Discrimination against disabled people within the jurisdiction of Makhado Municipality came into the spotlight during a meeting of disabled people at the Makhado show grounds last Thursday.
Disabled people living within the Makhado municipal area say they have had enough of the discrimination against them by the local municipality. The group, comprising skilled and highly educated people, with some holding honours degrees, say they are being overlooked when it comes to employment.
Ms Selina Musobi said they had had enough of discrimination at the local municipality. "We have engaged the municipality about the same issues, and up until now, all we are asking for seems to be falling on deaf ears and nothing has changed," she said. She said they had braved the cold and gone in their numbers to cast their votes. "We support our government and we will do everything in our power to make it work, but all our efforts seem to be going the wrong way as we are not considered for big tenders. We are forced to register for database consideration when it is known that we do not have money as we are not working," she said.
Cllr Grace Nkanyane urged the community not to push these people away. "We have this kind of event because we want to show disabled and challenged people that we love and accept them in our houses and community." She urged parents to stop abusing these people and to stop using them as sources of income. She said that disability grants should be used in the way they were intended.
The past decade had seen great advances made to ensure this sector's access to free primary health care, she said. The country had also come a long way towards addressing the educational needs of disabled people, by using a more integrated approach, as opposed to the special schools concept that existed before, she explained. Nkanyane said that as the municipality they wanted to create awareness about the situation of disabled people and challenged persons and the people who took care of them.