Maravi

Sata’s statements on the NCC make sense, says Hansungule

Sata’s statements on the NCC make sense, says Hansungule
Written by Gillian Namungala
Sunday, December 14, 2008 10:03:23 AM

PEOPLE should not just think PF president Michael Sata is mad when he says the government is spending a lot of money on the National Constitutional Conference (NCC), University of Pretoria professor of human rights, Michelo Hansungule has said.

In an interview on Friday, Prof Hansungule said Sata’s statements on the NCC made sense as the government was spending huge sums of money on what was already there.

“We should not just say there is nothing Sata is saying, but the draft and the final constitution which was done by the CRC is already there. What was needed was to improve on it than restarting the whole process again,” he said

“What more is there to write which is not in the Constitution? Because everything is there. Malawi took three days and has one of the best constitutions, but here we want to spend years to come up with a document which we already have.”

He said the government should start reducing on expenditure as it was causing inflation.

Prof Hansungule, who said the current financial meltdown would be worse in the next few years, suggested the need for the government to reduce on internal and external expenditure.

“The problem we have in this country is we are too dependent on the western world. We import so much when we can just utilise our local market. So, in this global financial crisis we should try to spend money locally as one way of supporting the local industry” he said

Prof Hansungule expressed concern that a lot of people would lose employment during this financial crisis.

“I propose that government look internally and look up with policies that will help build internal capacity than relying on external means,” he said

Prof Hansungule has since called on the government to cut down on expenditure and begin to spend money locally as a way of helping the companies.

“It is surprising that every election this government contracts an Indian company and pays it a lot of money to print ballot papers, a job that if Government Printers were paid that money, they can buy machines and do that work and save money by helping the local companies” said Prof Hansungule.

Labels: MICHELO HASUNGULE, NCC, SATA

posted by MrK @ 10:02 AM