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Finance and Economic Development minister Patrick Chinamasa

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National League for the Blind (ZNLB) has sued the Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, his Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare counterpart, Prisca Mupfumira and the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) for allegedly deliberately excluding its members from participating in the 2012 census programme.

ZNLB, through its lawyers Midlands State University Faculty of Law Legal Aid Clinic, cited Zimstat, Ministers Chinamasa and Mupfumira as the respondents in a filing made at the Bulawayo High Court.

In his founding affidavit, Ishmael Zhou, director of ZNLB accused Zimstat of excluding its three members from participating in its training programme for the 2012 census because of their visual impairment.

The trio are Thulani Tavashavira, a social welfare officer in Mberengwa, Simangele Ndlovu and Msoni Mlilo who are teachers at Humphrey Gibbs Primary School and at Khami Prison Secondary School in Bulawayo respectively.

Zhou argued that Zimstat’s actions were in violation of the trio’s rights as enshrined in section 85 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

“Tavashavira received an invitation during the course of June 2012 from the Midlands provincial administrator’s office to submit his name for consideration for Level 2 training for the 2012 population census programme that was being conducted by Zimstat. On turning up for registration he was informed by a Zimstat official that his visual impairment rendered him physically unfit to undergo the training as per the requirements set out by Zimstat in a circular,” said Zhou.

According to the court papers, Tavashavira, who holds a sociology degree from the University of Zimbabwe, was told that he would not be able to administer and complete a comprehensive questionnaire that was used in conducting the exercise as it would be “very challenging” for a visually impaired person. The circular stated that the personnel which was to be involved in the census was supposed to be physically and mentally fit, able to work under pressure in a highly technical environment, be in possession of at least a tertiary level qualification (degree or diploma/certificate) and be senior enough to be able to supervise and discipline subordinates.

“Tavashavira is of good health and there was no reasonable basis for concluding that his visual impairment meant that he was also physically unfit such that he couldn’t perform the duties,” said Zhou.

The lawyers also argued that Ndlovu, who holds a teaching diploma and a degree in Special Education and Mlilo, a holder of a Bachelor of Arts general degree, were physically and mentally fit with the right credentials.

“We observed that Zimstat systematically excluded Tavashavira, Ndlovu and Mlilo from its recruitment process in the run up to the 2012 census because of their visual impairment,” said the ZNLB lawyers.

Zhou said his organisation through its lawyers held a meeting with Zimstat on July 24, 2012, during which the statistics body conceded that it had no empirically verifiable basis to conclude that visual impairment rendered it impossible for such a person to participate in the census as a district level supervisor. The applicant’s lawyers said despite the meeting, Zimstat failed to take any step to facilitate the full participation of their clients.

“Respondents, in the population census process cited budgetary constraints. We believe that in the next census or other similar exercises, Zimstat and the Minister of Finance and likely to raise similar arguments that they cannot recruit visually impaired enumerators because of budgetary constraints,” said the applicants’ lawyers. “Budgetary challenges aren’t a permissible basis for discrimination on the basis of disability such as visual impairment, as it doesn’t fall within the exceptions to the provisions of section 56 of the constitution.”

The lawyers said the respondents have a duty to implement the right to be protected against discrimination and promote the full realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities.

ZNLB is seeking an order compelling Zimstat, Ministers Chinamasa and Mupfumira to immediately put in place mechanisms and facilities that will enable the full participation of persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, in the conduct of future censuses. The respondents are yet to respond.