People with disabilities have expressed concern over the lack of government commitment to make their lives better as shown by the “peanuts” they are receiving from the national treasury.
Speaking at a virtual workshop on Disability and the National Budget on Wednesday, Director for Albino Trust Zimbabwe, Bruce Nyoni bemoaned the exclusion of people with disabilities in the national budget consultations.
“The national budget does not have a community voice, particularly people with disabilities. Most people do not even know about these consultations which cause us to be excluded all the time,” said Nyoni.
Chipo Chitongo, a participant also highlighted that it is important to participate in public hearings for the national budget.
“It is important to participate in the budget processing but the reality is that very few people know about these public hearings. I suggest awareness of the importance of public hearings,” she said.
The 2022 budget allocation towards people with disabilities stands at 0,022 percent and is against 0,0255 percent that was allocated in 2021.
This shows that funding towards people with disabilities remains inadequate.
Nyoni urged people with disabilities to demand accountability in terms of resource allocation towards the implementation of the policy.
Treasury allocated ZWL$220 million towards support to disabled persons. Under basic education, the government set aside ZWL$2,3 billion for the procurement of teaching and learning materials and the provision of assistive devices for learners with disabilities.
