South African Parliamentarian Sees Improvements
By Kay Schriner
"We have to be ourselves, and are not bound by the party," says disabled South African Member of Parliament Hendrietta Bogopane.
In a recent interview with the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian newspaper, MP Bogopane talked about her eight years in Parliament. Blind since birth, Bogopane experienced first-hand the difficulties of living with a disability in South Africa and had been a long-time activist before she was elected to the national assembly.
Before the 1994 election, Bogopane looked for the political party she believed would best advance the cause of disability rights, and chose to run as a member of the African National Congress. But she does not view herself as "bound by the party," and expresses her opinions freely. The ANC regards her and her colleagues as experts on disability matters, she says.
There "is really a new South Africa," Bogopane says, now that public education is more inclusive and employment rates are improving.
To see the entire interview, go to
http://allafrica.com/stories/200107260288.html
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