By Beatrice Bangula
Blantyre, September 7, Mana: Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (MACODA) on Friday oriented members of Blantyre District Executive Committee (DEC) on newly enacted Persons with Disability Act to ensure effective mainstreaming and implementation of activities in compliance with legislation.
According to the Director General of MACODA, George Chiusiwa, the council expects effective implementation and compliance with the legislation after building the capacity of local council officials on issues to do with disability as sectors within the council implement or coordinate various projects.
MACODA organised a one-day orientation to raise awareness among DEC members on the newly enacted Persons with Disabilities Act which was enacted in December 2023 and started functioning in February 2024.
Chiusiwa acknowledged the critical role councils play in implementing policies and programmes that support the inclusion of persons with disabilities in a bid to attain inclusiveness in various development activities.
“The orientation will empower and capacitate local councils to incorporate inclusive development programmes in their planning processes, in particular, the training aims at sensitising local councils on the Persons with Disabilities Act and equip technical officers with skills and knowledge on the prescribed obligations of duty bearers under the disability law,” he said.
Chiusiwa expressed hope that duty bearers’ knowledge of the Person with Disability Act will facilitate the fulfilment of fundamental rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities.
Factory Centre Manager for MACODA, Mercy Mpunga explained that the new Act includes provisions for parking areas designed for persons with disabilities in car parks, it places obligations on the provision and promotion of rights to persons with disabilities, receive complaints, conduct inquiries, inspect institution for non-compliance of the law, among others.
She added that the old disabilities pieces of legislation could not achieve the desired impact because obligations were placed on the Minister responsible for disability and not relevant duty bearers.
“The Handicapped Persons Act which was created by MACOHA was charity and medical orientated and not in compliance with the rights based approach to disability.
For example, the 1971 Act was charity oriented portraying a person with a disability as sick and an object of charity and has to be fixed, in 2012 although it used the human rights approach,” she added.
According to Mpunga this fell short of some provisions and rights hence not comprehensive enough.
Blantyre District Council Director of Planning and Development, Merayi Mhone hailed MACODA for orienting the DEC on the Person with Disability Act saying the orientation was relevant to the council.
“The training has come at the right time when we are finalizing our District Development Plan (DPP) and the Social Economic Profile (SEP) as it will help us to include issues that were left out.
“The training has enlightened us to be inclusive in our programming and this means we should reasonably accommodate them,” Mhone added.
