Tanzania’s political leadership believes that a system of private enterprise is incompatible with the country’s desire for genuine political independence and social equality. It wishes to avoid dependence on private foreign investors and multinational corporations, which would entail an increase in foreign political and economic influence. Although the total impact of post-Arusha nationalisation on the structure of commerce and industry is considerable, a large private sector remains in Tanzania. The very visible private or foreign financed enterprises which we saw in Tanzania during the Southampton University Study Tour of August, 1981, generated conflicting feelings within the tour group just as they must do within Tanzania itself. Were Peramiho Mission, Sao Hill Sawmill and the Brook Bond Tea Company to be viewed as laudable islands of excellence, or neo-colonial paternalistic enclaves?

Peramiho Mission was founded in 1898. Its present operations cover health education and industry in addition to religious work. The printing department is self-sufficient except in inks and certain other items, which are imported about every four months through Mtwara. The Government relies on it to print examination papers and official forms. The printing workers usually stay, while those in the garage and carpentry workshop tend to move away and establish their own businesses after training. The trade school also has tailoring and shoemaking sections. Despite the policy of africanisation at Peramiho, one felt that the German brothers saw it as their responsibility to maintain a presence. There were 25 European brothers with an average age of 60.

The mission hospital also had expatriate doctors and Tanzanian doctors generally speaking were reluctant to work there, partly because they preferred a normal urban community and partly because of a half-acknowledged feeling of distaste for the atmosphere of a mission and the relationships that prevailed there. Drugs for the hospital were obtained direct from 1urope and America, financed by charitable organisations. An African priest trained at Peramiho observed that although the mission had done good work it was too introverted. A Tanzanian official who had been born in the area pinpointed the ambivalent attitude towards Peramiho when he remarked that if the German priests left the ‘Peramiho system’ would change very quickly, as Tanzania would not be able to obtain the materials to maintain it. The Tanzanian Government had, indirectly, asked the Germans to leave, but they bad not yet done so.

Sao Hill Sawmill in Mufindi was the first example of moderately large scale industry which we visited during the tour. The sawmill was run by a company funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD) and production started in 1975. It is the biggest project of its kind in Tanzania. Originally there had been 11 expatriate workers, now there are 5, including, significantly, the project manager and a mechanic.

The area did not have a high population density. There were 360 workers, mostly living in local villages, but a growing number occupied houses built on the site. The sawmill helped local villages by buying food and providing employment. However, there were problems of marketing as opposed to producing ire timber and much was being stockpiled. Some of it was exported, but more could have been sold within the country if potential buyers could have provided their own transport to collect it. This marketing problem was threatening the firm’s profitability. The comments of the Norwegian project manager highlighted some of the difficulties of such a foreign-financed project. Originally, the Norwegians were to have been at the sawmill for five years, but this period was being extended. He felt that it would take 10 to 20 years for full africanisation. He was worried about the future of the project because of doubts about the maintenance of discipline and productivity, which Tanzanians fresh from training found hard to enforce. The economic organisation and structure of large-scale industry were still strange and new to his Tanzanian colleagues.

The Brook Bond Tea Company at Kilima, also in Mufindi District, had 9 expatriates, amongst them engineers, accountants, a doctor and two estate managers. Tanzania has not nationalised its tea estates, except those formerly owned by Lonrho, and the Brook Bond Company was accepted by the Tanzanian Government because it was earning foreign exchange, tea being one of the few export crops until recently growing in volume. The situation has now changed with tea being overproduced and costs, especially fuel, increasing, making tea production hardly profitable. However, the company still made money on its marketing side. Tea production is labour intensive, but seasonal and insecure. The development of villages over a wide area is inhibited by the removal of manpower during the growing season. The pace of africanisation of the management seemed slow. An African junior manager, who had moved to Brook Bond from a Government post because the salary was better commented on the difficulties involved in full africanisation. In his experience, expatriate managers had more success than Tanzanians in obtaining licences to import machinery and materials.

Such foreign companies can contribute to a form of economic growth, but whether it can become the basis for long term development is more debatable. Do such investments really lay the foundation for indigenous growth when the capital, technology and expertise must be matched ~ an equally expensive infrastructure of roads and vehicles? There may well be increasingly effective competition from peasant producers using family labour and the minimum of equipment. The debate helped to occupy the time on the long journeys over bumpy Tanzanian roads. We were divided over the theoretical advantages of foreign investment and management, but we were all intensely grateful for the warm welcome, the hospitality and the way in which busy and sometimes worried people were willing to show us round and answer our endless questions.

