Inability is Our Disability

In 2005, at age 26, I met and fell in love with a man who impressed upon my life immensely. This man’s spirit of purposefulness, his abilities towards self-development and the advancement of others were extraordinary.

He was married to Nonhlanhla. They had one child – a girl. He had built this small family of his a three-bedroom house complete with its own study and library using his own bare hands. He also used the study to conduct marriage counseling sessions because he was passionate about the institution of marriage too.

When we met, he was in the process of writing a book titled ‘Dignified by Indignity’. Not a big deal you would think. Probably not, except Joshua Simelane from Maliyaduma was blind since age two. He was 32 years-old when I first met him in 2005.

He had great ambitions of ensuring that the needs of all people living with disabilities were integrated into the day-to-day Swazi lifestyle and culture, starting with education at the University of Swaziland where he hoped to conclude talks with the vice-chancellor about introducing Braille facilities.

Disability Rights Are Human Rights

Fast forward to 2015, ten years later, Joshua’s hopes for people living with disability are still just that -hopes. Maybe even dead dreams – like Joshua. May his soul rest in peace.

Although as a country we have signed and ratified many international charters, conventions and bills relating to respecting the rights and dignity of people living with disabilities, I’m afraid this isn’t enough.

Although our Constitution (also available in Braille) makes provisions for the respect and non-discrimination of people with disabilities, even as a binding guiding manuscript, it still fails to fully commit to these provisions. 

Why are siSwati and English the only official languages in a country where it is a known fact that there are thousands of deaf people who have gone and continue to go through the schools for the deaf in Siteki and Matsetsa?

What progress are we making in ensuring that sign language is part of the mainstream education curriculum to show that we are serious about reconstructing ourselves as a society in accommodating those of us who are living with disabilities?

If we all have the right and freedom to communicate in a language we understand or prefer, then Sign language should be recognized as such – an official language. And it perhaps it should be taught with the same vigor with which we teach Christianity in schools  and other public spaces.

Oh, I know what it is - maybe we didn’t think to consult people living with disabilities when we crafted this constitution? Ok, so maybe we did consult but did we involve them or at least their parents in writing it? I don’t know, but it’s possible we just blatantly dismissed them because after all they are half human (if human at all) and maybe even ‘unSwazi’ as you will see in the next paragraph.

Blatantly Violating Human Rights

I will never forget how disheartened and defeated I felt when, as recently as two years ago, I read a newspaper headline; ‘Disabled Businessman Stopped from Seeing King’ (Times of Swaziland September 19, 2013).

In case you missed it or have forgotten about this headline; Peter Pieterse, a well-respected self-made businessman from the Shiselweni region was stopped from joining his peers for a meet-and-greet with King Mswati III.

In fact, Pieterse had been elected by his peers to lead the delegation of business people into that meeting at Mbangweni Royal Residence. He was stopped…by…wait for it…a cabinet minister who also happens to be a whole Pastor of a church – Make Lindiwe Dlamini.

Pieterse’s ‘sin’ is having one leg and therefore would ‘be unable to kneel before the King as required by Swazi custom', Pastor Lindiwe told the businessman. She did it ‘to help Pieterse’, she later explained unapologetically to the newspaper reporter. Just like that, Pieterse’s rights to freedom of association and expression were crumpled like used toilet paper.

I will not even draw attention to the obvious discrimination here. I will however point out some of the implications of this discrimination that left me discouraged and crushed, not only as a human being but as a woman who faces varied forms of discrimination and greater risk to every danger by virtue of being born and raised a woman, and also as a parent.

What Pastor Lindiwe’s action demonstrated is enormous doubt about the political will to change society’s long held (inaccurate) views and myths about people with disabilities – that they are a curse, something to be ashamed of or even animals to be hidden away from ‘normal’ people.

Impaired Vision [2022]

As a human being and parent, enforcing these negatives about people with disabilities in this day and age leaves me worried about how far the vision for the country goes in the minds of our leaders and consequently our minds as a nation.

I mean, ours is a country with high HIV/TB infection rates and growing prevalence of other chronic diseases that have proven to result in patients being disabled - some diabetics have to be amputated and others go completely blind for instance. 

Cars, manufacturing machinery and violent assault injure people by the dozens every year leaving some handicapped and therefore requiring full-time care by family members and the public health/education etc. systems but we still want to think of disability as a predicament separate from our everyday problems? 

Am I the only one thinking about the implications of these scenarios for our country? Do these realities even feature in the bling that is our Vision 2022?

If people like Pastor Lindiwe are part of crafting this popular Vision 2022, I’m both worried and scared and convinced that our vision is impaired. I’m particularly scared for homosexuals whose preference is also often seen as a disability discussed only in hushed tones.

Additionally, it is well documented that parents [and families] of children with disabilities face the greatest distress; depression, social isolation and financial constraint because of the added responsibility of taking care of someone with, say, severe epileptic fits or even multiple disabilities for that matter.

I’m deliberately neglecting quoting the stats and categories of people living with disabilities in Swaziland because it shouldn’t matter how many there are when we are still at step one - talking about transforming the way we think and relate to people we know live among us, people who are born of us. 

Again, we can ratify a thousand United Nations or African Union disability charters, create dozens of in-country policies as provisions for legal frameworks to address disability rights, but these will not matter if we do not have a national action plan that we will execute diligently and with the right attitude.

Right now, our inability to put our words into action is our disability and we should consider ourselves a curse too if we still believe disability is a curse.

Policies can only translate to meaningful accomplishments once we transform the way we view disabilities – as leaders and as society – otherwise we’re crippling our future (pun intended). Make sure to remember my words come December 3 of each year.