MBOMBELA – There is a concerted effort being waged by both government and various entities to fight violence against people living with disabilities, women and children.
MEC for social development, Thandi Shongwe said, “We’ve launched our provincial disability campaign recently and a Disability People’s Parliament session was held at the legislature last Thursday. This is a platform where issues affecting disabled people were discussed and tabled by them, following their popular notion that states; ‘nothing about us without us’. On December 5, 6 and 9 we’re going to hold district events, further discussing their concerns and righting all the wrongs that affect them. Besides that, on Saturday we’re hosting special Olympics for disabled people at the KaMhlushwa Stadium in Nkomazi.
“Concerning gender-based violence, we’re going to launch it on December 16 at Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in the Nkangala District. Gender-based violence is on the increase in the province, as I was recently informed that in Schoemansdal a young boy murdered his girlfriend whom he burned beyond recognition. There’s a funeral on Saturday in Mgobodzi. There was also a nasty incident in KaMhlushwa where a younger brother chopped his brother to death. “We’ve got programmes like family integration with issues like that of the two brothers’ incident. It needs a family intervention approach. It also touches on disability, because the one brother was deaf – you can’t punish or torment a person because he’s got a disability.”
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