Silu F. Pascoe

The British bus operators the predominant problem today is lack of demand. In Tanzania, despite substantial economic problems, operators face no shortage of customers, but fuel, tyres and spares often constrain the level of service that can be offered.

With a population of about 19 million, Tanzania has an area much larger than that of Britain, giving an average density of only 20 persons per square kilometre, as compared with 230 in Britain. Apart from the main port, Dar es Salaam, with a population approaching a million, no town exceeds about 110,000 in population and the rural areas, especially in the centre, are of very low density indeed. Intense local demand is thus found in only a few areas, but long distance travel has grown rapidly as a result of migration and the growth of education.

Car ownership is very low – about one car per 300 people – and has a negligible effect on public transport in most areas. Walking and cycling probably account for most journeys, but cannot of course cater for longer distances. Internal air services offer a limited frequency, but in a country where the basic minimum wage is only about £45 per month are used by few. The rail network is limited and suffers from operational problems. The Chinese-built ‘Tazara’ line linking Dar es Salaam with Zambia carries only freight traffic at present*, despite a palatial passenger terminal at Dar es Salaam. The older metre-gauge network, inaugurated under German colonial rule, also concentrates on freight, with one passenger train per day on the route westward through Dodoma to Kigoma and on the line northward to Moshi and Arusha. Between Arusha, Moshi and Dar es Salaam about twenty bus journeys per day operate, vastly exceeding the rail passenger capacity.

High demand for bus and coach services is immediately evident from the high loads. One operator bases his budgeting on a minimum load factor of 70%. Pre-booking is desirable, or even necessary, to gain a seat on long distance, routes. Even on a Sunday afternoon, urban routes carry substantial standee loads.

In meeting this demand operators face many problems of supply. Fuel accounts for 20 to 25% of operating costs in contrast to 5 to 10% in Britain. Imports of fuel now cost over half the foreign exchange earnings of the nation and physical continuity of supply is also uncertain. Following a critical period in May-June, 1981, many long distance services from Dar es Salaam now carry sufficient fuel for the round trip rather than relying on inland supplies. Tanks to accommodate an extra 440 litres have been fitted to vehicles of the state owned National Bus Service (NBS), while independents carry additional oil drums. The price of fuel varies markedly with distance from coastal ports, reflecting transport costs. For example, at the southern port of Mtwara derv costs about shs.4 per litre (c. 25p.), but in Songea, 600 miles westward, about shs.6 (c. 40p.).

Supply problems also occur from time to time in tyres, although these are manufactured locally following the establishment of a joint operation some years ago with an American company. Poor roads aggravate tyre wear and also cause spring damage. Fairly large stocks of spares have to be held to ensure reliable operation.

In view of the limited investment that a country such as Tanzania can afford, it is not practicable to provide tarmac surfacing over a high proportion of the network. Within towns, major roads are surfaced together with some inter-urban links. Most of the inter-urban mileage, however, is unsurfaced. This becomes very dusty in the dry season and muddy in the wet season. Continuity of service on most routes relies heavily on the skill and efforts of driving and maintenance staff. For such conditions a robust type of vehicle is required. Most recent deliveries to both independents and the NBS have been of the Leyland CD23, still carrying the Albion Clydesdale badge. The high floor level and front engine are well suited to the road surfaces and temperatures encountered. Bodywork is by domestic builders, mostly based in Dar es Salaam, including Singh Bros. and the Quality Garage. A centre entrance layout is generally favoured with five across seating to give a seating capacity of about 65 and a well-used roof rack. For urban use a standee layout with rear entrance and front exit and a seated conductor is found. Except in mini- and midi-buses there is no one-man operation in view of the low labour costs and high loadings.

The CD23 appears to be well regarded by operators. Accompanied by widespread use of Land Rovers, especially in the South, the Tanzanian scene can present a remarkably high proportion of Leylands on the road, although Scania and Isuzu have caught much of the lorry market. There is one feature which may require some improvement, namely, the hanger bracket securing the front springs, which is liable to considerable punishment on rough roads. A small number of Scania 111’s may also be seen, mainly as works buses, and NBS also has on test a Mercedes 1617.

