Maravi

NGOCC urges NCC to wind up deliberations by August 31

NGOCC urges NCC to wind up deliberations by August 31
By Henry Sinyangwe
Sat 13 Mar. 2010, 19:20 CAT

NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale says it will only be fair to the Zambians if the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) concluded the deliberations by August 31, 2010.

In an interview yesterday, Mwale said failure to conclude the deliberations by August 31 as set by the Ministry of Justice would be described as a waste of resources and robbery because so much had been spent on the process.

“There is no other way out on the NCC. They must conclude the deliberations by the set date because there is no other way, otherwise then delegates must come out in the open and tell us what their intentions are,” she said.

Mwale said it made no sense for most of the Zambians to be wallowing in poverty while their representatives were earning lots of money from the process.

Mwale said there had been contentious issues in the country because leaders would say there is no money when so much money had been spent on the process at the expense of common Zambians.

“There has been contentious issues raised of the resources in the country because on one hand they say there is not enough resources in the country but on the other hand so much money is being spent on the NCC, where are our priorities?” she asked.

Mwale said the NGOCC was watching the whole constitution-making process with great concern and urged the Ministry of Justice to stick to the deadline so as to save resources.

“In the first place the NCC had no clear direction on the time frame, so it is important that the Ministry of Justice sticks to the deadline because there are so many great concerns on the amount of resources being used,” said Mwale.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee on Tuesday, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice Anne Sikazwe reported that the ministry had set August 31 as the date the NCC was supposed to conclude its mandate regardless of whether they would have concluded the deliberations or not.

Labels: ENGWASE MWALE, NCC, NGOCC

posted by MrK @ 6:20 AM