The Deadly Toll of Stigma Against Children with Disabilities in Zimbabwe

........: A Reflection on the Siabuwa Murder Incident

By Delicious Mathuthu

On a quiet April evening in Mujimba 9, Siabuwa, a remote village in Binga District near Hwange, Zimbabwe, tragedy struck in a manner both shocking and devastatingly familiar to many advocates for people with disabilities (PWDs).

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) reported that Melody Mwiinde, aged just 23, was arrested after confessing to the murder of her six-year-old daughter, a child with a disability.

The girl’s life was ended not by a rare accident or sudden illness, but by the hands of her own mother, driven, as she admitted, by the relentless mockery and rejection from her community and the child’s absent father.

The harrowing incident cast a harsh spotlight on the intersecting burdens of stigma, poverty and lack of support faced daily by families of children with disabilities in Zimbabwe.

Nigel Tahwa, Director of Let’s Make a Difference Disability Zimbabwe (LMDDZ) and a person with cerebral palsy, sees the tragedy as rooted not only in the mother’s actions but in the absence of societal support.

“The parent is wrong, a hundred percent, but the wrongness has two sides. She did not accept the child's condition, but the community is also to blame,” Tahwa explains.

“Mockery drove her to this point. If a child is born with a disability, parents need counseling right from the hospital. They need to know they're not alone," he said.

Tahwa’s call for systemic support echoes international best practices. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says children with disabilities in Zimbabwe are among the most vulnerable, facing “discrimination, violence and exclusion from education and healthcare.”

In a 2023 report, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) estimated that 9.5 percent of the population lives with some form of disability, many of them children.

The World Health Organization stresses that stigma is one of the most significant barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities, especially in low-income countries.

In Zimbabwe, myths and misconceptions about disability persist. Families are sometimes accused of witchcraft or punished by ostracization or segregation, especially mothers.

“It’s not a crime having a disability. You can even do things that able-bodied people cannot,” Tahwa said, adding, “but when the community mocks you, it becomes a crushing burden.”

He said he speaks from experience.

“I have experienced mockery myself; recently, a woman told me to ‘speak properly.’ So this Siabuwa incident could have been a result of mental illness from community and family rejection. She felt segregated and was mentally disturbed," Tahwa said.

For Nyasha Mahwende from Young Voices Zimbabwe, who is also a person with a disability, the tragedy is a call for stronger legal protections.

“We need laws that protect us from harassment and insults, or parents with disabled children and families that reject such mothers,” Mahwende says.

“PWDs are not really respected here in Zimbabwe. Public officials must debate these laws because this is not fair at all.”

Mahwende also said there is a need for community awareness.

“People will keep perishing because of this. In some countries, we don’t see this happening. Here, PWDs are not really respected,” she said.

William Muzondo, a Gweru businessman who lost his son with disabilities last year, knows all too well the pressures such parents face.

“Children with these conditions are gifts from God, but the ways we accept them may differ because of pressures from the community. Taking care of a child with a disability is very expensive compared to an able-bodied child,” he says.

Muzondo recounts his own experiences of stigma: “Some accused me of using juju to get money because of my businesses, saying I was using my child. Is there a parent who wishes to have a child like that?”

He is adamant that support, not suspicion, is what families need.

“Let’s have funds channelled towards centres that help PWDs. Some parents are jobless, and some PWDs need special diets, medicine or pampers.

"I blame the community because instead of supporting, we are the ones trash-talking and accusing them of witchcraft,” he said.

Research from the Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) notes that the lack of social protection, early intervention services, and community-based rehabilitation leaves families isolated and desperate.

Only about 26 percent of people with disabilities in Zimbabwe have access to social welfare programmes, UNICEF says.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Zimbabwe has ratified, obliges the state to protect children with disabilities from violence and provide support to their families.

Yet, as the Binga case shows, implementation lags far behind the law, especially in rural and remote areas.

"What is needed is psycho-social support for parents so that the child grows in a good environment. It’s usually women who bear this burden because men often run away from responsibilities.

"Those that should have been arrested are those who mocked the child or the mother," Tahwa said.

Muzondo says the solution partly lies in the community awareness and support.

“Let’s not judge. As a society, let’s learn to support members who come across such situations. No one applies to have a child like that,” he said.