Several people with disabilities held a demonstration at Keetmanshoop on Monday after the Ministry of Finance said there will be no increase for people with disabilities.
The current disability grant is N$1 600 per month.
Finance spokesperson Wilson Shikoto confirmed to The Namibian on Monday that only the old-age pension has been increased to N$1 700, while other social grants, including the disability grant, remain unchanged.
Shikoto said the N$1 700 pension was already announced by finance minister Ericah Shafudah, who had made it clear that no other categories of social grants will be changed.
The clarification by the ministry follows unhappiness from those receiving the disability grant who initially understood that the grant would be increased to N$1 700 from August.
The group carried messages that read: “Pay us what you promised us. We may be disabled but not invisible, and respect the rights of all grant beneficiaries.”
Spokesperson for the group, Lydia Motinga, says the government announced in February that pension and disability grants would be increased by N$100 in August.
Motinga says they may have disabilities but there is nothing wrong with their understanding of what was promised.
“We all had expectations of what we would do with the increase. For some people that N$100 could be nothing, but for us that could be electricity money for one week, or an additional milk, sugar and tea,” says Motinga.
Vice president Lucia Witbooi two weeks ago in Windhoek said the disability grant, established under the National Pensions Act of 1992, remains a key social protection instrument.
She added that with the 2023 census indicating that approximately 8% of the population receives the grant, the need for a fair, reliable, transparent and timely assessment system was clear.
Raising this statement, Fuzzy Meyer, another person with disabilities, questions why they are being excluded as the announcement was for pension and disability grants.
