NDUGU AND WAHESHIMIWA
The National Assembly has decided that Members of Parliament should be addressed as Waheshimiwa. But Mwalimu Nyerere has made it clear that CCM Party leaders will continue to be addressed as Ndugu. “Never will they be addressed as Your Excellencies” Mwalimu Nyerere said. “If an MP insisted on being called Mheshimiwa then it would not be bad if he was addressed as Ndugu Mheshimiwa Mbunge”.
The whole issue has sparked off a lively debate. A reader in the Daily News complained that Waheshimiwa sounds colonial and bourgeois and brings in people’s minds the idea of a class opposed to other classes. It should be remembered that the President introduced the word Ndugu to show that Tanzania is a classless society.
DEVELOPMENT LEVY
Effective July 1, 1987 Villages have become the official agents of the District Councils in the collection of Development Levy. Under the new arrangements the villages will be able to retain 17% of the collection to help run their own village governments. Village governments will use the ten cell leaders to collect the levy and these leaders will receive 3% of the collections as an incentive. District Councils will cooperate with the village governments in drawing up registers of Development Levy payers – Daily News.
HISTORIC BUILDIIGS: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
The Architectural Association of Tanzania at a recent meeting with a UNESCO expert, Dr. J. Jokilehto from the International Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property has complained about the increasing and widespread demolition and rebuilding of historical buildings under the pretext that they are dangerous or unsuitable for human habitation. They cited the new structures being added to the German built headquarters of the Tanzania Railways Corporation in Dar es Salaam which they considered to be not only ugly and disfiguring to the remainder of the building but also as lacking in imagination. It would have been better if the corporation had looked for office space somewhere else.
The most famous Dar es Salaam landmark to suffer from the craze for Demolition is generally considered to have been the New Africa Hotel. This was followed by the Splendid Hotel and a host of others – Shihata
ISLES RE-INTRODUCE HISTORY TEACHING
Zanzibar will, this year re-introduce the teaching of history in its education system. The subject was struck off the syllabus soon after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. It was replaced at that time by lessons on political education which centred mostly on the protracted liberation struggle in Zanzibar which culminated in the overthrow of the Arab dominated regime – Daily News
GOLD EXPORTERS TO RETAIN 70%
The Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr. Al Noor Kassum, has announced that the Government intends to allow gold and gemstone exporters to retain 70% of their foreign exchange earnings as an incentive and to enable them to import the necessary inputs for mining.
YOUTH JUMPS TO DEATH
The son of Butiama village chairman and former head of Tanzania’s youth organisation, Mr. Joseph Nyerere, died in April after allegedly jumping from the first floor of a building in Upanga, Dar es Salaam. Mr. Kwame Joseph Nyerere was twenty six. His body was flown to Butiama for burial – Daily News
RAILYAYS SECURES 1 BILLION SHILLINGS FOR WAGONS
The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) has secured 1,576.2 million shillings from the Government and eight foreign donors for the purchase of 32 locomotive engines, 1,000 freight wagons and seventy five container wagons. The locomotives are to be bought during 1988/89. Some of the funds will also be used for laying sleepers along the Ruvu-Mnyusi and Kilosa-Dodoma lines.
BUT THE MANYONI-SINGIDA LINE MOVES SLOWLY AHEAD
In October 1985 the TRC took up the task of relaying the line between Manyoni and Singida which was removed by the colonialists in 1947 after it had been found to be running at a loss. The 115 mile line was expected to take about two years to complete.
However, the project has been facing a lot of problems including lack of equipment, building materials and labour. The line is now scheduled to be completed in thirty months but cost will have gone up because of the devaluation of the Shilling – Shihata.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
There are now 103 Government secondary schools in Tanzania compared with 95 last year. The student population in these schools has increased from 43,911 to 46,120. 136 private secondary schools and seminaries had 56,293 pupils – Daily News.