Justice Dingake calls for worker-centred constitution
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday May 2, 2023 06:00
He highlighted the rising cost of living, stagnated wages, and soaring inflation, especially among the youth, leading to poverty, inequality, and unemployment, the triple burden that needs to be confronted head-on and defeated. To eradicate poverty, inequality, and unemployment, he called for more efficient ways of managing the country’s resources, making sure that decision-making regarding the use of local resources is owned and controlled at the local level. “Empowering people by respecting the letter and spirit of the constitution, enlarging their rights, and giving them the space and means to determine their destiny is critical to achieving economic empowerment,” Dingake said.
He urged the people to be made aware of their rights and enabled to enforce them, under independent and impartial institutions. He called for an unbending commitment to democracy and the need for a transformative people’s constitution that the workers can proudly call their own. Dingake noted that the constitution is one of the best ways to guarantee workers’ rights, the right to life, human dignity, liberty, and freedom, as humans’ capacity to betray the aspirations of the people is an ever-present risk. “Under the transformative constitution, gender justice, equal pay for equal work, and the right to health are guaranteed, and access to the best health care should not depend on whether one is rich or poor. Workers need to invest in their time, energy, and resources to bring into being, in our lifetime, a transformative people’s constitution,” he said.
Dingake urged that nothing should be done for workers without their direct input, desisting from pursuing handouts that entrench people’s dependence and sense of helplessness. He said teaching and enabling people to build the capacity to succeed at the local level is most important, not just distributing the fish but teaching the people how to fish. He called for investment in job creation projects, education, skills, and health to achieve citizen economic empowerment. Investment in education and healthcare could foster economic growth and help close the gender gap, he noted. He urged the people to join hands and work together to support the imperative of a transformative people’s constitution to achieve citizen economic empowerment. Dingake wished all workers a Happy Labour Day and encouraged them to continue to be law-abiding and work hard to produce results that can advance the fortunes of the country, even in circumstances of great hardship.
Dingake is the Justice of Appeal on the Court of Appeal of Seychelles. He has sat on the High Court of Botswana, the Industrial Court of Botswana, the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the Supreme and National Courts of Papua New Guinea.