By Bigboy Madzivanzira
Harare CBD, this week — a wheelchair, extended to carry sacks of goods, being pushed for a fee. The man pushing it, not a person with a disability, resting in it between jobs. When asked, bystanders said he bought it.
In over 30 years in medical rehabilitation in Zimbabwe, I have never seen this.
This is urgent.
A wheelchair is not a scotch-cart. A wheelchair is a medical device. It is someone’s legs. It is how a child gets to school, how a mother gets to the clinic, how an elder gets to church.
At Health Promotion Clinic Trust, we have a waiting list. Children crawling because there is no chair. Elderly stuck at home because there is no chair. Donors bring five chairs, we need fifty.
And then in the CBD, a wheelchair is used to ferry tomatoes and mealie-meal.
I do not write this to shame the young man. He bought the chair. He is trying to survive in a hard economy. A wheelchair rolls better than a wheelbarrow and can earn him a dollar. The person who hires him just wants cheap transport from Copacabana to the market.
But the cost is heavy:
First, we lose a device. Wheelchair castors and frames are not made for heavy goods. It will break, and then it helps no one.
Second, we confuse the public. When City Council sees a wheelchair in the CBD, they assume, respectfully, it is a person with a disability. They leave him alone. That respect is good, but it hides misuse.
Third, we risk donor confidence. When people hear wheelchairs are used as carts, they stop donating.
I have worked in rehabilitation since before many of our current therapists were born. We have seen wheelchairs misused, we have seen them broken, but we have never seen a trend where wheelchairs are openly bought and converted into goods carriers for business.
If this becomes normal, genuine wheelchair users will suffer. People will start to think every wheelchair in town is for hire.
We need urgent action, not punishment:
1. Harare City Council and Social Welfare must be made aware — not to arrest these men, but to educate and provide alternatives.
2. We need affordable vendor trolleys and carts for our informal traders, so they do not need to use medical devices.
3. We need protection for assistive devices — community awareness that a wheelchair is someone’s mobility, not a business tool.
4. We need more wheelchairs for those who need them.
A wheelchair must remain a wheelchair.
Let us give our young men in the CBD proper carts to earn a living, and give our people with disabilities proper wheelchairs to live with dignity.
About the Author
Bigboy Madzivanzira is Founder and Director of Health Promotion Clinic Trust and Zimbabwe Representative of CAN Africa Network. He is a Medical Rehabilitation Practitioner registered with the Medical Rehabilitation Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe, a Health Promotion Practitioner registered with the Allied Health Professions Council of Zimbabwe, and a Freelance Journalist accredited by the Zimbabwe Media Commission. He can be contacted on 0773 367 913 or email healthpromotionclinic@gmail.com