Disabled people call for equal, fair treatment
DISABLED People South Africa (DPSA) and Dementia SA supported a group of protesters outside Parliament yesterday, calling for equal and fair treatment from the government.
The silent protest featured demonstrators holding placards that read #EsidimeniWasAMassacre in reference to more than 2 000 patients who, earlier this year, were discharged from the Esidimeni Centre in Gauteng and placed into the care of other NGOs or their families. Thirty-seven of those patients, many of them diagnosed with mental diseases, later died.
The Gauteng Health Department had reportedly terminated its contract with Esidimeni, which means “place of dignity”, earlier this year.
The protest outside Parliament yesterday sought to highlight the deaths of the 37, and get answers from the government over why they had to die.
“We are here to make our voices heard and to say that all lives matter and disabled people’s lives matter, irrespective,” said DPSA’s Looks Matoto. “There are various organisations of disabled people present, and Ubuntu which is central in this campaign. We are a united voice of disabled people who are saying that it is about time people know that we never filled out any application to be disabled.
“We are treated as if we have made a choice to be disabled, living with the consequences of going through this. We want to say that disability can happen to anyone. It’s not a matter of choice. One of the concerns we keep asking ourselves is ‘what have we done to deserve ill-treatment and indignity?’.
“The government must come to us, listen and explain who is responsible for the death of the 37 people and what the exact result was.
“There must be consequences.”