By Nokwanda Mamba

MBABANE:Bongani Makama,the President of the Federation of Organisations of the Disabled in Swaziland(FODSWA) has revealed that only 2% of wheelchair users in the country reached tertiary education but were sadly unemployed. 

Speaking to this Swaziland News on Wednesday as part of the commemoration of the International Wheelchair Day,the President said out of the 146 554 people who were living with disabilities in the country, 58 621 of them were wheelchair users adding that only 1 172 of them reached tertiary education but were sadly not given the same opportunities as the able-bodied.

“Wheelchair users are struggling with the stigma of being disabled such that they get isolated by teachers and students at school.Even at tertiary institutions there are few wheelchair ramps which makes their access to education difficult.The scholarships interviews are discriminatory in nature by covering questions like 'Kuhlehla' (working for the King for free). Government and companies are reluctant to employ them and are dismissing those who get disabled from accidents instead of rehabilitating and re-adapting them into the work place,”he said.

Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, had not responded at the time of compiling this report. 

Khumbuzile Mbhamali,a wheelchair bound first year Bachelor of Arts in Humanities student at the University of Eswatini(UNESWA)told this publication that she had been denied scholarship by Government without any explanation. 

"I applied for scholarship like all students, but I was sadly rejected.Fortunately,a  good samaritan has promised to pay the required deposit upon registration at the University",she said.

Reached for comments,Sikelela Dlamini, the Secretary General of the MultiStakeholder Forum (MSF)condemned the discrimination of the physically disabled population in the country. 

“As the civil society, the kind of a society that we envisage and the kind of a political dispensation that we push for,it is one where everyone will be free to exercise their rights as fully developed human beings without discrimination",said the Secretary General.