Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Samuel Sitta
The debate on Chapter One and Six of the draft constitution dealing with the Union structure which was scheduled to last three days will now take seven more days.
Making this announcement yesterday, the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Samuel Sitta, said a total of 350 members registered to contribute to the debate, forcing him to revoke standing orders so that all get a chance to do so.
He told attentive members: “Since each CA member is given ten minutes to contribute, with this number of registered contributors we need seven more days to accommodate them.”
Sitta said the CA will be adjourned on Thursday for Easter and resume next Tuesday to Friday when it will be postponed again until next August to give room to budget sessions.
Meanwhile the structure of the Union continued to draw emotional debates in the chamber. Some representatives from Zanzibar supported the three-government structure, others a contractual Union and yet others the two-government structure. But most representatives from the Mainland were either for a three and two government structures.
Eng Pamela Masei from the 201-member group and the minority members of committee number 10, criticised her colleagues, saying since the discussions started they only dwelt on the structure of the Union, overlooking other significant issues addressed in the two chapters of the Draft Constitution.
She therefore decided to address other issues which, according to her, were
neglected by her colleagues during the discussions.
Referring to section 5 of Chapter One which talks about National Values, she questioned suggestions made by most members of her committee and others who called for elimination of sub-sections that mention Accountability, Transparency and Integrity as among National Values.
She said most members suggested the omission of the three values, suggesting they be replaced with Justice, Equality and Peace. “I would like to ask this… if we want justice and equality to be part of our national values and yet we do not want integrity to be a part of it… if one doesn’t want integrity and doesn’t want transparency, how will justice and equality be achieved?
“What do we want to hide by saying that we do not want accountability to be an element of our national values?” she wondered.
Contributing on the two chapters, Hija Hassan Hija from the House of Representatives Zanzibar (CUF) said for 50 years the Union has been serving Mainlanders more than Zanzibaris.
Accusing Zanzibar ministers, he said they were after personal gains and not the interests of Zanzibaris. Hija said the ministers amended the constitution of Zanzibar to make it a state so that they could continue to benefit from it.
He said it was not true that they were defending the Union, asserting: “If the people of Tanganyika want the Union to be strengthened, Zanzibar should be given its rights…the only solution to strengthen the Union is to go for the three-government system and not otherwise.”
Pereira Silima said the two-government structure has been beneficial to both parts of the Union, especially in maintaining peace, unity and harmony.
He said he was not supporting the three-government system because it will divide the people on the basis of their nationality. Silima stressed that if Tanzanians go for three-government system they will lose their unity.
Mbarouk Salim Ali, National Assembly (CUF) said the three-government structure is the only one which will address Union challenges which have lasted for half a century now.
He said Zanzibaris were tired of the current government structure because its challenges have been chronic, arguing: “In half a century the challenges have not been addressed, why should we maintain such a structure… are there any strategies to address these challenges.”
Ezekiel Maige, from the National Assembly (CCM), suggested that a referendum should be conducted to have people’s views on the Union structure they prefer instead of relying on proposals by political parties.
“We need to have a Union structure which is preferred by most citizens...we should go for the referendum to know people’s choice,” he said.
Jesca Msambatavangu from the 201 group, said apart from supporting two- government system, suggested ways to improve the system. They include coming up with a constitution that will enable the President of Zanzibar to be close with the Vice president of the Union government.
“This will enable the two leaders to discuss and solve problems as well as challenges compared to the current system which leaves a gap between the two leaders,” she said.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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