According to Professor Elijah Ngwale Bill 10 of 2019 will promote imagination of Persons with Disabilities once enacted into law Contrary to a misconception and perception that selected Persons with Disabilities in Zambia are marginalized they are not. In fact, it is when Bill 10 of 2019 will be enacted into law, that is when Persons with Disabilities will be marginalized and stigmatized, already Electoral Commission of Zambia proposals to the effect that Persons with Disabilities Presidential and parliamentary candidates should pay less fees than non-disabled candidates which also include mayors and Councilors (to mention but two) are stigmatizing marginalizing, and, therefore, an afront to Persons with Disabilities to say the least.
For time Immemorial Persons with Disabilities have participated in politics with minimal difficulties. in 1988 the Late Kalunga Koloweka blind scooped Nyimba Constituency seat as an MP. Subsequently the then President of Zambia Dr Kenneth Kaunda nominated the Late Lazarous Tembo blind, as an MP and appointed him as Minister of State for Culture in the then Ministry of Labour and Social Services.
With regard to Persons with physical disabilities, since 1964 there have been numerous persons with physical disabilities in Parliament among whom was my friend the Late Wisdom mvula and the Late Chishimba. Currently there are about 30 MPs with physical disabilities among whom are Honorable Chilangwa Minister for Luapula Province and Honorable Kopolande of Chembe Constituency in Luapula.
PF has many councillors with physical disabilities and, two who are blind the latter being in Honorable Kampyongo's Constituency. Therefore, UN convention on the rights of PWDs and Persons with Disabilities Act no 6 of 2012 are more important than and superior to Bill 10 even when it becomes law.
What Persons with Disabilities needs now is the implementation of UN CRPD and Persons with Disabilities Act number 6 of 2012 and they don't want Bill 10 which, in any case, is an insult and an afront to us Persons with Disabilities because in it, we Persons with Disabilities are called anything: “differently abled , physically challenged, etc." We Persons with Disabilities feel insulted by Zambia's Parliament and demand an apology from the Speaker of National Assembly for allowing Parliament to insult we Persons with Disabilities. otherwise, through UN convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities, we shall inform UN General Assembly accordingly.
