Disabled Dunoon residents roll up their sleeves after scoring contract to clean local school

A group of Dunoon residents have not let their disabilities hold them back from helping to clean a local school.

The ten people with disabilities have signed a six-month contract, which commenced on 17 October, to clean Sophakama Primary School. Their income will also supplement the group’s disability grants.

The cleaning project comes at the start of Disability Rights Awareness Month which runs from 3 November until the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December each year.

Baithuti Shasha, whose legs are amputated above the knee, sweeps the school grounds while moving around in a wheelchair. Shasha says he gets to work early to ensure the school is clean before learners arrive.

“I can’t just sit at home. Just staying in the location is not nice … You can end up using drugs and doing all sorts of wrong things,” says Shasha who lives in Dunoon’s Ekuphumuleni informal settlement.

A father of two young children, he says the cleaning job keeps him physically and mentally active. “Before, I was unable to fully provide for [my children and girlfriend] with the disability grant alone,” he says. “Now I’ll even be able to send financial support to my parents.”