By KWANELE SIBIYA | 2024-12-03

DEPUTY Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla has revealed that five houses for persons with disabilities will be constructed with a grant from the government of Taiwan.

She said she had already negotiated with government that from a bilateral grant of over E3.6 million (USD200 000) Eswatini expected, part of it would construct the houses.

Dladla said government had also committed about E9 million (USD500 000) to the DPM’s office towards the renovation and expansion of a hostel at St Joseph’s High School.

“We want to ensure that St Joseph’s High has a hostel that will accommodate all the pupils in order to ensure that they don’t travel long distances when reporting to school,” she said.  

She was speaking yesterday during the commemoration of the International Day for Persons with Disabilities and launch of  phase two of the United Nations Partnership on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) held at Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre.

The commemoration of International Day for Persons with Disabilities was held under the theme ‘Amplifying the Leadership of Persons with Disabilities in Eswatini for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future.’

Graced
The event, which was graced by persons with disabilities from all the regions,  was also attended by Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula, Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, Senator Stukie Motsa, as well as United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator George Wachira, to name just a few.

Adding, the DPM revealed that she had since commissioned an exercise which would track and bring to book all parents who neglect their children with disabilities by ‘dumping’ them at their grandparents’ homes.

She said in yesteryears, parents of children with disabilities would lock them inside the house in a bid to ‘hide’ them from members of the public; however, she was glad that with the introduction of disability policies and legal frameworks, such an abominable practice was fading away.    

She said testament to that she was receiving many calls from parents with children with disabilities who needed help in taking care of their children.  

Dladla urged parents who have children with disabilities to desist from locking them inside the houses as the children did not belong to them, but the society.

“The development of the country requires the collective efforts of all Emaswati, if children are locked inside houses how are they going to contribute towards the development of the country,” she wondered.

She urged parents who had dumped their children with disabilities at their grandparents’ homes and men who neglected their responsibilities of caring for their children with disabilities, to repent.

“I have already secured some vehicles to carry out such an exercise so such parents should go back and apologise to the people they have since forced to take care of their children and be responsible parents moving forward because we are coming for them,” the DPM said.      

Furthermore, she pointed out that brains of persons with disabilities were being wasted away because many people were of the view that only able-bodied persons had brains.
“We should utilise the brains of persons with disabilities,” she said  

She called upon government ministries to prioritise disability-inclusive policies and budgeting, development partners to align resources towards sustainable disability programmes and communities to foster an environment of acceptance, understanding, and empowerment.

Meanwhile, the minister of tinkhundla said they had already submitted the regulations of the Poverty Reduction Fund to the ministry of finance for fine-tuning.

He said the ministry of finance was expected to table the regulations before Parliament soon.
He said when drafting the regulations, they made sure that persons with disabilities would easily access the fund.

He said they were also working on reviewing of the Regional Development Fund (RDF) and likewise they would also make sure that persons with disabilities were taken into consideration insofar as accessing the fund was concerned.

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