MUSICIAN Greatman, born Tongai Gwaze, is on a crusade to source wheelchairs for the differently abled.
The campaign has gained currency, with Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s wife, Miniyothabo, donating wheelchairs in response to the call.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week appeared to have put the “icing on the cake” by donating vehicles and wheelchairs at an event at State House.
Greatman and Chipo Muchengwa, alongside three other beneficiaries, got Mahindra vehicles. Mnangagwa also donated 50 wheelchairs to the country’s 10 provinces, meaning that each province will get five.
On paper, Mnangagwa’s gesture presents him as a listening leader who is digging deeper into his pockets to solve a crisis.
However, in reality, Mnangagwa is papering over cracks, masking the missteps of his administration.
The episode highlights the State’s neglect of people with disabilities, despite national data clearly showing the scale of need. According to the 2022 national census, 9,5% of Zimbabweans live with disabilities.
When a public figure like Greatman is forced to send out an SOS, it signals a system that is not working — a desperate situation requiring collective action.
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But ultimately, the buck stops with government, which continues to fall short despite signing two international conventions designed to protect people with disabilities.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliges State parties to modify and abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against people with disabilities (PWDs).
The African Charter on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities mandates State parties to modify, outlaw, criminalise and campaign against, as appropriate, any harmful practice applied to PWDs.
In the National Disability Policy, Mnangagwa acknowledged that disability is multidimensional and demands full inter-ministerial responsibility. He noted that while the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry leads the agenda, it cannot deliver meaningful change without the full support of all ministries and oversight institutions.
In the National Disability Policy, then Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Paul Mavima said the second republic was moving away from regarding persons with disabilities as “unfortunate and suffering victims of impairment, who should just receive donations from well-wishers for which they must be grateful”.
The second republic, he said, was also departing from regarding persons with disabilities as sick persons who “should assume the morbidity role of passivity”.
The government is working on legislation to cater to PWDs. The Persons with Disabilities Bill is set to repeal the outdated Disabled Persons Act, provide for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in accordance with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In its report after public hearings on the Persons with Disabilities Bill, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare said 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, it said, should be a human rights-based approach rather than a social welfare approach.
Disability issues must be given the attention they deserve. The differently abled must not be seen as a charity case.
The second republic has repeatedly declared that no one and no place will be left behind.
Greatman’s plea is proof that a whole constituency has already been left behind.
