The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
AS one approaches Garanyemba Primary School in Gwanda they are immediately met by a number of pupils carrying buckets going to the nearest watering point, five kilometres away, to collect water that will be used at the school.
A quick enquiry reveals that the school does not have any hall but holds assemblies at an open area in front of the school head’s office. A tour around the few blocks of classrooms at the school reveals that most of them have an approximately 20 centimetre pavement in front of them.
However, the school also has a makeshift ramp to cater for their pupils using wheelchairs. Oddly though the ground surrounding the school is largely sandy, this could make it impossible for an individual using a wheelchair to easily manoeuvre around.
“As you see we have these ramps which can be used by persons using wheelchairs. What happens during elections is that we allocate classrooms that have these ramps. Unfortunately we do not have provisions for rails but it is a feature that we will consider for the future to make our schools more friendly,” said a school official
This is the situation at the majority of schools in rural Matabeleland, schools which are mostly used as polling centres during election time. Ramps for wheelchairs are a feature in these schools but this is the only facet put in place for people with disabilities; no rails are in place for those using crutches or needing support to stand upright, voting material in Braille has never been a feature nor are there people within the centres conversant in sign language to assist voters.
“Some campaign material is in print and this makes it difficult for people who are blind or visually impaired to access it. It is also important to note that the right to vote in secrecy is a constitutionally guaranteed right yet people with visual impairment have not been fully given this right as the law has always required that they should vote being assisted and in the presence of a presiding officer,” said legal practitioner and disability rights consultant, Mr Abraham Mateta.
Although officials from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) claim that in most cases they utilise tents as voting points, they are howeve, silent on other special facilities required to enable people with disabilities to vote.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care, in a study done in conjunction with Unicef says seven percent of the country’s population is of people with disabilities; this based on total a population of 13 million amounts to over 900 000 individuals.
With the country set to hold its harmonised elections on 30 July Zec could be faced with a quandary on how to accommodate people with disabilities to be able to vote for their representatives.
“What is worrying is that Zec is busy announcing everything, in terms of the roadmap to the harmonised elections but nothing is being said concerning us people with disabilities, it is like we are not going to be part of these elections.
“Our fear right now is that come election day, people with disabilities will face various problems when casting their votes if nothing is done in the next few weeks,” said Mr Dickson Moyo, a person with disability from Bulawayo. Mr Moyo uses a wheelchair as both of his legs were amputated.
Persons with different types of disabilities have different needs and require different forms of assistance and measures to ensure their access and participation.
Some of these include ramps and rails to those using wheelchairs and crutches, accessibility to the voting centres and materials using easy-to-read formats, Braille, providing subtitles, audio descriptions and ensuring sign language interpretation.
Mr Mateta revealed that in previous elections, people living with disabilities had never been fully given a chance to exercise their right to vote for their preferred candidates as the electoral body continued to overlook them.
He said while Zimbabwe was party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which it ratified on 23 September 2013. Article 29 of the said international instrument very little steps were being made to give people living with disabilities such equal opportunities with their able bodied colleagues in terms of the voting process.
“The right to vote is linked to other rights such as the right to access information and information has in many situations been presented in inaccessible formats to persons with disabilities. For instance, at political rallies, no sign language interpretation takes place,” said Mr Mateta.
Recently the electoral body revealed that they had not purchased any Braille ballot papers, claiming they had not done a survey to determine how many people can actually read Braille in the country.
Sunday News managed to visit a number of schools, which in most elections are used as polling stations, in rural Matabeleland North and South to assess their infrastructure in terms of being friendly to people with disabilities.
Some of the schools visited in Matabeleland North include Siachilaba Primary, Manjolo High (both in Binga), Queens Mine Primary, Sijauke Primary (in Bubi) and Dongamuzi Primary and Mateme Secondary in Lupane.
In Matabeleland South this crew visited Garanyemba Primary, Mawame Primary and Sengezane Secondary schools.
Matabeleland North acting provincial education director, Mr Jabulani Mpofu said they tried to ensure that most of their schools are inclusive to people with disabilities, noting that the other special facilities were however, a Zec obligation.
“In terms of infrastructure we strive to ensure that all our schools are inclusive regardless of ability or disability. In most cases our schools have the necessary ramps which are then used by people on wheelchairs. However, as for the other specialised infrastructure that is required it is not for us to say but for Zec who are responsible for governing the elections,” said Mr Mpofu.
Mr Mateta had no kind words for the electoral body saying in some cases the polling stations lacked basic infrastructure like wheelchair ramps with ballot booths not adjustable to cater for those on wheelchairs.
He noted that while Zec attempted to consult organisations dealing with disabilities, these were not adequate enough to ensure that the infrastructure in place adequately caters for persons with disabilities in the voting process.
“Political parties and other players in the electoral system need to appreciate that persons with disabilities may constitute not less than 10 percent of the population and as such, no democracy worthy its name may leave such people out of the electoral process. It is also important to indicate that persons with disabilities must not only be looked at as potential voters but also as potential candidates.
“The participation of persons with disabilities in political parties is dismally low and it is hoped that political parties will begin to incorporate persons with disabilities in their structures while on the other hand, it is imperative for all stakeholders in disabilities to encourage persons with disabilities not to fear getting into the political mud,” said Mr Mateta.
Mr Mateta said with the situation on the ground and the lackadaisical attitude shown by legislators and Zec one of the few routes left for people living with disabilities to take was approaching the courts of law to force the electoral body to consider including them in the electoral process.
