Wezi Tjaronda
20 October 2004
Windhoek — THE National Federation of People with Disabilities boss Gerson Mutendere has resigned from the disability movement as its secretary general, a position he has held since 2000.
The resignation, which is effective as from yesterday, follows his decision to go into active politics and his nomination on the Congress of Democrats' parliamentary list, which was presented to court and the Electoral Commission of Namibia two weeks ago.
Mutendere is no 11 on the CoD's list of 72 aspirants to the National Assembly.
Announcing his resignation to the press in the presence of CoD officials, member oganisations of the NFPDN and some people with disabilities, Mutendere said the CoD had realised the need for people to represent themselves by including a person with disabilities on its parliamentary list.
The NFPDN had requested all political parties some few years back to include people with disabilities on their lists for them to represent the disability constituency. Namibia has a population of 85 000 disabled people, according to the recent Housing and Population survey.
The request, said Muten-dere, to all the other parties except for the CoD fell on deaf ears and this according to him meant a lack of interest in disability issues.
The federation requires that whoever joins a political party should resign from their position to distance the movement from party politics.
"The reason for my resignation today is to make it clear that the NFPDN is not a movement that is affiliated to any political party," he said, because "it represents the interests of people with disabilities irrespective of their political affiliations "
Martin Tjirera, the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Disability Issues, thanked the CoD for its decision to include people with disabilities noting that the movement has been fighting for inclusion for some time.
"There are lots of disabled people in the country and they need some representation at all levels of politics," Tjirera added.
The CoD, which was represented by its secretary general, said the inclusion of Mutendere on its list was not to gain political mileage but to demonstrate its seriousness in what it preaches.
"We have been in existence for five years and have participated in elections twice and we are already practising what we preach," said Rein-hard Kala Gertze, CoD Secretary General.
He said his party was dissatisfied with the way the ruling party was dividing the national cake, which has resulted in the poorest of the poor ending up at the bottom of the economic development ladder.
"The CoD believes that people with disabilities have abilities," he added.
Although Mutendere still has to secure his seat in Parliament, member organisations of the NFPDN and individual persons with disabilities felt it was a move in the right direction.
Heide Beinhauer, Director of the Association for Children with Language, Speech and Hearing Impairment in Namibia (ClaSH) said it was a good idea for Mutendere to join politics.
"For him to be the first person with disabilities to be included in a political party list is a big step," she said.
Another independent consultant on disability issues and a disabled person himself, Jabulani Ncube, said it was an important step to include a person with disabilities on the party list because it demonstrated that it was inclusive.
A number of countries elsewhere and in Africa have people with disabilities in all levels of government, and Namibia could not lag behind, said Ncube.
During Mutendere's time, the Disability Advisory Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister was created, and the long awaited National Council on Disability Bill was tabled and adopted by Parliament.
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