There are two main publicly owned operators, both of which derive from the nationalisation of Dar es Salaam Motor Transport (DMT) in 1970. The long distance services from Dar es Salaam were transferred to the National Bus Service, better known by its Swahili fleetname KAMATA. This company now runs a fleet of about 90 vehicles on both long distance and suburban services. In some cases older long distance vehicles are rebuilt to dual doorway layout for suburban work. An interesting innovation recently has been the introduction of an internal radio network linking head office in Dar es Salaam with inland offices, reducing reliance on the heavily used telephone system.

The urban services of DMT were transferred to Usafiri Dar es Salaam, known as UDA, which today operates about 250 vehicles. Leyland and Mercedes high floor single deckers form a substantial proportion of the fleet, but an increasing element comprises the Ikarus units. The first batches of rear engined 266 model have a low rear clearance and the very first a somewhat incongruous appearance, being built to the East-European rule of the road rather than the British, which Tanzania retains, passengers thus boarding on the offside! More successful have been the 280 model articulated single deckers, whose high capacity has proved very valuable in handling growing traffic. Reliability is good, despite the complexity of articulation. Another significant part of the UDA fleet is the Isuzu minibus, operated on selected routes at a premium fare.

No private competition is permitted in Dar es Salaam apart from the numerous unmetered taxis. Shared taxis, or other forms of ‘paratransit’ found in developing country cities, are generally absent. Elsewhere in Tanzania a very different picture is presented with independent operators carrying most of the traffic both on routes competing with NBS and on routes not otherwise served. There is no price competition, all prices being regulated to a common scale, but there is competition in service quality and availability. A particularly marked concentration is found on the Dar es Salaam-Moshi-Arusha road, with about 15 to 20 operators, most with just one or two buses on the route. The standard Dar es Salaam-Moshi fare (in 1981) is shs.90, but at least one operator offers a ‘luxury’ service at shs.130.

Another publicly owned operator is the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC), who in addition to railways as such run extensive road fleets originating as rail feeder services in the days when long distance road transport was less common than today. The former brown and cream colours of East African Railways, from which TRC split off in 1976, are retained. The principal operating base is Iringa, some distance south of the main east-west line.

In southern Tanzania considerable problems were caused by the collapse of “Teeteeco’, a publicly owned operator, which suffered severe maintenance problems providing freight and passenger services. Its operations have been taken over by three smaller companies under the control of the National Transport Corporation based at Lindi, Mtwara and Songea known as KAULI, KAUMU and KAURU, which is mainly running buses at present. New Leyland CD’s have been supplied with assistance from World Bank funds under a ‘rehabilitation and improvement’ project.

Overall it is clear that considerable scope for expansion exists in Tanzania provided that problems of fuel supply, maintenance and road surfacing can be successfully overcome.

Peter White
Polytechnic of Central London
September, 1981

* in 1981; now there are believed to be one passenger train in each direction per week.

National Conference of Chama cha Mapinduzi
At the quinquennial meeting of the National Conference of the Party held in October, 1982, President Julius Nyerere was reelected Chairman for a further five years by 1,726 votes to 9; Vice-President Aboud Jumbe was reelected Vice-Chairman by 1,716 votes to 19.

In the election by the members of the National Conference for the 130 elective seats on the National Executive Committee of the Party (the remaining 63 members are ex officio), Hon. Kighoma A. Malima, the Minister for Planning and Economic Affairs was defeated.

The new Secretary General of the Party, chosen by the National Executive Committee from among its own members, is Rashidi Kawawa, one time Second Vice-President of Tanzania and later Prime Minister and Second Vice-President and later still (from 1980) Minister without portfolio.

Food and Agriculture
There have been reports of drought and the consequent threat of food shortage in Mwanza and Arusha Regions and of new wells running dry in Masasi District. The United States of America is providing 26,000 tons of maize and rice as part of its food aid programme.

