THIS week it’s important that we review the call by people with disabilities that they want a standalone ministry and that the Government must give them “their money which they were promised”. The gate at the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health was locked.
For me as disability rights activist, this is a very sad development and it’s time the Government made decision on service delivery to persons with disabilities in the country. I am very much aware of God’s efforts to improve the welfare of persons with disabilities, which have not been appreciated by disabled people.
This is not the first time the call for a disability Ministry has been made. Many of my friends have demanded for the creation of this Ministry, together with a minister, permanent secretary and directors.
My good friend and brother, a disability rights activist Frankson Musukwa, wrote a letter to the late President Michael Sata dated October 1 and published in The Post newspaper of October 7, 2013.
In that letter, Frank Musukwa demanded for a paradigm shift and the fundamental human rights of persons with disabilities in the country and commended the Government for a landmark achievement toward enacting the Persons with Disabilities ACT No 6 of 2012. This was consistent with the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
To say that this Government has failed the disabled people as we saw on TV it’s not true and must be challenged because Frank in his letter to the President said people the Government had been entrusted with the overall responsibility of implementing the Disability Act had failed as no tangible measures had been put in place toward a realisation of rights contained therein and not the Government.
He further said that for the Disability Department to fall under the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, assumed that persons with disabilities could not take care of ourselves, live independently, or earn a living.
Although they may think they are being compassionate, people who have this attitude can do great harm: They consistently underestimate persons with disabilities and deprive of their dignity and potential.
Charity can have a positive effect in some contexts, but in regard to disability, charity is generally negative because it can dis-empower and limit people with disabilities so the demand by disabled people that the Government should be giving them free money because they are disabled is what Frank is against.
Frank is demanding that the President should prevail on the approach to disability issues by promoting a ‘social model’ approach to disability service delivery and discourage the call for charity as way of empowering disabled people. The social model affirms that persons with disabilities are full members of society who have important contributions to make to the nation, families and communities where they live.
What prevent disabled people from achieving their potential are not their respective disabilities but the unhealthy and disempowering misunderstanding of disability. There is an urgent need to overhaul the entire disability sector and create awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities as provided for in the Disability Act and UNCRPD so that programmes and activities are aligned.
According to Frank, the Ministry of Disability Affairs, if established, will be the vehicle for the enforcement of the social model which emphasises identifying, exposing and examining the barriers that physical and social environments place on people with disabilities such as legal barriers that limit the rights of people with disabilities.
Others are physical barriers that prevent access to shops, restaurants, schools, work, transportation and other places, and communication barriers that inhibit access. In this way persons with disabilities, who are the stones rejected by the builders of society, can become the capstone in the building of a democratic Zambia and of solidarity, equality and freedom.
It is necessary to make fundamental rights and available resources distributed in the most possible equal way, avoiding inequalities. As Rawls does we, however, admit a positive inequality, an exception of justice to the formal equity. When you work in favour of those who are in concrete disadvantaged conditions, it is necessary to fill the gap of opportunities in order to reduce the burden of disadvantage.
Having worked in the field of disability for many years both at national and international levels, and with respect to the call by my friends for the creation of the Disability Ministry, I wish to disagree with the call on principle. The call for the creation of this ministry is to have a disabled minister, disabled permanent secretary and directors should not be accepted by the Government because it’s working against the vision of inclusion and mainstreaming of
disability, which is a call for the world to have a society for all and promote disability in all Government ministries and departments.
Nations today world-over are promoting programmes and policies that centre on having disability issues at the centre stage of development.
This call is against the world approach to the creation of an inclusive society and promoting cross-cutting disability issues. What we need is to have qualified people to run our disability organisation as it is in Malawi and South Africa where ministries are run by qualified people appointed on merit and not along disability line.
In South Africa, the deputy minister in the Ministry of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities Handrietta Bogopane Zulu is a blind person but very educated and knowledgeable on her role.
It’s very important to promote inclusiveness and mainstreaming disability in all sectors of Government and for disabled people to appreciate Government efforts aimed at uplifting their welfare and stop demanding for charity but insist on employment and education-related services.
It is sad for a disabled friend accusing the Government of diverting funds meant for them to roads and schools which they claim came from donors. To the best of my knowledge there is no donor supporting the Government to improve the welfare of the disabled in Zambia and this has been so for many years, and such accusation may result in frustrating efforts meant for helping the disabled in future.
As for the people I saw on TV accusing the Government that it has neglected them, I failed bad because that group has received help from the Government for a long time and they like that plan of calling media and locking the gate as a way of forcing Government. There is a need to identify other disabled people who have not been helped by the Government because helping that group is a waste of resources because they will never appreciate since to them it’s their right to be helped as it is donor money.

(The author is a Professor for ICOF Colleges Seminary and Universities, an American-based Christian institution of learning established in 1932, disability policy snalyst for SADC and inclusive development advisor for Centre for Disability Development Research, Law and Policy. For your letters please send to us on Centre for
Disability Development Research Law and Policy P.O. Box 34490, Lusaka, Zambia. Telephone +260211-238160 or use our South African Address.
Johannesburg. Project office, P.O. Box 1981, New Castle, 2940, South Africa. Tell: +27343127894 +27343127894 Fax: +27343127894 +27343127894. Mobile: +27733453663 +27733453663 E-mail: cm@cddrlp.net Website: www.cddrlp.net. Mobile +260966-036931 +260966-036931)