Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
A parliamentary committee has recommended that the Commission for Persons with Disabilities envisaged in the Persons with Disability Bill should comprise of 10 members from the seven contained in the current Bill to ensure equal representation of the country’s 10 provinces.
The proposal is contained in a report by the parliament’s Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Portfolio Committee after carrying out public consultations on the Bill.
“The Commission for Persons with Disabilities should be increased from seven to 10 commissioners for a fair regional representation. The Government should introduce a National Disability Fund instead of the proposed Assistance Fund in Clause 45 to ensure PWDs get monthly grants.
“This grant should be a human rights-based approach rather than a social welfare approach,” reads part of the committee’s report.
The committee also called for the definition of disability to comply with that of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“The proposed commission in clause 5 should come up with a data base which should be regularly updated for all persons with disabilities stating gender, form of disability and identification cards as one of its functions,” further reads the report.
The committee also recommended that Clause 18 (1) (a) of the Bill should be amended by replacing ‘reasonable access’ with unrestricted access to all indoor and outdoor places, public transport and information.
“Clause 34 (1) (d) should clearly state that Persons with Disabilities should have free access to quality education from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to the highest tertiary level of education. Clause 35 should have a provision for sign language health professionals at all health facilities.
“The Bill should have a clause that clearly states that all assistive devices should be exempted from import duty and be offered to persons with disabilities free of charge.
“There is need for translation of all proposed legislation into the local languages recognised in the Constitution, Braille and sign language,” the committee further recommended in the report.
The Bill is currently before Parliament and is meant to align the law with provisions of the Constitution on addressing the welfare of PWDs.