BUSINESS NEWS

Exchange Rates (April 1995):
US$ = Shs 560 – 570
£ Sterling = Shs 850 – 910

The WORLD BANK, advised by its representative in Dar es Salaam (who was accused of interfering in Tanzania’s sovereignty) and supported by TANESCO’s Board of Management and the press, has forced the government to change the decision it had made on the award of a tender. This was for the Emergency Power Supply Project urgently needed to relieve the electric power shortages which have been crippling industry during recent months. The Canadian firm Ocelot won the tender. A combined Irish, South African and Malaysian tender had been favoured by the government – Business Times.

Although heavy rain during the last few weeks has led to improved electricity generation TANESCO has warned that rationing will continue because water levels in the main dams had not yet risen substantially – Daily News.

SOUTH AFRICA’S PROTEA HOTELS has recently taken over the management of 20 African hotels outside South Africa including four formerly state-owned hotels in Tanzania – Johannesburg Star.

INFLATION had reached 39.5% by the end of January and there are fears that it will reach 45% by budget time in June; food prices increased by almost 20% during the five months after September 1994 – Business Times.

The TANZAM Railway Authority plans to layoff a third of its 6,000 workers in the next 14 months because of severe competition – Business Times.

OBITUARIES

AMIR JAMAL who died in March in Canada was one of the earliest members of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), served in many cabinet positions after independence.

BILL TULLOCH was in Tanzania from 1951 to 1963 and served as a District Commissioner. He wrote a children’s book Kishanda and the Elephant based on the friendship between his daughter and an orphaned elephant calf. After Tanzania he tried several business ventures but became best known as a successful racehorse owner.

JOHN OWEN, Director of National Parks (1960-70) was described in The Guardian (March 6) as the outstanding conservationist of his time who was largely responsible for forming the magnificent national park system as it is today.

BOOK REVIEWS

NYERERE – THREE BOOKS

Nyerere Book

MWALIMU – THE INFLUENCE OF NYERERE. Edited by Colin Legum and Geoffrey Mmari. Mkuki Na Nyota, Dar es Salaam; Africa World Press, Trenton USA; and, James Currey, London. Published in association with the Britain-Tanzania Society. 1995. Clothbound £35. Paperbound £11.95. Special offer price to readers of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’: Clothbound – £10 from James Currey, 54B Thornhill Square. London NI IBE.

The British Empire had many achievements. One which is rarely cited is the remarkable group of leaders who led its colonies to independence. Had these colonies been fortunate enough to inherit power at the same time they would have been among the tallest on the world stage. Liberation movements attracted many intellectuals who might otherwise have taken careers other than politics. The quality of British education at home and in the colonies contributed to their formation. When history is written Julius Nyerere will rightly occupy one of the foremost places in this galaxy along with Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Kaunda, Lee Kwan Yew and others.

This book is neither a biography nor the orthodox collection of eulogy produced on the retirement of an eminent figure. It is a scholarly compilation of some 14 essays covering his ideas, the policies that followed from them and their application to Tanzania during the 30 years of his leadership. It merits attention as one of the few attempts to analyse in depth and with objectivity the achievements of a very poor country immediately after it assumed control of its own destiny.

Nyerere has many qualities of heart and head. Huddleston, in his contribution places stress on his humility, austerity and dedication. Mmari reminds us that he did not lack determination. His attachment to his Catholic faith is an important factor in his life. Above all the theme is repeated that he is a thinker and a mwalimu (teacher) hence that honorific has been bestowed on him permanently uniquely among political leaders who have generally preferred to emphasise their power and leadership. Gandhi, Nehru and Mao were Asian leaders of an earlier generation who also had a vision of creating a New Society and of moulding a new man. Needless to say they differed in the essentials of that vision. Nyerere had a vision of building a more perfect society and a better individual in Tanzania based on African roots and socialism which encompassed Fabian humanist Marxist ideologies. Some day it is hoped that a study comparing Nehru and Nyerere will be made as these charismatic leaders had much in common. Nehru died in harness. Nyerere, having retired from office is still with us, active in the public service. Among their achievements, as Green points out in his contribution, is that much of the political engineering they accomplished continues to survive – a rare occurrence in post independence societies.

The gaining of independence from colonial rule was seen by the leadership as a new dawn when everything could be achieved. In the euphoria they believed that the same enthusiasm and the same willingness to sacrifice that enabled the ouster of foreign rulers would continue indefinitely. This would provide the motivation for the revolution to be brought about in the social structure and the economy. It was soon discovered that human nature and habits cannot be radically altered nor can vested interests be removed without enormous effort and education over a period of time. Too often unable or unwilling to confront this task the post-colonial leadership has moved back to authoritarianism. In many cases this was the penultimate stage before military rule. Nyerere realised he could not achieve his goals by using the system left by the British. As Kweka explains he believed a one-party state would better serve the entire nation. Democracy would be preserved by ensuring freedom of discussion, a policy debate and a choice of candidates for Parliament. In reality the party became all powerful and power and decision making were centralised. The one-party state instituted in 1965 was eventually dismantled in favour of a multi-party system in 1992. By that time Green states that sturdy institutions, a plural society and faith in the system had been firmly implanted. Legum, while acknowledging the achievements, prefers to remain sceptical about the future.

The overall thrust of Nyerere’s philosophy is enshrined in the Arusha Declaration of 1967. This emerged after much debate but it was essentially the distillation of Nyerere’s own thinking over a long period and was largely imposed from above. Its facets appear in most of the chapters of the book. Irene and Roland Brown sympathetically spell out the reasons behind the perceived need for planning, for education for self-reliance and for community formation in the ‘ujamaa’ village. They and other contributors recognise that it was not so easy to implement these policies. Legum points out that, although some people had to be forced, what has been achieved with very limited coercion is indeed remarkable. India, with her partly successful Five-Year Plans and community development programmes in various forms, knows very well that revolutions in agriculture and economics do not come overnight. But they do come slowly at different speeds in different places. Enthusiasm for rural modernisation can be generated. Ultimately awareness grows with decentralisation, grassroots democracy and especially education. All this needs adequate resources. Groups and individuals have to feel that they too benefit from the revolution in the quality of life and being able to acquire goods unobtainable earlier. That is why socialism and planning do not succeed if they neglect to inject a sufficient measure of market forces. Nyerere may not have realised this till the 80’s and 90’s. But he has never lost sight of the importance of self-reliance and its relevance to independence in policy formulation. It is only in the post cold war era that this reality has been forced on many developing countries which had relied on aid-driven development.

