is trickling in benefit across all parties. Government reduces the number of welfare cases.
The business divide also makes sure that its infrastructure is accessible to PWDs, who can do the exact same jobs with the same precision but are not being given such an opportunity.
It is incisive that some of these ideas towards employment creation are already being implemented including by one of our biggest corporate organisations in the country. At that corporate body, there is now a policy framework that defines this utilisation of PWDs in the industries.
For these ideas to come to fruition there is thus need for an incentivisation of those employing PWDs and quite often, this is done by way of tax breaks. This is no doubt a big idea, whose fulfilment again requires a multi-sectoral agency, like the one which came to Caledonia.
What it also means is that such an undertaking also fits into the bilateral and multilateral processes by Government, which have largely placed employment creation as a top priority.
If women are asking what is in it for them, then the same goes for PWDs. Disability thus ceases to become the welfare case, always. The Special Advisor to the President on Disability Issues, Joshua Malinga, precisely captured this point saying that disability becomes an imposition when opportunities remain low for PWDs, for one reason or the other.
Online Reporter