THE ZIMBABWE
PEACE PROJECT
A large retail corporate, TM Pick n Pay, in
Masvingo, barred a woman with albinism
from getting into the shop because she
refused to be sanitised as the chemical in
sanitizers affects her skin.
The woman, Agnes Gurunhe went on to
request to be given water and soap to wash
her hands but this was not entertained.
“I politely asked that I be given water and
soap to wash my hands because my skin
seriously reacts to sanitizers but the people
manning the entrance said there was no
water at the shop and they then denied me
entry,” she said.
In addition to denying entry, the staff at the
shop went on to ridiculously suggest that she
list down the grocery items she wanted to
purchase so that a staff member would do it
for me while she waited outside.
This is a very unfortunate incident of
discrimination and stigmatising persons with
disability perpetrated by a large corporate
that should be leading in disability inclusion
as part of its core policy.
ZPP condemns the actions by TM n Pick n
Pay and asks that beyond apologising to
Gurunhe, they should publicly commit to
train their staff on inclusion of all citizens
who regularly use their outlets. ZPP appeals
to business organisations, corporates and
outlets to learn from the incident at Pick n
Pay to be proactive in ensuring that all their
staff who interact with the public are familiar
with disability inclusion.