By HARRIET CHIKANDIWA

Harare magistrate Hosea Mujaya yesterday dismissed an application by former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko to have his trial transferred from Harare to Bulawayo.

Mphoko’s lawyer, Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara made the application yesterday when the former VP’s trial was supposed to start, arguing that his client resided in Bulawayo and did not have a house in Harare.

“My client was arrested in Bulawayo. His reporting conditions are in accordance with his residence in Bulawayo and the circumstances are causing undue hardships,” Zhuwarara submitted.
“Having the trial in Harare impairs his ability to co-ordinate his defence since the preparation of the defence is carried out three or four days before he appears in court.”

The court heard that Mphoko’s initial lawyer Zibusiso Ncube is in Bulawayo, therefore, the logistics will be difficult and expensive if the trial takes place in Harare.

He also said Mphoko’s family is primarily in Bulawayo and he had to keep his family together, adding that the resources required to co-ordinate his defence were in Bulawayo as well as his business enterprise.

Zhuwarara said Mphoko would be forced to use road transport which may result in breakdowns like what happened before or accidents.

After Mujaya dismissed the application, Zhuwarara indicated that he would on Friday make an application for referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court as Mphoko felt his constitutional rights were being trampled upon.

Mphoko is facing charges of criminal abuse of office after he allegedly instructed police officers at Avondale Police Station in Harare to release two Zinara officials from holding cells without following procedure while he was Acting President on July 14, 2016.

By SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

Pembi Bridge in Mvurwi has divided Zanu PF in Mashonaland Central province with supporters fighting over who should take credit for its completion between Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs minister Monica Mavhunga and her predecessor, Martin Dinha.

The bridge, just before Mvurwi town, was completed last month and replaced the narrow and now-dilapidated bridge constructed in 1977 which had become a black spot for motorists.

However, reports are that its official opening was being delayed due to factionalism in Zanu PF.

“We are not happy with some politicians who want to claim credit for other people’s projects. This project was initiated by the former Mazowe North legislator and ex-Minister of State Dinha who made sure the funds were made available for the project,” claimed Brian Chipara from ward 29.

“We hear Mavhunga is claiming credit under the new dispensation. That is very bad. Let us give credit to those who deserve it.”

But other Zanu PF activists said credit should be given to Mavhunga for ensuring that the bridge was completed before the end of the year.

“What is clear is that the bridge was completed by Mavhunga soon after her appointment. Dinha had no time to concentrate on his constituency as he was busy working with white farmers during his tenure,” Sekai Mutero from ward 26, said.

Daniel Makamba of ward 28 said Dinha and Mavhunga as well as the current MP, Campion Mugweni and Zanu Mashonaland Central chairperson Kazembe Kazembe should not “pontificate” over the bridge.

“The truth of the matter is that the bridge is linked to the First Family interests in Kanyemba, so the success should be accorded to the Ministry of Transport,” Makamba said.

Kazembe refused to comment on the matter, saying he was attending a workshop and had not responded to questions sent to him.

Mavhunga was also not picking calls.

Contacted for comment, Dinha said he delivered on his promise to construct the bridge and did not care who claimed the credit.

“Many governors came and left it undone and I came with promises which I fulfilled,” he said.

“I left as MP and provincial minister when the bridge was almost complete. I proceeded to lobby for support for its completion while out of office. I do not care or mind what people say or claim on who gets credit. All I want is development in Zimbabwe,” Dinha said.

The bridge took three years to complete. It was initiated in July 2016 in the run-up to the Mazowe North by-election to replace the late Edgar Chidavaenzi. Dinha won the election after promising to refurbish the bridge.

BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI

DURING the 2020 national budget presentation in Parliament last month, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube held up a note of the new Zimbabwe dollar and proudly announced that it was tough and resilient.

He said the quality of paper used was stronger compared to that on the bond note that had been in circulation since November 2016.

Looking at the new Zimbabwe dollar notes, they indeed look more durable. But that is probably where the differences begin and end. Moreover, still crispy new, it is difficult to argue otherwise.

Following the introduction of the new currency, there was, however, a lot of public skepticism that it would be the solution to the cash crunch and deep-seated economic malaise afflicting the nation.

In a snap survey, members of the public who spoke to NewsDay said when government started preaching the gospel that a new currency would solve the cash crisis, they knew it was no more than a con song.