In 1980-81 the weight of coffee sold was at an all-time high at 67,340 tonnes, 21% higher than in the previous record year, 1975-76. As a result of the slide in coffee prices, however, earnings from coffee in 1980-81 were 26% less than in 1976 -77, the record year for earnings. The high yield in 1980-81 was officially attributed to good climatic conditions in most coffee growing areas, and increase of area under coffee and the effects of the Coffee Improvement Programme supported by the European Community. It is unlikely that climatic and other conditions will favour the coffee harvest this year and there have been reports of widespread infection by coffee berry disease, said to affect 80% of trees in the areas growing mild Arabica coffee, which accounted for nearly 80% of the 1980-81 crop. The area around Mount Kilimanjaro is said to be badly affected. The Government, however, have reserved 10% of coffee export earnings for the purchase of pesticides and other requirements for improving the crop.

Grants made in support of agriculture include shs.56 million from Japan for the purchase of Japanese fertiliser and other agricultural chemicals and shs.14 million from Norway for the University of Dar es Salaam Faculty of Agriculture.

An agreement has been signed to establish a railway linking Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi with the Tanzania Central Line at Uvinza. Contracts for the survey and design of the 2,000 km. network have been awarded by the Kagera River Basin Organisation (an intergovernmental body) to the Italian consultants Technictal in association with Austrian Railways Engineering. The existing railway system is being repaired and improved with assistance from Austria, Denmark (signalling equipment) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) (modern communications system for the Central Line). The building of a heavy engineering workshop in Morogoro for the repair of diesel engines was completed in October, 1981, and the building of workshops in Tabora and Moshi is proceeding.

The Tazara line to Zambia is running far below its planned capacity. A main cause of the problem has been the repeated breakdowns of locomotives. Measures to improve the performance of the line include the replacement of some of the existing Chinese locomotives with new ones from West Germany.

A new state-owned shipping line has been established – the Tanzania Ocean Shipping Company – with one ship, m.v.Jitegemee.

Industry and power
Canada is to provide a grant of shs.215 million for further oil exploration. Arrangements have been agreed with China to start production of coal from the Kiwira coalfield. The output will be used to power the Mbeya cement works and the Mufindi pulp and paper factory (financed by Kuwait).

Bulgaria is to make a credit available for the purchase of equipment for the Mbeya brick and tile factory.

Trucks and Waggons are being supplied by Finland to move phosphates from Minjingu near Arusha to the Tanga fertiliser factory.

The African Development Bank is making a 50 year loan for the electrification of the towns of Newala, Masasi and Nachingwea.

Denmark is providing spares for cement factories and for the Kilombero sugar factory.

Miscellaneous
Two members of the Kenyan airforce who fled to Tanzania during the recent troubles in Kenya in August, 1982, were not extradited, as requested by Kenya. They have been granted political asylum, but Tanzania has indicated that it wishes them to be accepted by a third country.

The hijackers of a Tanzanian aircraft, which eventually landed at Stansted airport (see Bulletin No.15 of July, 1982) were convicted. The leader was sentenced to eight years in prison and the others to terms of between three and six years.

In 1962, less than a year after independence, Tanzania adopted a Preventive Detention Act giving the President power to detain indefinitely and without trial persons acting in a manner threatening the security of the state. In the fragile post-independence period of the early 60’s many African states, including Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, passed similar laws. But now, 20 years after independence, members of Tanzania’s judiciary have been calling for the repeal of the Preventive Detention Act.

At a Faculty of law symposium in January, Mr. Kalunga, Principal State Attorney in the Ministry of Justice, presented a paper calling for the repeal of the Preventive Detention Act. This is the latest such public appeal. Several months ago a small book entitled ‘Honest to my Country’ (see TA Issue 14, p.16), written anonymously by a Tanzanian lawyer, called for doing away with the detention law. Then in December a court of appeals judge, R.H. Kissanga, said that the time had come seriously to consider repealing the law. Over the past two years a number of judges have heard cases involving detainees and some have written opinions very critical of the way the law is implemented. In this latest critique Attorney Kalunga called the detention law ‘a menace to everyone in the country’. The Act, he wrote, was a horrific piece of legislation, difficult to defend, and its utility was certainly zero. To the ordinary citizen, whose heart is full of love for freedom in his motherland, the act is a nightmare. It creates fear, unhealthy and unnecessary submissiveness.