Svendsen, writing on the economic sphere, explains how, after the shocks of the 1979-81 period, the costs of implementing the Arusha Declaration became impossible to sustain. Pride had to fight with need. As countries like India had discovered 15 years earlier, altruism does not exist in international finance and commerce. Tanzania fought a spirited battle with the World Bank and the Fund but the inevitable compromises had to be reached.

‘The development of a country is brought about by people and not by money’ as Komba asserts. To do this in Tanzania required an initial revolution which most other countries did not need. There were no rural communities. People were gathered into villages with the intention that these would eventually evolve into full-fledged cooperatives. Unlike in the soviet union and China this was done mainly by consent. It is however not clear from the book how Tanzanian society has evolved; in the desire to emphasise the unity achieved, the normal process of emergence of group identities is not clearly analysed.

The book is somewhat weak on Nyerere’s international achievements. Ramphal’s contribution highlights the Commonwealth role and touches upon Nyerere’s contribution as Chairman of the South Commission. The Commission’s contribution to the economic reform now going on around the world might not be fully appreciated in the pain of ongoing structural adjustment. Self-reliance is being accepted. Just now this is being done at the national level rather than at the multilateral level as the Commission had hoped. It is perhaps utopian to hope that the new rich will be any more altruistic than the old rich.

Nyerere was always a Pan Africanist as Ramphal points out in his reference to Nyerere’s offer to delay Tanganyikan independence to help preserve the East African Union. His outspoken statement that Tanganyika would not share the Commonwealth table with South Africa after it achieved independence in 1961 prompted the latter’s exit from the Commonwealth. Decisions on Southern Africa were not without cost to the Tanzanian economy. But they were borne bravely.

Legum explains the rationale behind the final ouster of Idi Amin and the incorporation of Zanzibar into Tanzania and how this was motivated by the same philosophy of African solidarity. The TANZAM railway may not have been a success but it was another effort in the same direction.

For anyone interested in Julius Nyerere and Tanzania this book is essential reading. It suffers from the defect of people on the inside writing about their special subject. Almost every contributor has worked for the Tanzanian Government or the University of Dar es Salaam. outsiders may feel that they have not been provided with the adequate foundation of facts and data on which the analysis is based. There is also no attempt at any comparative study of neighbouring African or other developing countries. This would have provided some benchmarks against which judgements can be made. These are however minor points against the carefully drawn and relatively objective picture that is projected and is retained by the reader. The Mwalimu’s legacy is indeed that of his ideas. Maybe some of them need to be updated. But the basic thrust which comes through loud and clear still remains valid for Tanzania and indeed for many other nations.
Eric Gonsalves

UONGOZI WETU NA HATIMA YA TANZANIA. Julius K Nyerere.
Published by Zimbabwe Publishing House. 1994

This is a short book but one which seems to be of exceptional significance. Its launch in the late Autumn of 1994 created such interest that the first printing became unobtainable in a matter of days. When the author addressed a meeting of the Press Association in March this year, at which he was to return to its major theme, over 800 people are reported to have attended.

Readers in the UK might wonder what all the fuss is about. We have become accustomed to the attacks of Edward Heath on his successor and on the seeming reluctance of Margaret Thatcher to show much enthusiasm for hers. But this is of a different order. Nyerere is the ‘father of the nation’; he led the movement for independence; he presided over a Party which, whatever its internal di visions, presented to the public a sense of unity in building a peaceful nation, free from racism, tribalism and religious intolerance, a nation seen as an example to the rest of the world, even if its economy ran into major problems. Moreover, Nyerere retired voluntarily with the status of a world statesman. Ten years later, though the economic framework to which he had committed himself is fast being dismantled, and though there are those in Tanzania who dismiss him as a figure of the past, he retains great influence among large sections of Tanzanian society.

The thrust of the book is a passionate defence of the united Republic and the main features of its constitution. Nyerere believes there are those working to split the Union into the two constituent parts that existed in colonial times. He points out that the present borders of Tanzania represent virtually the only example of a post-colonial state which has borders different from those determined by the colonialists and borders which have reunited people of the coastal area and the islands who had been divided by imperial force. He argues that, once the Union were split into two parts, there would be a danger of a descent into regionalism and into divisions based on religion. which of us in Europe, looking at events in the former Yugoslavia, can confidently say this is wrong?

But Nyerere goes much further. He accuses the then Prime Minister and the then Secretary General of the CCM – both since moved to posts of lesser importance – of conniving in these moves. They are alleged, with much documentation, to have defied the policy of their own ruling Party, undermined the authority of the President and done this to further their own personal political ambitions. He says that this would not worry him so much if he could see signs of an effective opposi tion party. As it is, without such an opposition, he thinks it even more important that the CCM should look to the strengthening of its internal democracy. Failing that, he sees the danger of dictatorship of the kind he observed in a neighbouring country.

The book is of importance in the lead up to the first multi-party general election. It must be of interest to all students of Tanzanian Affairs. I understand that an English translation will be available shortly.
Trevor Jaggar

THE DARK SIDE OF NYERERE’S LEGACY. Ludovick S Mwijage. Adelphi Press. 1994. 135 pages.
It is common knowledge that a secret intelligence service was very active in Tanzania during the Nyerere years and, as a result, a number of people were detained and some were ill-treated. Most of this book is devoted to the I exciting’ (as the publisher describes it) story of these detainees. The author made no secret of his opposition to the one-party state and in 1983 fled, first to Kenya and then to Swaziland when he knew that he was in danger of arrest. He describes in dramatic detail how he was then abducted, treated very roughly, and taken back to Tanzania via Mozambique and how he was then detained there.

Part of the book skims hastily over scores of other cases of injustice, reported at the time by Amnesty International, and perhaps inevitable in a system in which democratic differences of opinion were suppressed and in which, as in the case of Zanzibar, violent revolution seemed to be the only way of bringing about change.

The author began as a teacher in Bukoba. After his release from detention he fled to Rwanda I then Portugal and is now, apparently, in Iceland studying for a degree in social sciences with Britain’s Open university! – DRB

LIMITED CHOICES. THE POLITICAL STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM IN TANZANIA
. Dean E McHenry Jr. Lynne Rienner Publishers. 1994. 283 pages. £33.95.

This book looks at the endeavour by the political leadership in Tanzania to establish a socialist state. Its coverage is wide and quite good in my opinion, and it includes some developments almost as recent as its year of publication.

One thing which impressed me was its tile ‘Limited Choices’. The author was clearly trying to tell something impressive about Tanzania but at the end of it I felt that he still wished to tell a bit more than he actually did. The theme of the work is very much like the experience of Tanzania and the Tanzanians; they tried to achieve something significant by pursuing socialist policies but in the end they do not have much to show for it.