While Ncube bragged about the physical durability of the currency, this has not been reflected in its actual value, which has continued to tumble in spectacular fashion against the United States dollar.

The Zimbabwe dollar has taken a heavy knock from major currencies as public confidence in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration continues to wane.

Despite the injection of more cash onto the market in late November, indications were that the money was still not enough, given that banks were limiting withdrawals to between $100 and $300 a day.

RBZ governor John Mangundya indicated that banks should drew more cash from the central bank after the first tranche of $30 million was exhausted in just over a week amid indications that there are 100 000 bank account holders in Zimbabwe.

“We will continue to disburse the money according to the needs of clients,” Mangundya said then.

“It means if there is a shortage, the banks should come to the RBZ to get the money for their customers.”

Analysts, however, feel that although pumping money into the market was good as it would help ease the cash crunch, the challenge was that most of the cash would not find its way back into the formal banking system, as it ended up in the hands of illegal foreign currency dealers.

Social and human development specialist Robert Mhishi said it was difficult to use a “command” system after government outlawed the use of foreign currency for domestic payments, yet curiously allowing it for some of its transactions such as payment of duty on imported cars.

“The country has a long history of command policies that violate basic economic principles, and that is why they are resisted and why they have never worked,” he said. “We saw this under (the late former President) Robert Mugabe and we continue to see it now under Mnangagwa.”

Over the long years of economic collapse, ordinary Zimbabweans have developed a knack for trading in any commodity, including cash.

“One of the biggest mistakes we made was in not creating a culture of using plastic money, even when cash was readily available. If we had done that, there would not have been such a huge appetite for cash, which is now being sold through platforms such as EcoCash, and the arbitrage we now see everywhere in the economy,” Mhishi said.

He further indicated that he did not understand government’s obsession with printing coins, whose value was on a continuous downward trajectory. Already, the 25c coin has largely been rejected by some sections of the market, especially public transport and small grocery shops in downtown Harare, where the majority of people buy their goods.

Many ordinary residents often buy goods at shops in their neighbourhoods or “tuckshops” at the outskirts of the central business district which strictly deal in cash.

One tuckshop owner, who declined to be named, confirmed that she strictly sold her merchandise in cash.

“Cash is easier to deal with because it enables me to purchase foreign currency that I would need to hoard goods from Tanzania when I want to restock,” she said.

“If I have to sell using swipe (point of sale machine) or EcoCash, I will not be able to easily access the money when I need to buy new stock. But if I was able to purchase the forex from the interbank market, then I would obviously accept other forms of payment from my customers.”

People who spoke to NewsDay expressed concern that they might not be able to access sufficient cash for use during the festive season.

“At this rate, this is going to be a very depressing Christmas,” said Cosmas Makoto of Chitungwiza. “In as much as government has assured us that money is available following the release of more cash onto the market, we are not really seeing much of a difference as of now, and it looks like this will continue into the Christmas season,” he said.

Although government has warned cash barons trading cash on the streets, it has not moved to arrest them.

There is a public perception that many of the traders — some of whom have been rounded up by the police and released — are mere fronts for mainly powerful politicians, who provide them with the cash to trade.

As the value of the local currency continues to take a severe bashing from other major currencies, businesspeople and informal traders have resorted to pricing their goods and services in United States dollars.

The Finance minister outlawed the use of the US dollar and a host of other foreign currencies in local transactions in a desperate bid to defend the country’s fledgling new currency against parallel market speculation.

Despite the enactment of Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 of 2009 on June 24 this year and SI 213 of 2019, gazetted under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Amendment of Exchange Control Act) Regulations of 2019 in September to outlaw the pricing of goods and services in foreign currency, the practice has continued.

According to social commentator, Alex Magaisa, a currency can only become viable if its users have trust in the issuing authority.

He said the reason why the United States dollar was the currency of choice in Zimbabwe was that locals had more trust in the US government than in the Mnangagwa administration.

Writing on his blog when the government first issued the bond note in 2016 — ostensibly to cover the gap created by the shortage of US dollar notes and coins — Magaisa said the surrogate currency was only going to work if the public embraced it.

Although people accepted the bond notes at the beginning, following government assurances that they were backed by a $500 million African Export Import Bank guarantee, the trust was lost when the Harare administration’s appetite for printing money went into overdrive and started to print more and more of the surrogate notes.