Kalunga’s controversial paper stimulated three hours of lively debate. The audience included Tanzania’s Attorney General, a number of judges, several MP’s, professors of law and several ex-detainees. Most speakers advocated repealing the Preventive Detention Act. A number, including the Attorney General, said it should be more carefully implemented and perhaps revised. Only one speaker defended the law as it is applied. Opponents of the detention law argued that nowadays Tanzania is politically stable and that therefore the original reason for the law no longer exists. Some legal experts said that the law itself is redundant, since there are other laws which adequately protect against any threat to national security. Further, a number of speakers said that the act puts far too much power in the hands of one man, the President, and that it does not give detainees their fundamental rights, such as the right to legal counsel, or to be charged and tried in court for their alleged offences. And according to some of the speakers the law, harsh as it is on paper, is being grossly misused. They said it has become a catch-all for locking up a variety of common criminals whom, for one reason or another, the executive branch and the police cannot, or do not want to, bring to court. Those being detained nowadays are very rarely political opponents of the Tanzanian government. Rather they include small and big time criminals, such as habitual drunkards, cattle rustlers, thieves, embezzlers, smugglers, foreign exchange violators, racketeers and economic saboteurs. As one speaker, High Court Judge and Member of Parliament Nassoro Mnavas, said, ‘the law itself was originally passed to deal with political malcontents after independence. But unfortunately it is now being misused to supersede ‘ criminal law’. Neither the names nor numbers of detainees are made public. And my attempts over the past several weeks to obtain this information have, so far proved futile. But according to knowledgeable people I’ve interviewed the number of presidential detainees may be as high as several thousand.

In his remarks at the symposium Tanzania’s Attorney General, Joseph Warioba, said he was disturbed by much of the discussion, which he considered ‘a bit one-sided’ and ’emotional’. He said ‘we must look to see if there are enough safeguards’ in the detention act, but concluded: ‘I do not think we can say that we can do without the law at this time’. Just what will happen next remains unclear. However, it does seem that at a minimum there will be efforts to crack down on the current widespread misuse of the detention law and that the courts may become more aggressive in hearing detention cases. And at some point parliament may be asked to debate whether or not it should revise or repeal the detention act.

Martha Honey
(Reproduced with the kind permission of the British Broadcasting Corporation)

‘After food and clothing, shelter ranks third amongst the basic necessities of life’. The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development repeated this message at the conference held in Arusha to work towards a national housing policy for Tanzania. He continued: ‘when Tanzania became independent on 9th. December, 1961, the government took immediate steps to provide decent housing to all Tanzanians irrespective of their income or race’. The conference was only too able to assess how this objective had fared as it listened to papers which spelt out the problems both in the past 20 years and in the way ahead.

Like many developing countries the Tanzanian population has been growing Rapidly – currently at a rate of 3.3% per year (doubling in 20 years) – since independence, with a present population of 19 million. Half of this 19 million is under 15. It is not difficult to imagine the demands for shelter generated by such growth. Compound this with the experience that the traditional house-type lasts about 7 years depending on mud, pole and branches for the main constructional items. The net outcome of this calculation is that about 600,000 houses were being built or rebuilt in 1978. It is not amiss to recall that the UK, with a population 3 times the size and a GNP per head 24 times greater, has managed 500,000 houses in a year only once.

This scale of the problem is, however, complicated by the movement of rural people towards the towns. While largely a rural country (85% live in villages) the main towns, and especially Dar es Salaam, are growing at over 8% per year. leading to substantial areas of squatters’ houses, of which there are 100,000 in Dar es Salaam alone. This movement to the towns aggravates the housing situation since such a move is towards a cash economy, needing to buy materials for proper shelter from a largely subsistence agricultural economy with materials near to hand. So there are major factors of populations growth, urban drift and material availability.

How have the formal public housing institutions tackled these very substantial tasks, as promised in 1961? The picture, it has to be said, is not good. The Minister stated that the National Housing Corporation since 1962 had built no more than 14,000 homes. The Registrar of Buildings had also constructed 400 houses. Site-and-Service projects had released a further 9,000 plots for individuals to build their own homes. These approaches are clearly not meeting the needs of the bulk of Tan2anians, concentrating, as it transpired, on high quality, high cost units in urban locations.

As a new approach, the Tanzania Housing Bank (THB) was established to provide mortgage finance for people to build their own new houses. Such finance would also be available to villages as a whole and as such the THB played a significant role in the implementation of national governmental policy for the creation of new and centralised village settlements, which were to form the basic organisational units of the country and the Party. By the end of 1979, 27 villages had borrowed to finance 2,000 houses, as well as individual loans. Yet it was still the urban areas with 15% of the population that were getting half of the available finance, due largely to rural inaccessibility of the urban-based THB and to its conservative approach to income requirements and repayment schedules (over three quarters of the THB borrowers earn more than twice the average income). These rules become a major constraint when Tanzania’s GNP per head is amongst the lowest 15 in the world.

