I AM A HUMAN BEING!

Just a little background...

I bought a   Greyhound Bus Coach ticket from Pretoria, South Africa to Harare, Zimbabwe for Thursday 2 July 2015. I got to the Greyhound offices in Bosman, Pretoria at 1935  and proceeded to  check- in. I went through  check- in smoothly with no hassles at all and alerted the guy at the check- in point that I was travelling alone to Harare.

The bus was supposed to take off at 2045 and when  it got to 2015 the staff at the offices hadn’t given  us any update of the bus running late. At 2105, I got up and went to ask the guy at the check in where is the bus and how long is it going to take for it to arrive. He told me it was  5 minutes away and at the prison.  When the bus arrived I and my assistant in the company of my flatmate went to the bus so we could board the bus. My assistant then told the driver at the door that “Could you assist my friend?He is travelling alone and he is totally blind?”  The driver then told him to speak to the other driver who was sitting at the steering of the bus. My assistant then spoke to him “Sorry chief,  my friend is totally blind and he is travelling to Harare alone, can you assist him at the border?”  That driver then responded “Greyhound does not ferry people with disabilities”. I said “What, what do you mean, what did you say?”  He  responded in a loud voice “I   said we don’t ferry people with disabilities!”

I then asked him “Why did you allow me to purchase a ticket and allow me to check in?”

I   got so frustrated and walked back to their offices and asked the guy who had checked me in “You guys don’t ferry people with disabilities? Why did you check  me in?”. The driver got off his seat and followed me into their offices and said in a very loud voice yelling to me “I said we can’t ferry you and you are not going to get onto the bus!”  

I became emotional, frustrated, angry, disappointed. My senses were really affected. I was so embarrassed; my dignity was taken away from me and reduced to nothing. I then told him “This bus is not going anywhere without me!”

I started thinking after all this has happened to me my dignity has been taken away from me, my rights have been violated. I told my assistant I was going to find my way on the bus and my assistant was also angry and surprised on what the driver had told me. I literally went back to the bus and found my way into it and sat there. I had lost all my dignity as a human being, and started asking myself “Why does someone HAVE to  keep reminding me about my disability!”   The whole journey I was not assisted by the crew on board but by fellow passengers. We went through the customs at the Beitbridge border post and the other passengers asked the driver to assist me get onto the bus he responded “I told him we don’t ferry people with disabilities he should find his own way”.

That was a very painful and bitter trip for me. Why do people with disabilities suffer even in a Democratic South Africa?

I was meant to sit on sit 1B on the lower deck and the Greyhound coach was a health hazard to me. The bus was so filthy, the on board toilet facilities were smelling so much and the door kept on opening all the way for 24hrs. This could have a long health condition to me inhaling dirty air for 24hrs on that bus.  I came back to South Africa and wrote to the Greyhound coach and see the conversation. They then came to the office to have a word to me. The one guy apologized then I asked him what about the emotional damages, violation of human rights that had been done to me. He then said sir that’s what we can only do. I asked that alone so you don’t care about your customers, all you want is the money from us. I then told him to go back to his CEO and tell him there has been some damages you have done and need some compensation

I want the following from Greyhound:

1.  Compensation for the damages of ZAR 200 000

2.A written apology

3.To find out the action was taken against the driver.

4. Across the board human rights sensitization training for Greyhound staff to be conducted by a South African Human Rights Commission appointed organization

5. Greyhound to create and publish a policy on carrying passengers with disabilities and what services they can access aboard a Greyhound coach on all Greyhound routes

It is my life's work to empower the blind. I owe it to myself and to countless other blind and disabled people who are routinely made to feel like nothing by people such as Greyhound drivers did to me that day. I cannot keep quiet. My voice matters.

PLEASE sign this petition and circulate it and the link to your friends and work networks. Check out my website www.shineonafrica.org to see what I am about.

Think of the disabled people who are sidelined and maligned by service providers every day yet they pay the full amount for the service. This petition is important because it is telling businesses and service providers that disabled people are just that ...PEOPLE. People who paid their hard earned money and expect to be treated with respect and value. This petition is all about the principle of treating people with equality and respect.

Greyhound has been giving me the run around, calling for meetings where their executives try to justify their drivers's disgusting behavior. This is inexcusable. I demand a written apology, disability sensitization training for all Greyhound staff and accommodation for disabled travellers on all Greyhound coaches route wide and compensation for the abuse and humiliation I was subjected to at the hands of the Greyhound coach drivers. This is something that I will be engaging the South Africa Human Rights Commission and other human rights protection bodies because for every one person who stands up to abuse and tyranny thousands will have been tramped on quietly.

We are sending out this petition and asking every person out there who is fed up with being ripped off, treated like nothing  to sign it for every time you have felt you were discriminated against and felt powerless to speak out for fight for yourself. Now imagine you are blind and cannot see the sneering and mocking faces, shaking heads and eyes sizing you up and down for simply trying to  getting on a bus! A Greyhound bus!

I am a human being and I demand Greyhound Coaches South Africa treats disabled people like PEOPLE!

Thanks!

Tafadzwa 'Nyamz' Nyamuzihwa