By ANDREW PHIRI –

COMMUNITY Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Zambia programme has praised late President Michael Sata’s administration for enacting laws that help to promote the rights of people living with disabilities.
CBR Zambia Senior advisor, Alick Nyirenda said Mr Sata had been instrumental in translating the party manifesto, which promoted the rights of the disabled people, into policy.
CBR is a Non-Governmental Organisation which promotes the rights of disabled people with support from the Norwegian Association for persons with Disabilities (NAD).
Mr Nyirenda said in an interview that the PF manifesto had put together a clear policy direction through a support in institutional framework.
“The first piece of legislation that they put in place was the disability Act number 6 of 2012 within six months of being in office they enacted the law,” Mr Nyirenda said.
Mr Nyirenda also noted that the PF Government managed to ensure that the national disability policy was enacted.
Mr Nyirenda also said the increased support through the social cash transfer to the people living with disability was something that was not anticipated before and proved the Government’s priorities for the vulnerable.
He noted that Government doubled the allocation of the social cash transfer to the people that were living with disabilities which has been scaled up in 50 districts and it was hoped that by 2016, the whole country would be covered.
He said it is impressive that the country is able to pay the social cash transfer through its own resource without depending on donor support.