THE adage that disability is not an inability reverberates with the life of Bulawayo-born and bred Tsepang Mike Nare, an outspoken and passionate disability rights activist.
By Veneranda Langa
Born on April 20, 1994 with a disability that left him wheelchair bound, Nare is a very charismatic individual despite that he has to move around in a wheelchair and has to be assisted most of the time.
Nare is eloquent in speech and is very clear when it comes to articulating issues pertaining to the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
“I can describe myself as a passionate and unique individual, who was born to love and to be loved, and most of all, I would like to say that I am a gentleman with a heart of gold,” Nare said.
“Actually, my favourite quote is ‘the best feeling in the world is knowing that you actually mean something to someone’,” he said, explaining that he feels gratified that he spends most of his time fighting for the rights of PWDs so that they enjoy them as espoused in the country’s Constitution and that they enjoy their social, economic and political rights.
After completing his education at King George VI school, Nare then attained a certificate in human resources management at the Bulawayo Technical College; and by 2015 he had already attained a diploma in human resources management at the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe.
Nare said he is currently seized with activism work to promote the rights of PWDs in line with the country’s Constitution and international conventions that Zimbabwe acceded to and is a State party to.
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“Currently, I am very vocal in trying to popularise the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) to PWDs, because this instrument is good ammunition for attainment of the rights of PWDs,” he pointed out.
He is part of the Activista group, which works with ActionAid Zimbabwe to popularise the charter that promotes democracy, rule of law and human rights, including the rights of marginalised groups such as women, children and PWDs.
Zimbabwe is yet to fully ratify and domesticate ACDEG so that it can be bound by its provisions and principles. “As a disability activist, I see ACDEG giving us ammunition in the event that PWDs want to lobby for participation in political, economic and electoral participation,” Nare said.
“In political participation, there are also women with disabilities who need to be promoted so that they participate in politics, because already there is a proportional representation quota for women with 60 free seats, which we feel women with disabilities should also benefit from,” he said.
Disability rights are well captured in article 8(2) of ACDEG, which stipulates that State parties shall adopt legislative and administrative measures to guarantee the rights of women, ethnic minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, refugees and displaced persons and other marginalised and vulnerable social groups.
Nare said gender and women’s issues have managed to take centre stage and dominate to the extent that they (women) ended up getting 60 free proportional representation seats in Parliament, while PWDs only have two seats in the Senate and no seat in the National Assembly.
He believes in women empowerment, but is wary that there is a huge disparity in terms of achievements by women issues compared to PWDs.
“Women are dominating and their issues are being addressed, but for PWDs there has been very little ground covered. I would like to commend Norton MP Temba Mliswa, who is the only MP that I have noted who has actually been pushing for a PWD quota representation in Parliament.
“Mliswa said some women in the PR system have not been efficient and so why not split those seats and give some of them to PWDs or the youth,” Nare suggested.
Turning to the legislators and noting how they lacked capacity to deal with disability issues, he said: “It is also legislators’ mandate to promote and advance disability rights. As far as we are concerned, Parliament is secluding PWDs. We cannot be happy with only two MPs representing PWDs in the Senate. After all, we feel that those two seats are ceremonial.
While ACDEG stipulated that PWDs’ rights must be taken care of, including the country’s Constitution, there was still no ministry for PWDs in Zimbabwe.
“Our research has shown that we are actually far much more than war veterans, in terms of numbers, but they have their own ministry. We are placed under the Public Service ministry, which caters for different constituents and they tend to forget that disability is cross-cutting,” he said.
He also called on the electoral body the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to include a commissioner with a disability so that the concerns of PWDs are adequately covered during elections.
Nare also emphasised that PWDs need capacitation on ACDEG, using different forms of communication such as Braille, sign language, audio recordings for the visually impaired and radio for those in the rural areas.
He is planning to petition Parliament to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are respected as stipulated in the Constitution and ACDEG.
Not only has Nare been seized with popularising ACDEG, but he is also very outspoken on issues of ensuring that PWDs have appropriate transport and that buildings should be user friendly to them.
Section 22(2) of the Constitution is very succinct on issues to do with the rights of people with disabilities.
It reads: “The State and all institutions and agencies of government at every level must within the limits of the resources available to them, assist persons with physical or mental disabilities to achieve their full potential and to minimise the disadvantages suffered by them.”
Nare said while there was commitment in terms of respect of rights of PWDs, the shortcomings were in that the Constitution stipulated that “whenever resources are available”, which makes enforcement very difficult.
He gave an example of the very minimal budgetary allocation to PWDs, where they are lumped up with other constituents like elderly people under the Social Welfare ministry, and the budget is never enough to support their activities.
