Issue 80 featured Water Carrier in DSM Birgit La Cour Madsen/ActionAid UK
ISSUE 80
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Category Archives: Issue 80
TANZANIA’S INCREASING INTERNATIONAL ROLE
TANZANIA ELECTED TO SECURITY COUNCIL
A TANZANIAN BECOMES CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN PARLIAMENT
ANOTHER TANZANIAN REPRESENTS 21 COUNTRIES AT THE IMF
A ‘DAR ES SALAAM DECLARATION’ IS PUBLISHED
Tanzania’s international status has taken a considerable step forward during recent weeks.
The country was elected as the member representing Africa on the 191-member Security Council at the UN’s fifty-ninth General Assembly meeting on October 15th. Other countries elected as non-permanent members for two years on the same day included Argentina, Denmark, Greece, and Japan. Continue reading
LOCAL ELECTIONS SHOW RULING PARTY’S STRENGTH
Local elections held at the end of November indicated clearly the continuing popularity of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party. Although final results were not known when TA went to the printers it seems that perhaps more than 90% of the votes went to CCM. Many of the sixteen opposition parties, still not united in spite of the obvious advantages of putting up a common front, made strenuous efforts and did well in a few areas. The Civic United Front (CUF) appears to have now established itself as the main opposition party on the mainland as well as in its Zanzibar stronghold. CUF leaders were clearly pleased with the results in many areas. Voter turnout was very high in several places. Continue reading
ZANZIBAR – TROUBLE AT VOTER REGISTRATION
After several delays voter registration for what will be highly competitive general elections in Zanzibar in October began on November 29 and went well. However, a number of incidents of violence gave cause to fear what might happen when the elections themselves take place.
There was trouble at various registration centres in Pemba, the stronghold of the CUF party. Continue reading
WATER PRIVATISATION SCHEME UNDER FIRE
Dar es Salaam has always had problems in ensuring its water supply and the vast growth in the population of the city in recent years has exacerbated these problems. November last year was a particularly difficult month – most of the city was without water for days at a time.
Water carrier in DSM – Photo courtesy Birgit La Cour Madsen/ActionAid UK
The Government’s reaction to the recurring problems was to privatise the industry, but this process has now come under heavy fire even though it is less than year since it happened. Continue reading
BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY
EXCHANGE RATES:
£1 = Shs 1,925
$1 = Shs 1,355
Continued improvement of the environment for investors saw foreign investments to Tanzania between January and June last year surge to an estimated Tsh.268.7 million. Investments included projects in paper manufacturing, textiles, cement, gas pipeline building, edible oil and soap manufacturing and tourism. Investment worth Tsh. 68.3 million was made in the Mufindi Paper Mills, which, after rehabilitation, should create 2,200 new jobs. The China-Tanzania Friendship Textile Mill, after rehabilitation, will have 1,269 vacancies, while Premier Cashew Industries Ltd expects to create 3,555 new jobs. Three local business firms have made deals with Dutch companies to develop new businesses in honey, beeswax and production of enriched flour meal – Guardian. Continue reading
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
In summer 2003 I travelled out to Tanzania to train the staff of a secondary school on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in the use of computers. I had stayed there for a month in 1999 and had helped set up an IT lab with PCs donated by schools and small businesses in Cumbria. Although their intentions were good, the machines they donated were not. We did the best we could with seriously outdated machines but we knew at the time that they would probably not last long. We were, unfortunately, correct. Continue reading
NEWS FROM THE FAITHS
Following a spate of burning of churches in Zanzibar, the Zanzibar Diocese of the Catholic Church announced that it would punish a local clergyman following his statement that Catholics were praying for CCM to win the general elections as an opposition victory would spell the end of churches in Zanzibar… A spokesman said that the church was not aligned with any political party…. but since it was an institution that upheld good conduct, it had every right to speak out against evil deeds such as the burning of churches. Zanzibar Archbishop Shao said that Catholics had been harassed and church leaders accused of bringing into Zanzibar ‘mercenaries’ since the introduction of political pluralism in the isles. “I’m not bringing in voters from the Mainland nor am I being paid by the Zanzibar government” he said. CUF hailed the Church’s decision to reprimand the priest.
Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi has donated TSh 25m/- towards the development of the Islamic University which was established by the Islamic Development Institute of Tanzania in Morogoro last year. President Mkapa had earlier donated TSh 10m/- towards the establishment of the university – Guardian.
Last September bishops of seven dioceses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania called on the Church’s Secretary-General, Amani Mwenegoha, to resign, accusing him of usurping powers and causing divisions in the church. They were alleged to have involved the Church in a case he filed against former Prime Minister, Cleopa Msuya.
‘RICH IN CATTLE BUT POOR IN MILK’
Tanzania has a new newspaper – ‘The Citizen’. In its third issue dated September 18 it had a feature on milk spread over its middle pages. Extracts: ‘Tanzania is rich in cattle (about 17 million) but milk production is only 3.3 million litres perday. The average Tanzanian drinks about 26 litres of milk a year (adults prefer beer) compared with 84 litres in Kenya. The article described the ‘pitiable internal market’ because of Tanzanians’ preference for imported milk rather than the local product. But several companies were now adopting innovative programmes to boost sales of local milk. Royal Dairy Products Ltd. had started delivering door to door in Dar es Salaam. Thank you Frederick Longino for sending us a copy of this new publication – Editor.
TANZANIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
NEW GAME RESERVE
A new 1,574 square kilometre Mpanga/Kipengere Game Reserve which aims to protect the water catchment of the Rufiji River Basin has been gazetted according to the EAST AFRICAN (October 28). The main river draining into the Basin is the Great Ruaha, which is fed by several rivers and streams originating from the new reserve’s catchment area, later joining the Rufiji further downstream. While the two rivers and their adjacent basins have been adequately protected downstream, their catchment within the new reserve and further upstream is unprotected. The Rufiji river basin is the largest of all nine drainage basins in Tanzania, with high and often controversial utilisation of water by multiple users, including irrigation farmers, livestock, wild animals in protected areas, hydroelectric power generation and towns and municipalities. The entire basin covers 177,420 square kilometres and is fed by four major rivers – Ruaha, Kilombero, Luwego and finally Rufiji itself. The Great Ruaha is central to the ecology and tourism in the Ruaha National Park and provides over half the water for Mtera and Kidatu hydroelectric power stations, which have a combined capacity to generate 284 Mw of electricity. In 1993, the Great Ruaha dried up completely in the Ruaha National Park and has since then been drying up every year. Continue reading