McHenry shows that Tanzania had few logical options other than pursuing the strong appeal of the socialist ideals which had been opted for through the Arusha Declaration. He isolates a number of factors essential either as the vehicles to achieve socialism or define its objectives in Tanzania. These include a standard of socialist morality in the leadership, democracy, equality, rural cooperatives, the parastatal sector and self-reliance. The author’s finding is that at the end of the period under study, none of them had been achieved to any commendable standard. Socialist morality, and even commitment by the leadership had been virtually abandoned. But McHenry does not indicate that the choice of socialism should be regretted.

He does not blame the socialist option for the country’s economic failure; he puts the blame on the agreement with the IMF’ and the conditions attached to it. As evidence he points to the fact that Tanzania did make some progress after the Arusha Declaration. But serious decline came in with alarming consistency after the signing of the agreement with the IMF’ in 1986. He shows further that the trend in Tanzania’s development has been just like that of other countries in subSaharan Africa, including Kenya, which never contemplated a socialist option.

McHenry’s work is very rich in its factual account of Tanzania’s political and socioeconomic development. But somehow it leaves you with the impression that the author has been too uncritical of the country generally. While blaming the IMF’ can be justified, it is not easy to understand the author’s total reluctance to try and apportion blame to local factors like mismanagement, corruption and other factors which may not necessarily concern policy, but which may nevertheless affect economic performance, irrespective of whether the policies have been socialist or not, and irrespective of the IMF conditions.

In fact the author has sometimes appeared to be too sympathetic to Tanzania. Thus, while showing quite graphically the overall decline in incomes even before the IMF, he makes no attempt at all to explain that decline. Instead he tends to view it rather positively because there was, simultaneously, an apparent decline in income inequality!

Most writers about Tanzania have found the dominance of Julius Nyerere extremely difficult to avoid. McHenry’s work, while not being an exception, must be commended for its reasonably successful attempt to draw attention to the role of persons other than Nyerere. In fact he even asserts rather boldly that, shortly after initiating socialist policies, Nyerere surrendered his ‘proprietary rights’ over socialism to the party as a collective unit. Unfortunately, the author does not assess whether indeed the party ever accepted socialism as an objective. That assessment is necessary in view of the virtual abandonment of the Arusha Declaration (through the Zanzibar Resolution of February 1991) barely six months after Nyerere’s exit from party leadership.

McHenry categorises Tanzania’s socialists, particularly in the political leadership, into ‘ideological’ and ‘pragmatic’ socialists, each struggling for control, while Nyerere maintained a midway position between the two. I find this categorisation rather disturbing. Some of the people categorised as pragmatic socialists and most of the things they have stood for are not considered as socialist, at least not in Tanzania. They may have been pragmatic but certainly not socialist. Perhaps the author made a misleading assumption that, because of Tanzania’s commitment to socialism, the entire leadership consisted of socialists only.

There are a few inaccuracies but they are negligible as far as the main thrust is concerned. But while commending the author for the effort he made to authenticate his sources he could have done a little better if he had tried to cross check what he read in the government-owned Daily News with other sources including the independent papers which emerged after 1990. Some of them are in Kiswahili, which could be a limitation to some researchers, but not to McHenry; each chapter in the book opens with its own all encapsulating Swahili proverb.

All in all this is a work well worth reading. Even if you disagree with the author’s views, arguments or conclusions his work will certainly tell or remind you about things concerning Tanzania which you may have overlooked.
J T Mwaikusa

ARMED AND DANGEROUS. MY UNDERCOVER STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID. Ronnie Kasrils. Heinemann. 1993. 374 pages. £6.99.

MBOKODO. INSIDE MK – MWEZI TWALA. A SOLDIERS STORY. Ed Benard and Mwezi Twala. Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg. 1994. 160 pages. South African Rands 19.99.

These two action-packed and well-written books tell parts of the same story – what it was like to be involved in the armed struggle against South African apartheid. And, as Tanzania was an early headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC) to which both main authors belonged, Tanzania gets more than a mention.

Ronnie Kasrils was head of ANC military intelligence. He was, called the ‘Red (because he was a dedicated communist) Pimpernel’, South Africa’s most wanted man. He is now Deputy Minister of Defence in the South African government. For him his period in Tanzania (he was also in the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany for training and in Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa on active service) was a generally happy one, and followed an escape over a ladder on the South Africa/Botswana border. He arrived in Tanzania in a six-seater chartered plane. He started by licking stamps, and answering the telephone at the ANC’s ‘shabby office’ in Dar es Salaam. The ‘romantic town’ reminded him of Durban. He married there – ‘The colonial registrar, who was still in place in 1964, stuck by the book and refused to marry us because we did not have our divorce papers (left behind in S. Africa) but we knew the Tanzanian Attorney General, who wrote a curt note ordering the registrar to stop being obstructive!’. Later, Kasrils had to say his traditional Judaic incantation at the Israeli Embassy in Dar es Salaam when he heard that his father had died back at home.

Tanzania in the 1960’s was the centre of much radical political activity. ‘An unforgettable event’ Kasrils wrote ‘was an address to 200 people by the legendary Che Guevara at the Cuban Embassy …. I met him later as I was sitting on the harbour wall. He was smoking a large Cuban cigar; it was his striking features, almost feline, that set him apart from ordinary mortals’.

Kasrils also met, sometimes on the verandah of the New Africa Hotel, such personalities as Oliver Tambo, the Shakespeare-loving Chris Hani, Joaquim Chissano, Jonas Savimbi ‘the gentle Malcolm X’ and many others. For Mwezi Twala, the person whose experiences are described in the second book, (‘Mbokodo’ is a Xhosa word for a grinding stone and was used to describe the security branch of the ANC’s armed wing – ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’) Tanzania was a very different place. As was the ANC. Mr Twala is now an organiser for the Inkatha Freedom Party in South Africa.

He was a dissident from an early age having organised a strike in his primary school! And when, as a training officer in the ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, he sometimes disagreed with policy, he was inclined to say so. The result was that he was brutally punished in ANC detention camps in Angola and later transferred, as a prisoner to Tanzania.

His first stop was Dakawa camp where some 700 South Africans were housed in two villages and a large tent community called ‘Hawaii’. Here the author was happy at first. He was elected as a camp leader and made responsible for brick making and the manufacture of prefabricated walls for the growing settlement.

But, according to the author, Chris Hani and other senior ANC officials came to the camp. Chris Hani, ‘strutted with all the arrogance of a cockerel, while barking orders like a dog. He proceeded to issue banning orders on all of us’.

He and eighteen of his friends decided to plan an escape. And their chance came when the Tanzanian contractor with whom they had been working, apparently without the knowledge of the ANC authorities, invited them for a two-day New Year break in Dar es Salaam. Conditions had not been good at Dakawa. On the way to Dar somebody pushed a coke into his hand. ‘It was the most beautiful coke I have ever tasted in my life’.