Monetary authorities had assured the nation that the official exchange rate between bond notes and US dollar would be pegged at 1:1 because of the Afreximbank guarantee.

“But I’m certain that many Zimbabweans would be happy to hear that Afreximbank has offered Zimbabwe a facility to guarantee 1:1 convertibility of RTGS balances into US dollars,” he said at the time.

The Zimbabwe dollar has depreciated by 564% to date since its introduction in February this year due to lack of market confidence and nothing to back it in terms of gold reserves and export earnings.

In February, government adopted electronic money as a local currency and called it the RTGS dollar, which operated alongside the bond note and multiple foreign currencies at a rate of US$1: ZWL$2.50.

However, this currency was later abandoned after monetary authorities decreed, in June, the Zimdollar as the sole legal tender.

The depreciation of the Zimdollar was confirmed in the United States Food Insecurity Department, FEWSNET’s October 2019 to May 2020 Food Security Outlook report released at the beginning of this month.

FEWSNET stated that as of late October, the local currency had depreciated by over 520% since February 2019, when the interbank market was introduced.

As a result, businesses started selling their goods or services at high premiums using electronic money and discounted prices for those using cash.

“Shortages of the local currency (bond notes and coins) have resulted in the notes and coins being sold at premium rates as high as 40% to 60% against mobile and electronic money transfers on the black market,” the FEWSNET report added.

As the economic chill continues to bite, many Zimbabweans have lost hope of the economy experiencing a rebound under Mnangagwa, who has continued to assure the nation that his government was on the right path and the fruits of their economic policies would soon start to blossom.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

THE World Bank (WB) has ruled out a possible financial bailout to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government for now, saying Zimbabwe will only continue to benefit from technical assistance, analytical work, and emergency response support to victims of Cyclone Idai until after the country has met certain reforms demanded by international financiers.

This comes after Finance minister Mthuli Ncube recently met with WB president David Malpass, where the Zimbabwe Treasury boss claimed government had made great strides in implementing currency and economic reforms.

In emailed responses to NewsDay Business, a World Bank spokesperson said: “Our engagement with the government of Zimbabwe is currently limited to strategic dialogue, technical assistance, analytical work, and emergency support in response to Cyclone Idai”.

“The World Bank Group continues to consult with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners to establish a common platform for international financial institutions to re-engage in Zimbabwe,” the WB official said.

As part of an amendment to the United States 2001 Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act last year, all US executive directors of a multilateral development bank were ordered not to allow any debt relief or further financial support to Zimbabwe.

This would only be lifted if the Zimbabwe government met certain conditions that involve resolving the 2000 land reform programme, respecting human rights, investigating and prosecuting sanctioned individuals and respecting human rights.

Government, which owes US$1 billion to the WB among other institutions, urgently needs a bailout package to fund its expenditure and stabilise the local currency.

“In the absence of international support, Zimbabwe’s macro-economic challenges may persist. With dwindling reserves, there is a high-risk of exchange rate overshooting, contributing to inflationary pressures. Climate-related risks may constrain recovery of the agriculture sector in the medium-term exacerbating food insecurity,” said the World Bank, in its October 2019 overview of Zimbabwe.

“Social and political pressures could lead to policy slippage, delay in macro-economic stabilisation and political reforms. This might jeopardise the reform agenda under the IMF Staff Monitored Programme and delay the government’s re-engagement aspirations.”

BY HENRY MHARA

WHAT started as a simple WhatsApp banter between boxing superstar Charles “Busy Bee” Manyuchi and former champion Mordecai “Big Fish” Donga could end up being one of the biggest fights on the local scene with the two, regarded as some of the finest boxers to ever emerge from the country, set to clash in a grudge fight later this month.

It all began on a WhatsApp group of local boxers when retired Donga (40), launched a scathing attack on Manyuchi’s fighting style, and claimed that even at his advanced stage, he could easily beat up the former World Boxing Council (WBC) silver welterweight champion.

Donga, a former lightweight and middleweight champion, said he was ready to come out of retirement so that he could “teach Manyuchi one or two things on how to box properly.”

The attack ignited a fierce debate on the platform, with supporters of the two camps throwing verbal jabs at each other.

Manyuchi, 10 years younger than Donga, was initially reluctant to take up the fight, which he claimed would not add any value to his career.

