EDITOR – Once again there were no ramp facilities for people in wheelchairs to cast their vote at Edenglen Primary School.
My son had the humiliating experience of having his wheelchair lifted up and down the stairs in order to cast his vote.
The IEC officials were off-hand and rude, and one even said, “We will come to your house so you can vote”.
This is clearly a violation of the rights of disabled citizens who must be given access to all government buildings, of which a voting station is one for the duration of the voting period.
Disabled people in wheelchairs are quite capable of making their way to a polling station and do not need to be told in a patronising manner that “they should stay home and vote there”.
Most want to be part of the event which allows them to function as normal citizens, and not be demeaned by some insensitive, patronising official from the IEC.
Despite repeated requests to the IEC over the years to ensure facilities for disabled people, our requests have been deliberately ignored.
The electoral officer of the IEC at Edenglen should be fired for not providing facilities for disabled persons as the Constitution requires.
DENNIS HOINES,
EDENVALE.
Ledimo Nthejane, assistant manager of electoral matters at the IEC, responded as follow:
We sincerely wish to apologise in respect of the conduct of the IEC official to your son.
Unfortunately the facilities used by the IEC as voting stations are from different government departments and often do not have ramps.
We lease these facilities on short term basis.
We will continuously persuade landlords of these facilities to attune them in, ensuring that they are suitable and accessible to disabled persons.
