Vhembe Executive Mayor gives hope to people living with disability

I agree with you, VDM Executive Mayor tells people living with disability

The Village Voice

The Vhembe District Municipality Executive Mayor Tsakani Freda Nkondo has assured people living with disabilities that she understood the challenges that they faced and she would work with them to alleviate their plight.She addressed the District’s Disability Rights Dialogue at Vuwani Community Hall on Thursday 13 March titled “Deepening a culture of social justice and human rights.”

She said in the past, people living with disabilities were shunned upon and their parents hid them from the public.“This is no longer the case as there are fora that work alongside the government to make sure their lot is improved,” she said.She said the challenges faced by people with disability will be on the agenda in her next meeting with local mayors of the four municipalities of Makhado, Musina, Collins Chabane and Thulamela.

“I understand we are far from reaching the 7 per cent quota for the employment of people with disability but sine this is something we all feel they deserve, we are going to work on applying it,” she said.She also talked of user friendly toilets and the fact that the shortage of water in the district is compromising people living with disabilities as they have to pay for water from their disability grants.“Water is life and we are going to work hard to ensure that people with disability get water,” she said.She lastly told people living with disabilities: “I love you.”Representatives from different municipalities made presentations stating how people living with disability are being discriminated against.

“When a person living with a disability goes to a clinic to do family planning, they ask why because that person has a disability as if a person living with a disability has no right to live,” said one.Problems faced by people living with disabilities are varied and some are from societal stereotypes to government’s bias.Shonisani Khorombi, from the Vhembe Disability Forum said she was compiling a report combining all presentations from different municipalities to e presented to Nkondo.