So there is a huge gap between the houses that are reported as being constructed and the comparatively few houses that the formal institutions have been funding. The contribution from the informal sector is thus the bulk of all housing activity. It is not surprising that the Arusha conference resolved that the starting point for a national housing policy was that home ownership should be encouraged. The closing speeches that now ‘Tanzania has very limited resources to provide public housing. That is why the Government and Party encourage Tanzanians to build their own homes instead of waiting for the Government to provide housing for them.’ Self-reliance is now the watchword for housing provision; it is a long way to come in 20 years.

Self-reliance will apply to materials and to construction and financing. One reason of course why so few houses were funded publicly was the high standard required by a building code exported from Britain in the thirties and unamended since independence. It related well to urban aspirations of importance and mortgage security. Its critical failure, however, was its almost total dependence on cement blocks and on imported components, including the raw materials for corrugated iron or aluminium sheets. The money cost was itself high (over twice the cost of an indigenous brick house), but its major national disadvantage was the high import content. And that is a disadvantage worse today than ever, when the average import capacity of the country is only half what it was in 1972 or 1976. The terms of trade have moved radically against the country since then and the lack of resources has led to a drop in income of about 50% over the last 3 years.

There is now internal cement production, but it is fired by fuel oil, which has itself to be imported. The product when finished has to be distributed by diesel-fuelled vehicles. The planned output is to double, but the National Economic Survival Programme priorities may not allow such consumption of extremely valuable and expensive imported resources on housing projects, when they could be applied to utilising more of the economy’s productive capacity, which is only 3o% utilised at present. If national priorities determine the resource allocation of high cost construction materials, it becomes even more essential that locally available materials are used, to locally agreed standards and designs and by locally comprehended methods of construction. These now form the key planks in the ‘nyumba bora’ campaign to improve rural housing.

The Arusha Appropriate Technology Centre has developed particular soil cement mixtures compacted in a manually operated mould-machine to provide traditional house-types with a much longer life. Such a machine, with adequate training and repair backup, form~ a sensible approach for a village construction unit to provide rural housing at a 35% saving over sand-cement blocks. Again, in appropriate areas one can often see very small scale clay pits providing bricks to be fired locally. The importance of local production is highlighted by the fact that the westernmost Districts use 40 time less cement per head than those at the capital.

The other key local element is that of education being undertaken by the Party (CCM) and local officials both to advise on the long-term advantages of improved long-life housing and on the need for joint village working to build and finance them. At a practical level there should be technical support via the Rural Construction Units, which should be equipped to train and assist villagers in building, joinery, bricklaying and plumbing methods. If these key areas can be successfully tackled, the number of houses needed could drop from 600,000 to 200,000 per year, since each improved house would last of the order of 4 times as long. Even that would demand resources of an estimated shs.1.4 billion per year, which even reduced to an individual village scale must be doubtful in view of the low real income from cash crops.

This financing area is crucial, since villages have to raise loans from the THB to fund the works with little state financial support. The success of such a strategy depends on major relaxations and improved accessibility on THB’s side as well as substantial income and commitments by the villagers. Certainly evidence on the ground at the moment indicates a substantial number of houses still being built of traditional .materials of mud and laths on a pole framework.

In the towns, the authorities have accepted squatters as an unavoidable component of housing policy and have embarked on a programme to upgrade squatter areas. This is by way of loans from the THB to individuals. The state cannot provide new housing and amenities, but it aims to improve the surroundings if owners improve their own homes. The success of this in mobilising resources, coupled with the Site-and-Service Programme, is indicated by Dar es Salaam’s consumption of 40% of the national output of cement. The Squatter Improvement Programme is one area in which the World Bank has made material contributions to improve the homes of 315,000 people throughout the urban areas of Tanzania. Nevertheless, the issue of squatter areas will continue. There are 100,000 squatter houses in Dar es Salaam now and urban populations must be’ expected to rise from 3 million to 10 million in the next 20 years. It would be foolish to pretend that all the urban workers will be able to afford THB loans: but can Tanzanian society accept the South American, or even the Kenyan, scale of alienation?

