|
HakiElimu will not apologise to govt - Rajani
2006-05-10 08:59:00
By Joseph Mwendapole
HakiElimu reiterated its stance yesterday that it would not apologise to the government on its advertisements criticising the country’s system of education.
According to the NGO, advertisements widely aired and published in various media are right, as they explain the real situation on the ground regarding the sector.
HakiElimu Director, Rakesh Rajani, said in an interview yesterday that his organisation would not relent to calls to apologise and was determined to continue tightening the screws.
’A person apologises after committing a mistake. What wrong have we done for us to apologise?’ queried Rajani.
However, he acknowledged that there was a misunderstanding on the actual intentions of his organisation and added that it was communicating with the government on the matter.
Said he: ’What is happening now is just a misunderstanding… we haven’t done anything wrong to apologise for. However, we are communicating with the government to resolve this matter,’ he said.
The NGO’s comments has been made in reaction to the government’s statement issued in Parliament recently, in which it said HakiElimu would be allowed to resume its activities if it apologised.
The government banned HakiElimu activities in the country last year, a move which many people, particularly NGOs, opposed to, saying that was wrong.
A network of NGOs in Africa, SAHRINGON, slammed the government for suspending HakiElimu activities and described the move, as ’violation of human rights.’
The Acting Director of the Network, Rehema Kerefu, said the move was in contravention of the country’s constitution, which provides for freedom of gathering, receiving and information distribution.
She said the move also defied the basic rights of expression and receiving different information.
The government banned HakiElimu’s activities at the end of last year on the ground that its advertisements were distorting the truth on the real situation of the education sector.
|