Chapter 9 of the book describes the following period in early 1990 – imprisonment in Dar es Salaam, hunger strike, appeal to foreign embassies – and Chapter 10 describes the escape, helped considerably by friendly Tanzanians, to Malawi and eventually, after the release of Nelson Mandela, to South Africa. I After fifteen years absence, the changes that had taken place in Johannesburg were mind boggling’ the author concluded. ‘Everything I saw exuded wealth’.

Quite a lot of other things in these two exciting to read books are also mind boggling!
David Brewin

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: A TREASURY EXPERIENCE
. J P Kipokola. Institute of Development studies Bulletin. Vol. 25. No 3. 1994 Sussex university. 5 pages.

The evaluation of structural adjustment (SA) is a growth industry these days. This article however has two merits – it tells the story of Tanzania’s SA remarkably concisely and it tells it from the point of view of the recipient treasury.

The lessons which have been learnt include:
– the value of an inter-ministerial technical group;
– the importance of timely action – something which Tanzania was slow to accept;
– the need to prioritize those resources with the most rapidly visible recovery impact; in the case of Tanzania agriculture, industry and transportation;
– not to postpone financial sector reforms;
– avoiding over-emphasis on exchange rate policy and interest rate structure;
– not to accelerate privatisation and thus create new monopolies owned by foreign enterprises;
– the need to continue to protect local infant industries;
– the need to be patient – DRB.

PARADISE. Abdulrazak Gurnah.
This book reached the Booker Prize Short List for 1994 – Ed

This book is about many things; the growing up of a young boy, the disintegration of traditional society under colonialism, the nature of freedom, and even a tragic love story.

At the age of twelve, Yusuf, the central character, is torn away from his family for reasons he does not wholly understand. It quickly becomes clear that his parents have become indebted to a wealthy trader – ‘Uncle’ Aziz – and that Yusuf is the payment. Khalil, who is older than Yusuf, has already suffered the same fate as him and thus attempts to protect Yusuf from his youthful naivety and vulnerability. Yusuf’s confusion is understandable as he faces up to the contradictions of his new situation. On the one hand Yusuf is forced to understand his new position in terms of a masterservant relationship; he is told that his ‘uncle’ is not his uncle, he should now call him Seyyid. On the other hand Khalil emphasises the honour of their ‘master; ‘He buys anything … except slaves, even before the government said it must stop. Trading in slaves is not honourable’.

The whole area of slavery, bondage and freedom is thus introduced into the book at an early stage and is pivotal to Yusuf’s transition to adulthood. Yusuf is presented to us as an innocent. He is passive, things happen to him, not because of him.

‘It never occurred to him …. that he might be gone from his parents for a long time, or that he might never see them again. It never occurred to him to ask when he would be returning. He never thought to ask ….. ‘

He is frustrating in his passivity; one finds oneself demanding, along with Khalil ‘Are you going to let everything happen to you all the time?’ Of course this passivity is bound up with him coming to terms with this position of bondage, and it is this that he realises that he must ultimately challenge. Yusuf cannot understand why Both Khalil and the gardener, Mzee Hamdani, have refused to take their freedom when offered. He accuses them of cowardice and impotence respectively. But of course Yusuf’ s greatest challenge comes when he realises he himself is free to go – like Khalil and the gardener he is freely n the service of the Merchant. This forces him to reconsider his position and face up to his own inability to control his life.

Yusuf’s final action is to attempt to take control and deliver himself from ‘slavery’. Of course the fact that he left one slave-master relationship for what was clearly another, means that his liberation was obviously limited. Nevertheless it was clearly a progression and was reflective of the lack of choice that someone in Yusuf’s position would have had.

The style of ‘Paradise’ is poetic. Gurnah attempts a fusion of myth, dream, religious tradition and realism. He succeeds in this, although it must be said that he comes nowhere near the poeticism and magic realism of Okri’s ‘Famished Road’. Gurnah is most successful, however, in providing a sensitive portrayal of one young boy’s transition to adulthood in a society where a legacy of slavery and an ever increasing colonial presence complicate notions of honour, freedom and bondage.
Leandra Box

“DRIVE SLOW SLOW – ENDESHA POLEPOLE”
. Carlotta Johnson. !994. 91 pages. Obtainable @ £6 from Jane Carroll, Britain-Tanzania Society (which will receive receipts from sales) 69 Lambert Road, London SW2 5BB.

An account of a six-month’s return to Tanzania, Uganda and (briefly) Kenya after 17 years. Carlotta Johnson allows us to dip into her journal. And it makes evocative reading. I wanted to ask questions, to know more, to ‘see round the edges’ as one often does with the television screen. It is not an easy book to categorize, being neither a reference book for prospective travellers to East Africa, nor yet a guide for ornithologists – although it has something of interest for both. It is a very personal account of belonging and not belonging: of stranger-ness after many years away from a much loved country. It is both a questioning and an understanding of the clash of cultures. The poems between the chapters are an added bonus; this from “So, what did you go out in the world to see?”: ‘To try and understand about distance,/ separation, homecomings, here and there,/ to see what far is, discover/ if I can be at home away.’

Archbishop Huddleston has said that this book should be read by anyone who knows and loves Tanzania. It should also be read by anyone who recalls their own youthful contribution to that fascinating country, how little they learned at the time and how much they have realised since.
Jill Thompson

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

TRADE ROUTES IN TANZANIA: EVOLUTION OF URBAN GRAIN MARKETS UNDER STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT. Sociologia Ruralis. 34 (1) 1994. 12 pages.

ACCUMULATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE PEASANTRY: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE TANZANIAN EXPERIENCE. Journal of Peasant studies. 21 (2) January 1994. 34 pages.

PREVALENCE OF HIV-1 INFECTION IN URBAN, SEMI -URBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN ARUSHA REGION. K Mnyika and others. Aids. 8 (9). september 1994. 4 pages.

TANZANIA. Jens Jahn (Ed) • Fred Jahn, Munich. 527 pages in German and Swahili. 1994. £57.00. This is described in the ,Art Book Review Quarterly’ as a superbly illustrated (b & w) catalogue of traditional sculpture in Tanzania. It shows ceremonial works, figurative wood carvings, ornate staffs, furniture and masks. The text indicates the similarities in the aesthetics of Western Tanzania and southeast Zaire.

MINING AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT. C S L Chachage et al. Sweden. 1993. 107 pages mostly about Zimbabwe but with a section on mining and gold in Tanzania.

CONSERVATION OF ZANZIBAR STONE TOWN. Abdul Sheriff (Ed). 1994. 224 pages. £12.95. Essays on culture, history and architecture.