Ian McCalman

Transport
The Swedish aid organisation SIDA is to assist ‘with the improvement of Air Tanzania’s ground handling equipment at Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro airports and the Irish airline Aer Lingus is to help with a manpower development plan. Air Tanzania’s troubles have included the grounding of aircraft through lack of spares. It is reported that several Western airlines are considering Suspending their services to Tanzania because the Bank of Tanzania has released no currency in payment of tickets for eight months.

Industry and Trade
The Tanga-based Tanzania Fertiliser ‘Company has started the production of ammonium hydroxide, which is used in paint production and wood treatment. *

A trade agreement with Mozambique provides for Tanzania to exchange aluminium sheets, cocoa beans and hoes for welding electrodes, tyres, tubes and sewing machines.

A second gold mine (buckreef) developed at a cost of £8 million and employing 300 people has started production and is expected to have an output of 2 kilos a day.

A power alcohol plant is planned to be in production at Moshi by 1985 using by-products as raw materials. The alcohol will be made from molasses, much of which at present goes to waste, and will be mixed with petrol. The project will be financed by a French Government loan.

The hydroelectric power project at Mtera, 100 miles north of Iringa, is to be financed by a consortium of five European countries, Sweden, Norway, the German Federal Republic, France and Italy, together with the World Bank and the Kuwait Development Fund.

Agriculture
The International Development Association (the World Bank affiliate for concessionary lending) has approved a credit of $12 million for the coffee, cotton and sisal authorities, technical assistance for the Ministry of Agriculture and staff for an advisory group to make recommendations to the Tanzanian Government on an economic recovery programme (see Bulletin No.13, page 2).

The Dairy Farm Company of Tanzania (DAFCO) aided by the World Bank is purchasing 1,000 dairy heifers and 10 bulls from Zimbabwe. The plan to establish 17 dairy farms each with 350 cows and a breeding centre and to provide 50 ujamaa villages with herds of 20 cows each was launched in 1974 and should have been completed by 1980, but has been extended to 1984.

A proposal for a rice irrigation project at Mkomazi, near Korogwe, first investigated in 1950, has been abandoned after a West German report found that it would not be profitable.

Education
The Ministry of National Education is to investigate the effects that the adult literacy campaigns have had on the behaviour, attitudes and thinking of new literates.

Graham Mytton

* The early history of the Tanzania Fertiliser Company is described in an article entitled ‘Tanzania’s Fertiliser Factory’, by Andrew Coulson in the Journal of Modern African Studies, 1977, Vol.XV No.1.

Reports in the British press, not so far denied in Tanzania, continue to forecast severe food shortages amounting to famine in parts of Tanzania early in 1982. The situation is unclear, but it does seem that the official view, reported in the summer issue of the Bulletin (no.13), that there would be sufficient surplus in some areas to meet the shortage in others was over optimistic. The appearance of a plague of grain eating insects, the Greater Grain Borer (prostephanus trancatus), over a wide area in central Tanzania may partly be responsible for upsetting the government’s calculations. This beetle, locally known as scania, both in the adult and larval stages will damage a wide range of commodities, including various roots and tubers, cereals, pulses, coffee beans and groundnuts. It is known to be able to breed successfully only on maize and in dried cassava. It is a serious pest of maize on the cob and is principally associated with small farm stores in parts of Mexico, Nicaragua and Tanzania. After 3 to 6 months storage of maize cobs on some Tanzanian farms, weight loss of as much as 33% was recorded; the average was approximately 10%. So far, prostephanus truncatus has not proved to be an important pest in large storage structures. The Tropical Products Institute (a British Government organisation) has made proposals to the Tanzanian Government on the control of this pest.

The measures taken by the Tanzanian Government to rectify the shortages are not well known, but are believed to include deliveries from Canada, Japan, the United States and the European Community. The Government may have experienced difficulties on account of the very grave shortage of foreign exchange – in July the Financial Times reported that reserves had fallen to £600,000, barely two days’ requirements. A news agency report early in October stated that the Government estimated that it would need to import 87 million dollars worth of food before June, 1982.

It is planned to protect next year’s food supply by a directive from the Party requiring all villages to establish a minimum of 100 hectares of food for cash crops, to be cultivated communally for sale to Government organisations.