But pressure from his supporters and teasing from the rival camp saw him accepting the challenge.

Boxing promoter Clyde Musonda of Deltaforce Academy immediately sprang into action and in no time the date of the big fight and the proposed list of supporting bouts were announced.

Dubbed the Judgment Night, the super middleweight fight is scheduled for December 21 at the Rajiv Gandhi Hall at the Showgrounds, Harare, and will be the main bout on a night that will see the country’s other top and emerging boxers trading leather.

Donga has been the more vocal of the two and is very active on social media, where he takes every opportunity to sting Manyuchi.

Until this week when he described Donga as a “useless old man”, Manyuchi had been quiet, choosing to concentrate on his preparations for the fight.

So determined to win the fight and silence his opponent, Manyuchi took his preparations to Zambia where he has been camped for almost a month before returning to Harare at the weekend.
Donga has taken Manyuchi’s intense training regime to be a sign of panicking.

He told NewsDay yesterday that: “I’m the only person in the country who has beaten Manyuchi before, and that brings enough confidence for me.”

“On both occasions when I met him (Manyuchi), I had not trained because I was very busy at work then. I’m so confident that I’m going to beat him because I know he is so confused. That is why he had to leave the country for Zambia. That is a very big sign that the man is panicking. His camp is disintegrating, he left his coach in Zimbabwe and went alone to Zambia, so it’s a sign that he is disoriented and disturbed because for the first time in his career he is meeting a good challenger. His training routines are so confused. He doesn’t even know how to train because this man has beaten him before. I have been inactive so he does not know what to prepare for. He can’t even watch any video of me to see my fighting style.”

The two have met before, with Donga getting the better of the then young Manyuchi in the formative years of the Busy Bees’ career.

Manyuchi returned the favour in 2011, handing Donga his last defeat which sent him into retirement.

While Donga retired from the sport after the fight, Manyuchi went on to become a boxing superstar – winning the WBC silver welterweight title, in a career that has given him so much fame and fortune.

“When I retired from boxing, I told Charles that he should go on and win the world title. I didn’t say he should go and become a silver champion. I wanted him to become a world champion, but he failed. He failed the task I gave him, so I’m going to punish him for that,” Donga teased Manyuchi.

“He was supposed to go out there and beat the (Floyd) Mayweathers and the Pacmans (Manny Pacquiao) of this world, but he failed dismally. He also lost to that guy in Singapore. It was embarrassing and that’s when people came to me and said ‘Donga, did this person really beat you?’ I said no, he didn’t beat me. The Manyuchi that I fought back then was young and vibrant. This one is old and worn out. I’m going to teach him a lesson.”

Manyuchi, whose record currently stands at 24 wins, including 15 knockouts against only four losses and a draw, is the current World Boxing Federation middleweight champion.

Donga on the other hand, has 22 fights under his belt, which consists of 13 wins and 9 losses.

Judgment Night proposed bout card
Main bout: Super middleweight (12 rounds)
Charles Manyuchi v Mordecai Donga
Main supporting bout: National welterweight title (12 rounds)
Freeman “Bvongwez” Mabvongwe v Thembani Mhlanga
Super bantamweight title (12 rounds)
Tinashe “Chairman” Madziwana v Hassan “Starboy” Milanzi
Light welterweight (10 rounds)
Brandon “Boika” Dennes v Tawanda Chigwida
Super bantamweight female (8 rounds)
Zvikomborero Danzwa v Patience “Master” Mastara
Lightweight (8 rounds)
Evans “Vanso” Husavihwevhu v Ndodana Ncube
Bantamweight (8 rounds)
Bongani “Spannerboy” Makorova v Tinashe “The little Bee” Majoni
Light welterweight (8 rounds)
Trust Zihove v Philip “MadCobra” Musariri

BETWEEN THE LINES:Phillip Chidavaenzi

TAFATAONA Mahoso does not ordinarily strike one as a hopeless romantic. But give him a pen and paper and allow the poet in him to surface, you will get such a heartfelt outpouring from deep within, with poetry that is both simple and sophisticated such that ordinary, everyday objects take on deeper meanings.

This is what one gets in the former Zimbabwe Media Commission executive chairman’s publication, Rupise: Poetry of Love, Separation and Reunion (1977-2017).

