Victory for millions of pygmies following the vote on Wednesday by the National Assembly on a bill that anchors positive discrimination in favor of indigenous peoples who were once marginalized. From free health care to legal costs and even high school costs, the bill still has to go through the Senate for second reading before being issued by President Felix Tshisekedi. But the initiators of the text are optimistic about the next step.
as reported from Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
This is the optimism nurtured by Deputy Rubin Rachidi, defender of the project in the half cycle. It is also the culmination of a work spanning 10 years, a long-running struggle for the NGO, Dynamics for Indigenous Peoples (DGPA), of which Patrick Saidi is the coordinator.
“A strong call, where it was necessary to show that the indigenous pygmies in our country were not just part of the vulnerable groups that went through situations that required the legislature to take action, this action today” Hui has just been taken by this law adopted unanimously ‘.
Of the 383 deputies present at the plenary session, only one opposed without justification. It is true that the law gives the pygmies costly benefits: free medical care, free high school … It is also planned that the pygmies benefit from free legal services. Patrick Saidi, relies on external support.
“We know that in these matters, we NGOs and all these international organizations that come with us, we are also putting a budget to support the state in its own fees. In my opinion, it is a restorative law after” the injustice of domestic Pygmies have suffered for centuries, it is also a law that has the seeds of evolution.
For this law, it is planned that a national fund for the development of pygmies will be created for the implementation of the text. In the country, many laws are adopted without being applied due to lack of financial means.
.
