Open letter to the president of Zimbabwe; His Excellency the president of the republic of Zimbabwe; The head of state and the commander and chief of the defence forces; In writing this letter, I have undertaken to make sure, as a law abiding citizen that the contents herein are to the best of my ability not intended to denigrate or vilify your good office and person. Again I have written not to raise feelings of public disaffection against you but to exercise my democratic right to convey genuine concerns about our unending marginalisation. Firstly, I would like to felicitate you for outmanoeuvring your political opponents to emerge as a clear leader with a two-thirds parliamentary majority. This is very good because we envisage a situation where political players in government will be pulling in one direction. However, as a citizen with a visual impairment, I am really pained by the fact that we as persons with disabilities are failing to celebrate with you for various reasons which can be summed up in the word “marginalisation”. In your newly announced government comrade President, we note with grave concern that there has not been any restructuring that will positively impact on persons with disabilities. More explicitly, we apprehend with great unease that disability issues continue to be under the department of social welfare which is very overstretched and under-staffed. This current scheme of things does not encourage the visibility of persons with disabilities to articulate their concerns as this role will continue in the hands of the so-called “disability professionals” and gatekeepers of charity. We therefore kindly request, in the spirit of the revolution that set our country free, that you expeditiously help us by adopting a rights based approach to disability as opposed to the prevailing charity model which is characteristic of the existing set up. Closely linked to the above is the issue of self-representation. As persons with disabilities, we are really about the lack of space in both socio-political and economic life of Zimbabwe for disability participation. We were bullied into submission by the inclusive government which you headed to accept a constitution which gives us only two senators. We constitute not less than fifteen percent of the population of this country and therefore know and are firmly convinced that this is far from desirable his Excellency and we invoke the revolutionary spirit in this regard. We want representation not only in both houses of parliament but also in local authorities and all other places where decisions of importance to us are made. I cannot conclude this point without touching on the revolutionary party in which you are the president and first secretary. In principle the party has positions for representation of persons with disabilities from cell level to the polit bureau but almost all those posts are invariably occupied by non-disabled comrades. My dear president, would the party do the same for women and get away with it? Zanu pf should actually remember that we had a protracted war in which a lot of people were impaired and therefore should be the first to advance the cause of persons with disabilities from a rights based approach. Comrade President, I am afraid that we are running out of patience on the issue of the delays in the ratification of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. We believe that this legal instrument will be very crucial in the transformation of how disability is dealt with in this country. Of course, we say that with great caution because we also note the reluctance of your officials to comply with disability legislation with the case in point being section 3 of the disabled persons Act which has been flagrantly violated for the past 21 years. Dear president, I have no illusion about the fact that my home is Zimbabwe and that the only government which Zimbabwe has is the one you are leading. It is in the light of such an inalienable truth that I am currently requesting that you reconsider government disposition towards disability with a view to make disability a human rights rather than a charity issue. The state of affairs currently is that we, persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe continue to be subjected to segregation and discrimination reminiscent of the old apartheid regimes. May God guide you and give you wisdom for a truly inclusive society. Yours The Zimbabwean citizen with a disability.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:53:48 +0000
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