Executive Director of the Federation of Organisations of Disabled People of Zimbabwe, Leonard Marange, has commended President Mnangagwa for launching the National Disability Policy (NDP) in Zimbabwe.
Marange said the launch of the NDP, which calls on government and other stakeholders to ensure access to employment for persons with disabilities, showed government’s commitment to disability inclusive development.
President Mnangagwa launched the NDP jointly with the Labour Migration Policy at the Harare International Conference Centre.
The key standards of the NDP were drawn from the country’s constitution and international and continental frameworks like the UN Convention on the Rights of People living with Disabilities and the Protocol to the African Chartre on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Also speaking, senate representative for people living with disabilities, Senator Rejoice Timire, commended Mnangagwa for launching the policy.
Timire thanked the president for prioritising the welfare of people living with disabilities, saying there had been a vacuum on how to effectively address disability issues since 1980.
‘The policy therefore comes at the right time as we move towards Vision 2030 and we hope this will result in the inclusion of people living with disabilities in all programmes and activities towards attainment of Vision 2030’, the lawmaker said.
Timire said it was now up to all Zimbabweans to ensure that the provisions of the policy are implemented.
For her part, the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust Executive Director, Barbra Nyangairi, said that the launch of the policy would address the diverse and different needs of people living with disabilities.
‘Persons with disability in Zimbabwe face disproportionate levels of poverty and marginalisation and they lack access to education, employment and life opportunities owing to disability’, Nyangairi said.
‘These are issues that will be addressed by the NDP. Mainstreaming disability as the country did with gender will go a long way towards equality’.
Employers, according to the new policy, should observe the principle of equal pay for equal work and provide people living with disabilities with vocational and professional rehabilitation.
Persons with disabilities should also freely choose places they want to live and not be forced to live in particular arrangements or institutions.
Source: The Herald
Photo source: Songambele