THE ORGANISATION OF SMALL-SCALE TREE NURSERIES. E Shanks and J carter. Overseas Development Institute. 1994. 144 pages. £10.95. This is designed for policy-makers/professionals and includes case studies from six countries including Tanzania.

TEACHING AND RESEARCHING LANGUAGE IN AFRICAN CLASSROOMS. C M Rubagumya (Ed). 1994. 214 pages comparing experiences in four countries including Tanzania. £14.95.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? UNAITWAJE?: A SWAHILI BOOK OF NAMES. S M Zawawi. 1993. 86 pages. £6.99.

ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION, REAL MARKETS AND THE (UN) REALITY OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN RURAL TANZANIA. sociologia Ruralis. 34 (1). 1994. 17 pages.

SOCIAL CHANGE AND ECONCMIC REFORM IN AFRICA. Ed: P Gibbon. Scandinavian Institute of African studies. 1993. £12.95. 381 pages. Contains three papers on Tanzania – on the effect (or lack of effect) of structural adjustment on the growth of NGO’s, on education and on agriculture.

ECONCMIC POLICY UNDER A MULTIPARTY SYSTEM IN TANZANIA. Eds: M S D Bagachwa and A V Y Mbelle. Dar es salaam university Press. 1993. 218 pages. £14.95.

THE DEMISE OF PUBLIC URBAN IAND MANAGEMENT AND THE EMERGENCE OF INFORMAL LAND MARKETS IN TANZANIA. A case of Dar es salaam City. J W M Kombe. Habitat. Vol. 18. No 1. 1994 20 pages. Management of urban land can be undertaken by either state-led or market-led instruments. This paper explains, through four case studies, the extent to which the infonnal market-led sector is growing largely because of deficiencies in allocation under the old system.

SOME LESSONS FROM INFORMAL FINANCIAL PRACTICFS IN RURAL TANZANIA. A E Ternu and G P Hill. African Review of Money, Finance and Banking. 1/94. 26 pages. This paper, which is full of interesting insights, explores in some detail informal financial practices in the Kilimanjaro Region. These include the keeping of cattle for emergencies, borrowing from friends and relatives, borrowing livestock and using money lenders; it points out the lessons bankers can learn from this informal sector.

BEYOND DEVELOPMENTALISM IN TANZANIA. Geir Sundet. Review of African Political Economy. No 59. 1994. 10 pages. ‘The Arusha Declaration is arguably the most influential policy paper to came out of Africa’ this writer states and goes on to analyse theories of political economy and the nature of the ‘African state’. He questions present modes of analysis of African political systems.

RECENT DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE IN TANZANIA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS. A J Mturi and P R Andrew Hinde. Journal of International Development. Vol. 7 No 1. 1995. 17 pages. Fertility in Tanzania is very high by world standards – a woman bears on average more than six children (it used to seven in the early 1980’s). The population growth rate is around 3%. These writers argue, in a fact-filled paper, that a further decline in fertility will depend mainly on the family planning programme.

DOCTORS CONTINUING EDUCATION IN TANZANIA: DISTANCE LEARNING. S S Ndeki, A Towle, C E Engel & E H 0 Parry. World Health Forum. Volume 16. 1995. 7 pages. This a description and evaluation of a programme of distance learning for 150 medical personnel in the Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga and singida regions. The most popular module was the one on obstructed labour; the most difficult was on epidemiology. Costs were $341 per trainee or $0.38 per person in the region. The paper points out the lessons learnt.

TANZANIA DEVELOPS GAS. T land. Southern Africa Economist. October 1994. 2 pages.

ESTIMATING THE NUMBER OF HIV TRANSMISSIONS THROUGH REUSED SYRINGES AND NEEDLES IN THE MBEYA REGION. M Hoelscher. AIDS. Vol. 8. No. 11. 1994. 7 pages.

POLITICAL COMMITMENT, INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND TAX POLICY REFORM IN TANZANIA. 0 Morrissey. Univ. of Nottingham. 1994. 25 pages.

LETTERS

FOOTPRINTS
It was stated in The Times on 24/12/94 that ‘the world’s earliest footprints are to be preserved in a joint effort by the J Paul Getty Trust and the government of Tanzania … Over the next two years the tracks will be exposed, stabilised and buried again’.

I feel it is a great pity that the footprints have to be buried. Is it not possible, in these days of scientific ingenuity, that the prints could be somehow protected enough to remain visible to all who would like to gaze at them and marvel at this evidence of our ancestors 3.6 million years ago. I realise that possible tourist damage and the activities of over keen archaeologists would have to be guarded against, but I wonder if enough thought has been given to the matter.
Christine Lawrence

TA ISSUE 50

ta_50_cover

IN THIS ISSUE
NEW PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET FOLLOWING MASSIVE FRAUD
PRESIDENT’S DISCUSSIONS WITH 14 DONOR AGENCIES
RESULTS OF THE LOCAL ELECTIONS AND THE TABORA BY-ELECTION
THE CHIEF JUSTICE ON THE LAW AND MULTI-PARTYISM
PROF. ISSA SHIVJI ON THE PRESIDENTIAL LAND COMMISSION

MESSAGE FROM MWALIMU NYERERE

I send my congratulations and good wishes to the Editor and all those concerned with the preparation, publication and distribution of the Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs as it issues its 50th Number.

I know from my brief visits to London that without the Bulletin it would be difficult for UK members of the Britain-Tanzania Society (and other interested persons) to follow events in my country – and the rapid changes which have, for better and for worse, been taking place in recent years. The Bulletin is also helpful for members of the Tanzanian chapter. As far as is possible, it reports without mixing fact and opinion; further, many of the articles in it give an excellent analysis of serious Tanzanian documents and events unmatched in easily accessible publications here, and less subject to the natural bias and strong opinions of those of us directly involved in one way or another.

Please keep up the good work. Tanzania, and I believe Britain also, benefit from such aids to international understanding as we in this country try to maintain Tanzania’s stability, unity and people’s involvement in their country’s governance.

Julius K Nyerere
5th December 1994

The first editor of the Bulletin, Terence Ranger, has also sent his congratulations to the present editor from his sabbatical leave in Zimbabwe.

ISSUE NUMBER 1 PAGE 1

To commemorate the 50th issue of Tanzanian Affairs, the introduction from the very first issue was included as follow:

BULLETIN OF TANZANIAN AFFAIRS: No 1 – December 1975

INTRODUCTION

It is very difficult for even the most industrious and persistent to obtain information about Tanzania from the British press. We hope in this Bulletin to bring to the attention of members of the Society material of real interest which they might otherwise not see. Several members have remarked that they hope the Bulletin will not consist entirely of what they call ‘official handouts’, and that material critical of aspects of Tanzanian policy will be included on occasion. It would be a strange sort of bulletin concerned with Tanzania in which this was not true.

