TREAT US BETTER: People with disabilities make their way to the Port Elizabeth City Hall to protest against the disabled often being overlooked. Picture: EUGENE COETZEE
ABOUT 60 disabled people converged on the Port Elizabeth City Hall yesterday to highlight concerns about being sidelined by the municipality.
Most were either blind or in wheelchairs. Lucky Matshona, 37, who uses a wheelchair, said: “Our councillors don’t take us seriously. We don’t receive houses that are suitable to our needs.”
Thembinkosi Mengu, 40, also in a wheelchair, said disabled people were neglected.
“Our sports programmes never get supported. The municipality promises money but it never comes,” Mengu said.
Eastern Cape Disability Economic and Empowerment Trust chief executive Thabiso Phetuka said: “The municipality does not support disabled bodies at all, especially when it comes to service deliver y.”
He said the municipality’s disabled forum was non-existent.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni had met the disabled residents and the issues raised would be investigated.
-Melitta Ngalonkulu
The post Disabled call for end to being neglected appeared first on HeraldLIVE.