Own correspondent
6th April 2022
Civil society organizations at the University of Botswana seminar suggesting changes to the country’s constitution have called for the promotion of a more inclusive society saying disabled people should be accommodated when various amenities like ablutions and stairways are built.
The first speaker from the community was Dr Emmanuel Moswela, who said public facilities were generally inaccessible for disabled people and cited the example of a fellow speaker, whose wheelchair had to be lifted onto the stage.
He said that inaccessibility leads to poverty, segregation and disenfranchisement.
He further said local elections did not provide facilities to enable people without sight to vote and that when disabled people attend academic classes they never know if they are going to have a sign language interpreter.
“We are treated as dysfunctional people who can’t contribute to society and are not worth investing in,” said Moswela.
He added, “(Disability) had received selective attention and remains unrecognised … there is no disability legislation”. He said that he hoped that this opportunity could be used to recognise the constitutional rights of all members of society including those who are disabled.
A disabled student from the University of Botswana, whose wheelchair was lifted onstage and appears to have been added to the program, also made a presentation and challenged people to reconsider how ‘disabled’ people are viewed.
He said he disabled was the wrong term to be used to describe his community as they are differently abled people. This is an insightful view as some ‘disabled’ people have developed inventions that have led to significant developments in the modern era.
Stephen Hawkings, was director of research at Cambridge University, although he developed the debilitating motor neurone disease whilst he was a young student in his twenties, leaving him paralyzed. He was left without speech and eventually could not breath on his own.
A special computer was designed to enable him to communicate, through which he continued his pioneering work in science. He is spoken of in the same breath as Albert Einstein and was the ‘Lionel Messi,’ of the scientific community.
President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States of America(USA) was also wheelchair bound as he contracted polio at a very young age, which left him without the use of his legs. Notwithstanding, these challenges he went on to occupy one of the most powerful positions in the world.
He is regarded as one of America’s best presidents and successfully led it through the Great Depression and World War 2. Roosevelt was an attorney before he joined politics and is the only president to serve as a four term president. He was a Harvard and Columbia law school graduate.
The University of Botswana student further said they are not in fact disabled but able and quipped, “we don’t have FD’s … we graduate with higher marks.”
He said the South African judiciary had done well to require legislative mandatory representation from the disabled community on the judicial bench.
Experienced local judicial officer, Justice Monageng, who is a former judge of the International Criminal Court at the United Nations reiterated their views and said that often when differently abled witnesses go to court, they do not have people who can communicate with them in sign language etc.
An inclusive amendment of the constitution will go a long way to helping Botswana to find its best minds by expressly recognising the fundamental rights of differently abled people, whose rights are expressly guaranteed through United Nations Charter and African Charter on Human Rights – treaties which Botswana is party to.
