Mabila Mathebula
There are very few people in life to whom you can say: He or she changed my life. Magezi Thomas Makhense was a victim of gender-based violence (GBV) who changed many people’s lives.
GBV should be fawned upon by society. Qualitatively, it is better when GVB negatively affects adults but it is worst when it affects innocent children physically and psychologically throughout their lifetime. It is true that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
He was a victim of parental violence during his infancy. When his parents fought and fell over him, their total weight descended on him like a ton of bricks and as a result, he became disabled. His father took him away from his mother and he was deprived of medical care after his injury.
He was raised by relatives in the Shikundzu village but he never lost sight of his goal. He had a singleness of purpose wanting one thing at the time – education which is the greatest equaliser. I have always believed that crisis is an opportunity riding in the dangerous wind and that failure is the inability to see an opportunity out of a crisis.
Human beings have the propensity to avoid pain, struggle and difficulty. We even go to an extent of taking drugs in order to run away from pain. Dr Paul Brand said: “Thank God for inventing pain! I don’t think he could have done better job. It’s beautiful.”
To me Makhense he was like Hellen Keller, his life represents one of the most extraordinary examples of person who was able to transcend his physical handicaps. Makhense’s courage, faith and optimism in the face of such overwhelming disabilities had a profound effect on all he touched. His tremendous accomplishments stand as a symbol of potential in all of the people that crossed his path.
Makhense realised a long way off that people with disabilities were infantilised and looked at like burdensome children. Few people realise that disability should be understood as a human right issue. The US has been the torch bearers of human rights the world over with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but it took America 26 years to link disability issues with human rights.
The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) was promulgated in 1990. The ADA succinctly addressing ‘Ableism’. Ableism can be defined as discrimination in favour of able-bodied people and can involve anything from words to action to structures. The ADA states the following: “A public accommodation shall remove architectural barriers in existing facilities...where such removal is readily achievable, i.e., easily accomplished and able to be carried out without much difficulty.”
I stood open-mouthed when I read the World Report on Disability commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2011) that more than one billion people globally live with some form of disability, of which two million people experience considerable difficulties functioning.
The report also projected that, in the years ahead, disability will be an even greater concern because of its prevalence is on the rise. I was comforted when read the following lines:” Since disability is a human condition, anyone can be disabled and the only thing we can do is to be supportive to people with disabilities.
The same zeal that we fight human rights, gender-based violence, xenophobia and patriarchy should be the same zeal that we apply to promote disability as a basic human right. When one is able-bodied it never crossed one’s mind that you may one day join the queue of the two billion disabled people globally.
Makhense like Helen Keller was multi-talented. He was an educator, a human rights advocate, and a crusader for the disabled, a spiritual person, a community builder and he embraced culturalism as his guiding star. May his soul rest in peace.
Author and life coach Mathebula has a PhD in Construction Management.
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