President Nyerere in his recent state visit told the audience at a banquet in the Guild Hall that ‘some very flattering things have been said about me since I arrived in Britain as the guest of Her Majesty the Queen …. Other things have not been said; in polite company it is not customary to dwell on a guest’s errors or faults, or the failures of the country he represents. I can assure you that I appreciate this convention – and propose observing it in reverse!’. But in the less polite company of academics in Oxford the President himself dwelt for a moment on Tanzania’s weaknesses: ‘We call ourselves a democratic and socialist state. In reality we are neither democratic nor socialist. The Patrons of democracy and the Cardinals of socialism have no idea how much sympathy I have with them when they ridicule and dismiss Tanzania’s claim to democracy or to socialism. Democracy and socialism require a mature and popular awareness of the dignity and equality of men and women; a dynamic and popular intolerance of tyranny: a degree of maturity and integrity in those entrusted with responsibility for the institutions of State and Society; and a level of national and personal affluence which Tanzania and Tanzanians do not possess. Many of our people suffer from permanent malnutrition and all the mental and physical illnesses which go with it; their poverty and general ignorance make a mockery of talk about human freedom. We have the village tyrant and the insensitive bureaucrat. We have the habits of arbitrariness; some as the lingering vestiges of colonial rule, some of our own making. We have judicial procedures which, to say the least, leave a lot to be desired. We have a law on the Statute book under which an individual may be detained without trial. We have the traditional prejudice and discrimination against women. We still have a love of exerting authority, and an intolerable degree of submission to authority. And we also have a level of incompetence, and even irresponsibility, which often makes nonsense of our claim to be implementing policies in support of equality and human dignity’. I imagine that few members of the Society would wish to be more critica1 than that!

A good deal of this Bulletin will consist, however, of what could be called ‘official handouts’, that is to say the texts of President Nyerere’s speeches while in Britain, and some of them are important statements of Tanzanian policy in previous months. What Nyerere said during his state visit was addressed particularly to people in Britain and it should certainly reach at least all members of the Society. So this issue will begin with extracts from these documents, will continue with reviews, and conclude with compiled items of news.

NEW PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET FOLLOWING REVELATIONS OF MASSIVE TAX AVOIDANCE

The week before this issue went to press was a period of high drama in Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians were reeling from revelations produced earlier which had indicated the massive scale of tax avoidance which had been occurring in the country – it apparently amounted last year to about a quarter of the whole estimated annual revenue of the nation.

There had been some indication of trouble ahead in January 1994 when the Minister of Finance had had to introduce a drastic mini-budget to cover a serious shortfall in revenue collection. But people had to wait until November to be told the true extent of the losses to the national exchequer. At the same time, Father of the Nation Julius Nyerere published a book, which rapidly became a best seller, in which he roundly criticised Prime Minister John Malecela and ruling CCM Party Secretary General Horace Kolimba and called for their resignation.

Within a very short time, and as further illustration of the influence still exercised by Mwalimu Nyerere long after he has given up executive power, the Prime Minister and Secretary General were removed.

“I AM ORDERING A FULL INVESTIGATTON” – MWINYI
“Effective today I am ordering a full investigation into the rampant tax evasion that is taking place in this country – It has been brought to my notice that import tax and duty collection reveal a major loss of tax revenue both through fraudulent illegal practices and administrative leakages” – so began the official statement from President Ali Hassan Mwinyi. He went on to explain that early in 1994 the government had contracted the services of two foreign pre-shipment agencies to assess and help collect import taxes in addition to their task of pre-shipment inspection. The information that the companies had provided indicated that the level of lost revenues for the past financial year was about TShs 70 billion which is almost a quarter of the total estimated tax revenue of TShs 292 billion.

The president went on: “I have ordered the Controller and Auditor General to immediately proceed with verifying the available data on importers and to carry out a complete audit of the bonded warehouses. The Attorney General will lead a full investigation into each case to determine whether a violation of the law has taken place and to prosecute offenders”.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that there will be no negotiation of the taxes to be paid he said. “Whatever the Controller and Auditor General verifies as the rightful tax will have to be paid in full. These actions will be conducted within the next three months. Government action will not stop there. There is evidence to suggest that there are illegal importers who completely evade the existing tax system. The channels used by these people are the transit routes, where goods declared to be heading to neighbouring countries are diverted en route and sold in the Tanzanian market without payment of taxes”.

The Societe General de Surveillance is understood to have handled 2,000 tax exemptions between January and October and in a 56-page report to the President had named prominent businessmen, companies, public institutions and civil servants who had not paid the required taxes.

The confusing signals earlier this year from Finance Minister Kighoma Malima on discretionary tax exemptions for new investors, which had damaged investor confidence and had had to be corrected later by the President, were also referred to in President Mwinyi’s latest statement. “There is evidence to suggest that there is significant abuse of the Investment Promotion Centre exemptions. Treasury discretionary exemptions need to be sharply curtailed. The abuses hurt the legitimate business community which is investing in this country and the abusers must be caught and prosecuted. No exemption will be effective in future unless it is gazetted and published in a newspaper”.

A few days later the first actions were reported. 18 containers destined for a company building three safari lodges were seized pending clarification from the company of the amount of tax exempt goods it had imported under investment promotion concessions. The containers were said to include enough carpets to cover ten football pitches – far more than needed for the three lodges.

Some businessmen claimed that it was necessary to evade tax because the rates were so high – up to 170% in some cases. The local press began to publish details of some of the other transactions likely to be investigated. Some companies had imported tax exempt oil for soap manufacture (under provisions for tax exemption for raw materials) but the quantities were so large that much of it had been tinned and sold as edible cooking oil. Another company had been allowed to import 20 tax exempt vehicles but instead of doing so it had imported thousands of new tyres which represented its main business. A vessel was said to be plying between Hong Kong and Zanzibar, offloading goods in Zanzibar which then found their way to the mainland.

To add to the general concern, on November 17th the Controller and Auditor General presented his 511-page report for 1992/93 which contained more bad news. TShs 418 million in cash and property had been embezzled and TShs 11.6 million of payments suspected to be dubious had been made. This compared with total losses of TShs 226 million in 1991/92.

DONORS EXPRESS SERIOUS CONCERN
Within days of President Mwinyi’s announcement the Deputy Treasury Principal Secretary, who had been responsible for signing tax exemption certificates, was removed from office but many observers wondered why responsibility was not being accepted at a higher level.

Donor agencies began to express alarm. An official of the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation said that tax exemption and revenue collection problems were not caused by one individual. The problem was both institutional and political.

