21 Nov 2019

Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) has pronounced its support for government decision to review the Constitution.

Leader of Opposition, Mr Dumelang Saleshando, made their position known in his response to State-of-Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on November 20.

He said UDC would actively participate in the process of reviewing the Constitution noting that chief among their proposals would be a non-discriminatory Constitution that would protect socio-economic rights and oversight institutions.

On other news, Mr Saleshando said UDC would push for public sector reforms while trade unions in both the public and private sector would enjoy the opposition’s unconditional support.

He further said UDC welcomed the decision to open a drug rehabilitation centre and the plan to introduce a citizen empowerment law, but cautioned that the Citizen Economic Empowerment Policy should create space for the small business sector.

Furthermore, Mr Saleshando said the UDC was also happy to support government initiatives to open doors for citizens in the tourism sector.

He stated that Ngamiland MPs who were in the capital of the tourism industry would engage the minister responsible for greater details on the envisaged plan to ensure that local communities derived maximum benefits

Mr Saleshando also said the UDC would closely monitor all huge construction projects and that the practice of awarding lucrative tenders to a big number of multinationals should come to an end.

He said the government should ensure that big contractors were committed to outsourcing a minimum of third of their projects to citizen-owned companies.

Mr Saleshando further said the UDC would insist on a live broadcast of Parliament by the year 2020 as many promises have previously been made about the live broadcasts, but nothing came to fruition.

Furthermore, he urged MPs to rise above the partisan differences in order to find a working compromise to deliver decent jobs and decent lives for voters. Ends