Published in 2017, the collection is Mahoso’s second literary offering after Footprints About the Bantustan (1989), described by Mahoso himself as “the poetry of a public intellectual who occasionally concerns himself with love, lovers and personal matters” (ppvi).

There is an awareness of how love and friendship enable the individual to survive, thrive and excel.

Published by Samwasika Heritage Poetry, the book is a collection of 56 poems that, according to Mahoso’s preface, “records and celebrates the power of a woman’s presence in a man’s life” (ppv). The woman figure is an enduring image in African literature, recurrently used as a symbol of earth.

Although in a literal sense Rupise simply means “hot spring” or “geyser”, beyond the surface — as demonstrated through the poems collected here — hot spring is a metaphor for a woman.

It speaks to her unique capacity to attract, to love and to help a young boy through the ritual pathways into manhood.

Rupise, therefore, ceases to be just a spring of water and, at a deeper level, of life, to become that “smoking hot woman” who provokes a man into spirals of intoxicating romance.

In Mahoso’s worldview, informed by African philosophy, the earth ceases to be just a physical space to become a living organism that embeds the creator’s grace and generosity.

It is symbolic of a woman (mother) and enables one to bask “in the wonderful revelation that the woman I love is a real place of depth; not just because as infants we emerge from her like wet mushrooms out of the earth; but because she commands the presence, power and depth on which true civilisation may thrive…” beyond the narrow, superficial Western portrayals of “woman as a mere face, skin and shape” sold under capitalism.

The collection is divided into five broad categories — Unlit Lanterns, Separation, Rupise: Where, When Does Love Stay? Lifefolds and Gleanings.

The opening poem, Before You Appeared in my Life, celebrates the sense of awareness that a woman brings to a young man. Beyond love and passion, the poem acknowledges the real value and strength of a woman who is not just about a pretty face and deep curves, but has a sharp mind and “feisty intellect” (pp3), something that for years has escaped society’s interpretation of women.

In Unlit Lanterns, the persona addresses a woman he is waiting for, and one gets the sense here that a woman is a life-giving force that, once she appears, will renew the man’s youth.

Here, Mahoso uses the biblical allusion of The Ten Virgins (one of the stories about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ) — not so much for its spiritual meaning and significance, but to demonstrate the man’s uncertainty concerning the return of his woman.

There is a fascinating interplay of biblical allusions and traditional African ethos in the poem.

Such biblical allusions run through the collection like an endless string of beads, giving the poems a greater dimension beyond their literal meanings.

Such allusions, which are familiar to many readers, enable them to have a deeper understanding of the poems because of the common and everyday references, which are also universal regardless of the user’s religious background.

Several of the poems collected here, including Fire and Ice and Spirit Level, show Mahoso as an intellectual poet given his choice of diction and allusions. In Fire and Ice, for instance, libido is described as “a monumental iceberg” that broke off, rebelling “against its Northern glacier ancestor” (pp5). On the other hand, scientific images of “blizzards”, “satellites”, “mercury”, “icecles” and “crystal” are scattered throughout the poem, Spirit Level.

In Lighting the Lanterns, the first stanza opens with a bride decrying the groom’s lack of discernment that the woman in his life is much more than the body he can see with his physical eyes.

She has far much more to offer him: “The bridegroom paid no attention/To my intellectual lantern/Full to the brim/…It was my body that excited him.” (pp8).

Experience has a tendency to enrich the scope of one’s capacity to express what they have gone through.

We see this in the poem There Was No Room, in which the persona recounts his experience of innocent, carefree love away from home.

The Love that Went Unclaimed for Thirty Years is the longing for lost love whose tide, marriage, family and career have failed to stem. Here is a love that ended abruptly, and the lack of closure makes the persona continually yearn for what was lost, and what could have been.

The soul tie remains unbroken, thus the haunting memories continue despite having moved on, in a sense.

What keeps this love so strong through the passage of time is its accompanying secrecy: “Dark secrets we could not articulate to ourselves/Or squeal and ventilate to mother or brother or spouse” (pp15).

Mahoso’s skill as a writer is more pronounced in the piece, First Supper 1977. While describing a dinner encounter with a loved one, the poet skilfully selects words to put across his message in a subtle way, while at the same time leaving it open-ended, perhaps to allow for various interpretations.