In an interview with Sunday News, Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba acknowledged that they were faced with a crisis of accommodating people living with disabilities due to financial constraints but revealed that they were consulting various organisations representing the groupings to come up with cheaper intervention measures ahead of the impending elections.
“We have engaged organisations of people living with disabilities where we have tried to come up with intervention measures which we can do that do not require a lot of capital output.
“As you know as Zec we do not have that much money so we have discussed simple things such as ensuring that we have chairs and desks that are accessible, for example, to people in wheelchairs or even putting wooden ramps,” she said.
However, the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (Nascoh) downplayed Justice Chigumba’s sentiments that they were engaging with organisations representing people with disabilities with the hope of coming up with intervention measures, revealing that in October last year they had to go to the extent of petitioning Parliament on the issue of having electoral reforms with people with disabilities in mind.
Nascoh programmes manager, Mr Lovemore Rambiyawo said there was a need for continuous engagement of Parliament to exercise its oversight role and obligate Zec to ensure full and effective participation of PWDs in all activities and phases of the electoral process.
“People with disabilities suffer from a documented and all-encompassing social exclusion from all electoral processes, running the entire gamut of electoral phases, from the pre-electoral phase, electoral phase and post-electoral phase.
“Electoral laws need to be disability inclusive. The Electoral Act of Zimbabwe is inadequate and not disability inclusive.
Although Zimbabwe signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in September 2013, the convention is not being implemented as it has not been domesticated and incorporated into local laws,” said Mr Rambiyawo.
He said the domestication of the convention would allow Article 29 of the UNCRPD on participation in political and public life for people with disabilities, to be incorporated into the Electoral Act, and therefore binding Zec to ensure full and effective participation of people with disabilities in all electoral processes including disability friendly polling infrastructure.
Responding to the need for constant engagement with people with disabilities, Justice Chigumba revealed that in their efforts to come up with possible solutions to the matter they are in the process of establishing a disability desk within their office to make it easier for them to engage widely.
“This is just one route which we are taking to ensure that we get the input of as much people with disabilities. Organisations representing people with disabilities can easily walk into our offices so we engage in discussions on how best we can ensure that the voting process is inclusive,” said Justice Chigumba.
Dr Tsitsi Chataika, a senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Educational Foundations, who is also a disability rights advocate, corroborated Mr Mateta’s views, taking a swipe at Justice Chigumba’s sentiments saying it was unfortunate that people with disabilities were still being taken as second class citizens.
She said in many occasions laws were crafted without taking into account the views of people with disabilities hence at the end of the day this results in election law provisions which perpetuate stereotypes about disability, and treat disabled voters as second class citizens.
“To put an end to these shortcomings, election management bodies are encouraged to consult regularly and openly with organisations of people with disabilities and their allies, and to seek their input in the design of outreach programmes, in the design of ballots, and in the establishment of criteria to select polling stations.
“The issue of assisted voters could be dealt with and they need to remove barriers that hinder disabled persons from exercising voting as a secret exercise. In selecting polling stations, election authorities should envision having level access from the curbside outside of the polling station all the way inside the building to the polling booth itself. The polling booth should also be at table height, reachable by someone using a wheelchair,” said Dr Chataika.
She further noted that there is a need to mainstreaming women with disabilities who are double marginalised by the virtue of being women and being disabled. Dr Chataika emphasised the need to come up with voter education programmes specifically targeting people with disabilities.
On voter education and information, Nascoh’s Mr Rambiyawo said although Zec had distributed BVR material in Braille for the benefit of visually impaired persons, there was no material in large print for those with partial visual impairment and those with hearing impairments continue to be sidelined from these processes.
In the petition sent by Nascoh to Parliament they note that Zec has failed to publicise how it will ensure that polling stations will be at buildings, locations or places that are user-friendly for persons with disabilities.
“We are also worried that Zec has not spelt out the inclusion of persons with disabilities among its staffing officers, conversant in sign language or any other form of communication that people with disabilities can understand including Braille.
“We are dissatisfied that Zec has not publicised whether and how it will ensure that polling stations will be located at places or buildings that are user-friendly for persons with disabilities and that voting booths are user-friendly to persons with disabilities, particularly to those who use wheelchairs to ensure that the secrecy of their vote is guaranteed,” reads part of the petition.
On the progress of their petition, Mr Rambiyawo said; “We submitted the petition to Parliament on 13 October 2017. On 5 February, we met the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to speak to issues raised in the petition and on 26 February, we held a meeting with the same Parliamentary Portfolio committee on electoral reforms at which the Zec chairperson, Justice Chigumba was present and promised to addresse all issues raised by Nascoh in the petition”.
Justice Chigumba revealed that the only way around the problem they were faced was to come up with cheaper solutions further calling on organisations representing people with disabilities to approach them in an effort to draw up such solutions.
“As you see we are discussing simple things, some of the things are subject to availability of funds but those which don’t need money we have certainly discussed them and we will implement them.
“We have also discussed the possibility of setting up a disability desk within our offices as Zec hence we have assigned one of our officers to deal with disability issues,” said Justice Chigumba.
On the issue of having Braille ballot papers, Justice Chigumba said they would consider getting these ballot papers in the next elections after they get adequate figures of people who could read Braille.
Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Zimbabwe ratified in September 2013, sets benchmarks for the participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral process.
Among other requirements set by the convention are the country must ensure that “persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others, directly or through freely chosen representatives, including the right and opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected”.
In terms of infrastructure required for people with disabilities, the convention states that a nation signatory to the convention must ensure; “ . . . that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use, protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation”.
This article was published with support from the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe’s Investigative Journalism Fund.
