Tuesday, 07 February 2012

Wheelchairs win parking-space war

Fighting for their space - MP Dumisani Gamede with members of the Zamani Disabled People’s Association on the steps of the Empangeni Magistrate’s Court on Friday morning

A Wheelchair-bound Member of Parliament, and lobbyist for the disabled, last Friday chalked up a victory for handicapped people everywhere. Dumisani Gamede successfully challenged a R100 parking fine issued to him for - ironically - ‘blocking (the) entrance and exit to a disabled parking’. He explained that the fine was issued when he tried to act on an able-bodied person illegally parked in an allocated ‘disabled’ parking bay outside Andrew’s Spar in Empangeni. He parked-in the vehicle to wait for a traffic officer who could fine the offender.

However, the traffic officer fined them both. ‘While the amount is nominal, it is the principle of the matter I feel is important to defend,’ said Gamede. After presenting his case to a prosecutor at the Empangeni Magistrate’s Court, Gamede’s fine was withdrawn. Zamani Disabled People’s Association members came out in full force to support Gamede. PRO Bheki Sibiya said able-bodied drivers who abused ‘disabled’ parking were a source of huge frustrated to the disabled community. ‘When you are bound to a wheelchair,’ explained Sibiya, ‘it is almost impossible to use a regular parking space because there is just not enough space to manoeuvre the wheelchair.

‘Shopping centres usually only have one or two parking spaces allocated to the disabled and if these are unthinkingly used by people who do not really need them, then we have a real problem when we arrive. ‘This is why we need to sensitise the Zululand public on the needs of disabled people.’