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Politicians shouldn't be called to offer NCC advice - Masebo

Politicians shouldn't be called to offer NCC advice - Masebo
By Lambwe Kachali
Saturday July 12, 2008 [04:00]

LOCAL government minister Sylvia Masebo has said politicians should not be called to offer expert advice to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) committees.
And NCC deputy secretary Newton Ng'uni said some members were in the habit of leaving the conference early before the stipulated time.

During the opening of the second set of the NCC committees on Thursday, where members of the local government committee wanted to know if experts would be called on every issue, Masebo said it was important for issues to be dealt with in chronological order and that there should be experts on every subject.

However, Masebo said politicians and chiefs would not be the right people to call because they would just defend themselves instead of offering the required services.
"The problem with politicians is they only talk about themselves.

Because if you bring a chief, a councillor, or an MP member of parliament all they will do is talking about themselves, and at the end we will come up with a constitution that will be difficult to implement," Masebo said.

She said there was also need to invite as many experts as possible because some people were not conversant with certain issues affecting the local government.

Masebo proposed that some former and current House of Chiefs' chairpersons be called to help NCC members understand certain issues.

NCC chairperson Chifumu Banda said it would not be good for the committees to start inviting experts because the secretariat at the conference had already placed an advertisement.

Banda said it was the work of the secretariat to select the experts from its database.
And committee chairman Sol Muzyamba said the committee would rely on the secretariat for the selections of expatriates and that witnesses would be called if need be.

Meanwhile, Ng'uni said signing out at the conference would be 18:00 hours and not 16:00 hours because some members were in the habit of leaving the conference early immediately they signed.

He also said all committee debates would be broadcast live both on Radio and Television.
"We had a problem where some members would leave immediately after signing at 16:00 hours. We are making sure that everyone leaves when they sign for the second time at 18:00 hours," said Ng'uni.

Labels: NCC, SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 3:49 AM