He wraps up the poem: “There is no ice left to break; what remains is hot soup and dark roast; but you and I prefer more time, more care, to bite, to chew, to consider more serious beef with spice so hot we are forced to retreat, go slow, or eat cake first, since there is no ice left to break.” (pp37).

The reader is left to muse: is this just about dinner and food? Or is it about passion and sex?

The collection could also be about the women that have given the poet sleepless nights, captured between the stanzas of poems including My Love, My Beauty, Muchadziya “the soft-spoken daughter of Sathiya” whose libido remains “a low-hormone-low-calorie brew” (pp39) and Tonhorai.

Mahoso has such a command of creative language uncommon among intellectuals more at home in dissecting theory and formulae.

He writes in a sweet cadence that lures the reader to continue and enjoy the beauty of language even beyond the meaning of the poems.

Mahoso predominantly uses blank verse in his poetry, doing away with the more traditional forms of poetry anchored on rhyme. Here one can argue there is rhythm derived from the meanings of the poems rather than the arrangements of the words.

guest column:Tsepang T Nare

An attitude is like a flat tyre, with it everything remains stagnant and out of touch but change in behaviour results in a phenomenal way of doing things. It is at that point that one begins to view things differently than the way one used to. At that instance, foresight begins to eliminate hindsight.

The advent of the Disabled Persons Act of 1992 saw Zimbabwe being elevated to a higher status as the Act was a first of its kind on the African continent. What made the document a touchstone was that it addressed pertinent issues to do with discrimination, equality, accessibility among many other issues.

Its primary objective being to ensure that a person with a disability lives a life of dignity, and gets to enjoy and perform at an equal level with those without a disability.

It carried hopes and values of the People Living With Disability (PLWD) community and once fully implemented it would go a long way. Being the touchstone that it was, it became a model to be copied by other countries. Unfortunately it was not anticipated that 27 years later the prestige would have turned to paltriness.

Various legislative frameworks have been put in place including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) ratified in 2013, which further strengthens and ensures recognition and upholding of human rights but lives continue to be reduced to nothing.

Continued violation of human rights and other counter-productive models have been the order of the day. The society has continuously adopted the charity model, where PLWDs are a product of sympathy and it is considered a noble act if citizens do something about disability which is viewed as a tragedy. The best practice being to make use of resources. Such has become the ideology of disability.

Whereas the social model of disability is viewed as a societal construct rather than a medical impairment, it is a collective issue caused by the physical environment, inappropriate or inaccessible services and attitudes, and lack of understanding.

Often times it is little things taken for granted that are disablers and a hindrance to progressive realisation of individual as well as collective abilities.

As we commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities running under the theme: Promoting the Participation of Persons with Disabilities and Their Leadership, taking action on the 2030 development agenda, there is need to refocus, restrategise and look into adopting a transformative approach so as to create a gender non-conforming society whose values are premised upon equality, participation and inclusivity.

Though policies have been enacted and there is an effort to review the Disabled Persons Act of 1992 that has been taken over by events, little practical steps have been taken to robustly push for disability empowerment which will culminate in full inclusion and meaningful participation.

Physical environmental barriers, inaccessibility to services and attitudes are a cause for concern as they continue to hinder PLWDs from fully participating in the society or public spaces on an equal level with other people. Inaccessibility is a push factor to exclusion while the issue of attitude is a by-product of inequality.

The human rights-based approach as a developmental aspect of ensuring that human rights are promoted and there is fulfilment towards progressive realisation is sustainable as it looks at the symptoms of a greater malaise.

It is for such reasons that State actors and non-State actors should make significant strides towards promoting and intensifying participation as well as inclusion of PLWDs at all levels and in all circumstances where issues and decisions are to be made with an aim to make the development agenda a success.

PLWDs have a major role to play, but often times they have received a “piece of cake” when it comes to addressing their issues, resulting in disability being a struggle for resilience in an effort to get rights observed and implementation mechanisms to provisions set adhered to.

However, they ought to receive their full share. Collective efforts channelled towards a desirable outcome bring much-needed results. Therefore, there is need to open up space to allow self-representation in order to champion for change as that brings tangible results that drastically transform the face of disability, leading to social influence.

It is not about physical differences whose negative factors are attitudes, misconceptions and inequality, but is about those individual and collective capabilities being exhibited, thereby combating social injustices.