Norwegian Minister for Development Cooperation Kari Nordheim-Larsen said that she viewed the matter extremely seriously and immediately withheld TShs 8.1bn (US$ 15 million) balance of payments support.

The Swedish Ambassador announced the next day (November 17) that Sweden had suspended the release of TShs 7.3bn ($13.5 million) due to the country’s mismanagement of revenue collection.

The following day President Mwinyi called representatives of 14 foreign and international donor agencies to State House (Ikulu) and made an appeal to them to continue to disburse approved funds “short of which Tanzanians would suffer and measures taken to adjust the budget would prove futile”.

At this meeting, according to the Daily News, the Canadian representative asked why the Minister of Finance did not resign.

Replying to allegations by the representative of Denmark that Tanzania had corrupt leaders, President Mwinyi said that anyone caught evading tax would be dealt with according to the law.

Tanzania faces a budget deficit of TShs 221 billion this year of which the government had hoped that some TShs 168 billion would come from foreign donors.

The Minister of Finance had had a difficult time during the 1994/95 budget debate in Parliament in August. Professor Mbawala (National MP) had said that the Treasury had been weak in collecting taxes because it had concentrated on small traders while leaving big-time businessmen to go scot-free. He accused the Minister of amassing powers and ignoring directives from the cabinet and the President.

At the meeting of the National Assembly in August a private member’s motion to re-introduce a leadership code and declaration by leaders of their personal property had received the support of the government and had been passed unanimously.

NYERERE’S BOOK
A new book ‘Uongozi Wetu na Hatima Ya Tanzania’ (Our Leaders and the Destiny of Tanzania) by Mwalimu Nyerere was launched on November 2nd before 100 local and foreign journalists and rapidly became a best seller.

At the launch the former President called for the resignation of Prime Minister and First Vice-President John Malecela and CCM Secretary General Horace Kolimba because they had failed to advise President Mwinyi on various important issues. Mwalimu referred to Zanzibar’s abortive entry into the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in late 1992, demands by some members of Parliament for a government for Tanganyika and the issue of the Vice-presidency. “I am surprised” he said “that the President has not yet acted on the Prime Minister. A Premier is not his cook…he is a national leader; if he were his cook nobody would have cared…. since his master will dictate the taste of food he wants. The situation is totally different with leaders whose acts have far reaching consequences for the destiny of our nation” he said. He had advised them to resign last year in Dodoma but they did not. He would never keep quiet if things went wrong with the leadership. The Dar es Salaam Express quoted him as adding: “It would be fine if these crooks (the current leadership) were to go”.

Nyerere advised the people to put up with President Mwinyi until he finished his second term because calling for him to step down now would shake the nation which was already passing through hardships and bad leadership.

Asked to comment on his past attitude towards criticism and the fact that he detained his political opponents, Nyerere said he did not recall detaining anyone who stood on a podium to criticise him – Daily News and Business Times.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT

When a new Prime Minister is selected by the President the nomination has to be approved by Parliament. President Mwinyi chose Mr Cleopa Msuya, who has held the post before, as the new Prime Minister. He received 165 votes but 43 MP’s voted against him.

President Mwinyi also decided to change the Secretary General of the ruling CCM party. Mr Lawrence Gama (formerly Regional Commissioner, Tabora) was elected to the post by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party by 132 votes to 21.

There then followed three days of speculation about the composition of the new cabinet before the President announced that there would be four new ministers, three new deputy ministers and a number of other changes. Two ministers left the government. Although the former Prime Minister became a Minister Without Portfolio and the Minister of Finance was moved, many observers were surprised that more radical changes had not been made. The opportunity was also lost of reducing the size of the cabinet in the interest of economy.

The new ministers are:

Home Affairs: Ernest Nyanda (formerly Mwanza Regional Commissioner). This was one of the biggest surprises in the reshuffle. The previous minister, Augustine Mrema, had achieved great popularity in his vigorous attempts to root out corruption, correct injustice and defend women’s rights. In doing so he had a number of brushes with the judiciary and presumably made some enemies. Another factor in this change might be the seriousness of unemployment which will be in Mr Mrema’s portfolio in future.

Agriculture: Frederick Sumaye (former Deputy Minister)
Health: Zakia Meghji (former Deputy Minister)
Information and Broadcasting: Philip Marmo (MP for Mbulu)

Other new appointments are as follows:
President’s Office. Ministers of State:
Ahmed Hassan Diria (former Minister of Labour and Youth Development)
Fatma Saidi Ali (responsible for the Civil Service )
Horace Kolimba (Planning). He was formerly Secretary General of the CCM Party
Abdulrahman Kinana (Defence and National Service)

Ministers Without Portfolio: John Malecela (former Prime Minister)
Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru

Finance: Lt. Col. Jakaya Kikwete (former Minister of Water, Energy and Minerals). See page 27 of this issue.
Industries and Trade: Kighoma Malima (former Finance Minister). This was another surprise in view of the similarity of the duties of this post to those of the
finance portfolio from which Prof. Malima had been removed
Water,Energy and Minerals: Jackson Makwetta
Labour and Youth Development: Augustine Mrema

Nine ministers who retained their portfolios were:

Works, Communications and Transport: Nalaila Kiula
Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment: Juma Umar
Education and Culture: Philemon Sarungi
Science, Technology and Higher Education: Benjamin Mkapa
Lands, Housing and Urban Development: Edward Lowassa
Community Development, Women and Children: Anna Makinda
Foreign Affairs and International Relations: J. Rwegasira
Justice and Constitutional Affairs: Samuel Sitta
Minister of State, Second Vice-President’s Office: Mohammed Said Khatib

DAILY NEWS – CCM CELEBRATES HUGE CIVIC POLLS VICTORY

In spite of the financial scandal, the ruling CCM party won an overwhelming victory in local elections in November. This bodes well for its chances in the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for October 1995. Of the 2,418 council wards the CCM took 1,191 unopposed and more than 80% of the others where opposition candidates stood. However, the Electoral Commission had had serious difficulties in registering electors and only about 10% of eligible voters were eventually registered to vote. There was widespread apathy amongst voters, especially in the cities. It has not been possible to obtain all the results but figures from the following regions and districts indicate the massive scale of the CCM victory.

SOME REGIONAL RESULTS:

DAR ES SALAAM
Eleven opposition parties took part in the elections. To the surprise of many observers all seats were won by the CCM. In the case of incumbent Mayor Kitwana Kondo the opposition parties agreed that UDF’s candidate (Abbas Mtemvu, son of Zuberi Mtemvu who was an active anti-TANU politician during the independence struggle) would be the only person to stand against him. However, the CCM steamroller ensured that Mr Kondo would be successful. He got 915 votes to Mr Mtemvu’s 558. Mr Mtemvu subsequently took this issue to court. A verdict is awaited.

