.jpg)
The second draft constitution has been faulted over poor details on sustainability and people’s rights on utilization and protection of national wealth.
A number of CA committees criticized the draft for lack of detailed articles describing rights of the people on utilization of natural resources providing primary source of living for over 77 per cent of the country’s population.
The chairman of committee number six of the Constituent Assembly Stephen Wassira said all members of his committee had voted against Article seven of chapter one of the draft constitution.
He said: “The document is completely dull, thus our committee has proposed to include a especial chapter that would compressively cover issues of sustainability and peoples’ rights on utilization of the national wealth.”
In another development the chairman of committee number five said members of his committee from both sides of the Union, disputed the article saying it undermined the rights of large groups of the country’s population.
It is code-named the land users group that included farmers, pastoralists, artisan miners and fishermen.
The most disputed sections of Article seven include 7-(1) : structure of the Government of the United Republic and its organs, in running and implementation of its activities shall observe the desire to develop national unity and maintain National integrity.
(2) For the purpose of the provisions of sub-article (1) the state authority and its organs are required to focus their policies and all its activities towards ensuring that: (a) dignity and all other human rights are respected and valued; (b) laws of the country are administered and implemented.
(c) The Government will ensure that all activities are conducted in a way that will ensure that the wealth of the Nation is developed, preserved and utilized for he benefit of all the people in general and to stop the exploitation of man by man; (d) land being the major asset and the mainstay of the nation is protected, maintained and is utilized by the people of Tanzania for their benefit, interest and the welfare of the present and future generations;
(e) National economic development is planned and developed proportionally and collectively and in a way that will benefit all the people; (f) every person capable of working should work and work means any legal activity that generates income for someone;
(g) dignity, respect and all other human rights are protected and maintained taking in consideration Tanzanian customs and culture and in accordance with different conventions ratified by the United Republic; (h) State authorities provide equal opportunities and rights for all the people, male and female regard less of their colour, race, origin, religion or social status;
(i) All sorts of in justice, threats, discrimination, harassment, bribe, humiliation or favoritisms are eliminated in the country; (j) richness of resources and natural resources of the nation is geared towards bringing about development, eliminate poverty, ignorance and diseases; and (k) the country is governed by adhering to democratic principles and self-reliance.
The draft constitution has also sparked defiant political fractions in the Constituent Assembly most of the members blaming it as only focused on power-division among politicians and administrative beneficiaries forgetting the poor.
Some Memders of the CA and politicians interview by the Guardian randomly mid this week said the draft constitution engulfed on rights of the privileged groups like civil servants, government employees of high portfolio, and politicians.
Dr Maselle Nzingula Maziku the Chairman of the land users group in the CA told The Guardian that the draft was entirely silent on the rights and privileges of primary producers such as cereal growers’ farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and artisan miners. Dr Maziku said the agro-sector dubbed the backbone of the country’s economy, was only highlighted in the preamble and then rejected in the contents of the mother law.
He said the rights of land users who make 77 per cent of the country’s population were not vitally stipulated in the draft constitution and instead politicians took the CA as platform for wrangles aimed at paving the way to power domination.
However, Dr Maziku appealed to the entire publics to take pilot measures before the CA endorses the second draft to ensure that the CA is including the rights of the majority, who are farmers, pastoralists and the miners in bill.
The doctor also called on the CA members to commend a free and liberal market to agriculture products, he said the common tradition the government under the present constitution was exploitative and brutal to small farmers and peasants.
“Famers produce at their own cost then the government intervenes only at the stage of harvest and plans for where to sell and to whom and at which price, this is quiet unfair,” he said.
The Chairman for the crop producer group Reuben Matango said the country needed a deepened agricultural development plan rather than the CA spending a lot of financial, natural and human resources discussing political meanders.
He said agriculture sector was now contributing over 50 per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product GDP making it a Godfather of the country’s economy.
The agriculturalists called on the CA members to set up a constitution that will protect domestic markets, and priotise investment opportunities to local formers.
However, according to the World Bank, The Tanzanian economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for more than 25 per cent of GDP, provides 85 per cent of exports, and employs 80 per cent of the work force.
Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops to only 4 percent of the land area. Cash crops, including coffee (its largest export), tea, cotton, cashews, sisal, cloves, and pyrethrum, account for the vast majority of export earnings.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
No Comment to " 2nd draft shallow on national wealth - CA "