BCC in disability storm
THE Bulawayo City Council has been caught up in disability storm with a resident living with disability accusing the local authority of inhumane tendencies and not honouring the rights of the disabled.
The resident, Mr John Jemwa, a vendor in the Central Business District is accusing the local authority of being inconsiderate of people living with disabilities especially those who are vendors.
Mr Jemwa’s accusations come after the local authority confiscated his popcorn making machine which he was operating at the corner of Leopold Takawira Avenue and Herbert Chitepo Street.
“I am a resident of city of Bulawayo with a disability. I have a disabled wife and also a disabled daughter. I got a donation of a gas popcorn making machine last year from Edgars Stores. Government supported my vision to become self-reliant by donating $400 which was paid directly to Zimra for the machine’s customs clearance.
“It is sad to note that Bulawayo City Council management has being refusing to licence the operation of the popcorn making machine. The engineering services in particular has been changing goal posts whenever I meet their set requirements. I was pushed from one council office back and forth for the past year. I was even denied access to the town clerk (Mr Christopher Dube) by the management,” said Mr Jemwa.
He said after failing to get a licence he decided to start operating the machine in the city centre but was raided by council personnel who confiscated his machine at the same time damaging it, which he said proved their inhumane behaviour.
“Mr Ackim Ncube, who is employed by BCC’s vending control unit, with his team threw my popcorn making machine inside a council truck and the front glass broke into two halves. The chamber secretary (Mrs Sikhangele Zhou) who is the head of the section got in the defensive mood claiming that the machine was at Drill Hall Police Station Licence Inspectorate, not council warehouse.
“The constitution is very clear on what institutions of Government and agents of Government must do for persons with disabilities. BCC’s main purpose is to govern the local affairs of people in its area. When the constitution says ‘affairs of people’ it includes persons with all forms of disabilities as the word people as used in the constitution include every human being.
“I was left with nothing after the arrest and as a disabled family of three disabled persons we are now starving. My wife had a growth operation done on her by doctors from Germany who came to her rural area in Mberengwa at one of the hospitals and she is on medication,” said Mr Jemwa.
On the vending bays being allocated by the local authority, Mr Jemwa said in designing them they did not consider people with disabilities, saying they were too small and could not accommodate people using wheelchairs.
“The problem we face as persons with disabilities in Bulawayo is that the engineering department always acts against the disabled. The size of vending bays of persons with disabilities are small which make them not compatible for use by wheelchair bound users. Wheelchairs are legs for the physically disabled who are wheelchair bound and by giving them small vending bays that is violation of the constitution as they are not conducive to their disabilities,” he said.
Contacted for comment, the local authority’s spokesperson Mrs Nesisa Mpofu was non-committal, instead said the matter was to be discussed during a full council meeting set for Wednesday at the council chambers.
“The city of Bulawayo is in receipt of the request from Mr John Munetsi Jemwa for the setting up of a popcorn making machine. The application is currently going through the appropriate Council processes and we can only comment on the matter after the full council meeting,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She did not respond to a host of other questions tabled to her inclusive of council’s policy on persons with disabilities who were into vending or council’s policy in terms of equipment confiscated by council security personnel during raids.