IRINGA – NCCR-Mageuzi 1, CCM 13
KIGOMA – CHADEMA 9, CCM 63
ARUSHA – CHADEMA 2, CCM 175
TABORA – Opposition Nil, CCM 132
MTWARA – TADEA 1, CCM 99
KAGERA – CHADEMA 3, NCCR-Mageuzi 3, CCM the rest
KILIMANJARO – CHADEMA 2, CCM 111

A SELECTION OF DISTRICT RESULTS:
UKEREWE – CHADEMA 1, CCM 23
KIBONDO – CHADEMA 3, CCM 10
GEITA – CUF 1, UMD 1, CCM 23
SHINYANGA- UDP 12, CUF 3, CCM 93
MWANZA – UDP 1, CCM 17
MBEYA – CHADEMA 2, CCM 17
MBULU – CHADEMA 1, CCM 8
BUKOBA – CHADEMA 2, NCCR-Mageuzi 2, CCM 36
BARIADI – UMD won 80% of the seats

The CCM won every seat in the DODOMA, LINDI, MWANGA, NGORONGORO, CHUNYA, BIHARAMULO, NGARA, KILOSA, MUFINDI, MULEBA, MTWARA and NJOMBE districts.

Observers believe that the reasons for the CCM victory include the lack of information in remote areas about the essence of multi-party politics and the opposition’s lack of funds. Several donor agencies are funding an electoral education programme which is just beginning. Also, Radio Tanzania, the main source of news, has done little to let people know about opposition activities. There is a widespread feeling that election of opposition parties could lead to chaos in the country and danger to peace and harmony. The CCM is often regarded as the only party with integrity.

The behaviour of the opposition parties has not helped their cause. They are divided against each other and within themselves. There are too many of them – 13 are registered – and efforts to unite as one party – UDETA – have made little progress.

The parties themselves keep falling asunder. The most powerful opposition party in Zanzibar, the CUF, has a major leadership problem. The mainland Chairman has split from the Isles’ Vice-chairman. The latter, Seif Shariff Hamad, has taken over as acting chairman of the party. The UMD is also suffering from quarrels between its leader Chief Fundikira and Christopher Kassanga Tumbo, the Secretary General.

TABORA BY-ELECTION RESULT
More good news for the CCM came when the result of the Tabora parliamentary by-election, held on August 28th, was announced:

CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) 21,736
NLD (National League for Democracy) 2,693
UPDP (United People’s Development Party) 650
NRA (National Reconstruction Alliance) 446
TPP (Tanganyika People’s Party) 323

The CCM obtained 83.13% of the 28,718 votes cast but some 16,598 of the 45,316 people who had registered to vote did not turn up at the polling stations. This result broke the trend of increasing support for opposition parties which had been evident in the first four multi-party by-elections (Bulletin No. 49). A probable explanation lies in the absence from this by-election of the three parties which had received significant support at previous by-elections – CHADEMA, the CUF and NCCR-Mageuzi. The parties were protesting at what they claimed was lack of fairness.

CCM OFFERS SEATS TO THE OPPOSITION
So confident is CCM of winning next year’s elections that President Mwinyi has announced that the next CCM government will give opposition parties able to garner at least 5% of the votes 20% of the seats in Parliament.

ZANZIBAR LEADERS SPEAK

The September issue of ‘Kumekucha’, the publication of DANTAN, the Denmark-Tanzania Society, was devoted almost entirely to Zanzibar and, unusually, was written in English and mostly by one writer, Dan Suther.

Zanzibar President Dr. Salmin Amour was interviewed about the economy. Despite its meagre resources, most of the East- West trunk roads in Unguja and some of the roads in Pemba had been repaired he said. The Northern road was almost 75% completed and the Southern road 60% complete. Speaking about future economic prospects Dr. Amour said that he saw Zanzibar as a supplier of services for rather than a competitor of its neighbouring countries. There would be more trans-shipment of goods from outside destined for East and Central Africa.

On politics Dr. Amour said that the Civic United Front (CUF) represented very strong competition for the CCM. “One of the most confident organisations I have ever come across – they are over-confident” he said. “They claim that we don’t give them media coverage. But the CUF do not want the cooperation of the media. They have quarrelled with newsmen for not attending their meetings. The media is made available to parties during elections but as soon as elections are over the news media become the property of the state, of the government ….. to use as it sees fit”.

Subsequently, in a meeting with British High Commissioner Roger Westbrook, Dr. Amour said that foreign election observers would be welcome during the 1995 elections in the Isles.

The CUF’s Vice-Chairman was also asked about the political situation in the Isles. Seif Shariff Hamad said that should elections be held now CUF would get all 21 seats in Pemba and at least 14 out of 29 in Unguja. But on the mainland none of the opposition parties were strong. CUF would probably get a few seats around Tanga, Mtwara, Lindi, Shinyanga and Tabora but the CCM would win overwhelmingly.

Mr Hamad went on to say that the Union was in a mess today. Tanganyikans were complaining; Zanzibaris were complaining; the only person defending the Union was Nyerere. “We have to have major surgery on the Union” he said. As for the media he said that CUF allowed them to come to their early meetings but got so little subsequent coverage that they were told not to bother to come in future.

CHADEMA and NCCR-Mageuzi have made it clear that they are in favour of a government for Tanganyika.

MAGICAL POWERS?
Commenting on a recent meeting between Mwalimu Nyerere and Seif Sharif Hamad (the topics discussed have not been revealed) the Business Times’ satirist Joe Dotto claimed that quite a few ‘Honourables’ in Tanzania (he was referring particularly to the CCM leadership in Zanzibar) placed a great deal of importance on symbols such as flags, songs, dances and, even walking sticks. Some even believed that Nyerere had magical powers that derived from the Maasai stick he always carried around with him. ‘They are terribly scared of the man’ he wrote.

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY

The issue of the future status and method of election of the Vice-President of the United Republic has been a bone of contention ever since Tanzania opted for multi-party politics. The matter came to a head at the November meeting of Parliament in Dodoma after the cabinets of the Union and Zanzibar had met to resolve the problem. First, the Speaker of the House said that such a meeting had been unconstitutional – the matter should have been discussed by the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament. The CCM had originally decided that the Vice-President would be a running mate of and be chosen by the President of the Union. Zanzibar objected that this could mean that both posts could be filled from the mainland and wanted the present system under which the President and Vice-President must come from different parts of the Union to continue. It was then pointed out that a situation could arise where the President and Vice- President might belong to different parties which would not be practicable. The matter was awaiting resolution as this issue of Tanzanian Affairs went to press – Daily News.