Disabled people urged to advocate for their rights
ZANU-PF Secretary for the Disabled and Disadvantaged in the Politburo Cde Joshua Malinga has urged companies to employ focal point people that will specifically look at issues affecting people living with disabilities at workplaces.
Cde Malinga said this during a debate that was organised by the Bulawayo Polytechnic and Young Voices Bulawayo to discuss issues that affect people living with disabilities at work places. The debate was held under the theme, “Employment of persons with disabilities is the only way to ensure their inclusion in the community.”
“When companies do their budgets they should have people with disability in mind. The idea that disability is a cross-cutting development issue needs the attention of everybody. Every office, every department, every Government ministry, you should have a focal point on disability so that people living with disabilities can have access to all community services.”
Cde Malinga said people living with disabilities should also learn to advocate for their rights. He said technology could change and accommodate people with disabilities since it can help them to access specific needs.
Speaking at the same event, acting Bulawayo provincial education director Mrs Olicah Kaira said schools were working hard to ensure that those living with disabilities have access to education like any other person.
“When learners with disabilities pass through our hands from Early Child Development right up to A-Level both in the formal and non-formal alternatives, through the updated curriculum, our target is to facilitate each learner exiting the system with skills such that they can be gainfully employed even as e nt re pr e n e u rs enabling broader inclusion in the communit y,” she said.
Mrs Kaira said that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education was targeting that by 2020, all schools must be remodified to accommodate pupils with disabilities. “The problem that we are facing is that there are some parents especially in rural areas who do not take their children with disabilities to school,” she said. One of the participants at the event said ablebodied people were also using people living with disabilities to raise money. “The problem we are facing is that able-bodied people are using us to get funds from donors and when that money comes, they no longer fulfil their promises. They use it,” she said. She said that able-bodied people do not ask them what they specifically want, they think for them, they do not give them the opportunity to say what they want. Representatives from different organisations including National Railways of Zimbabwe, Zimra and Civil Service Commission attended the debate.