MISCELLANY

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NDUGU AND WAHESHIMIWA
The National Assembly has decided that Members of Parliament should be addressed as Waheshimiwa. But Mwalimu Nyerere has made it clear that CCM Party leaders will continue to be addressed as Ndugu. “Never will they be addressed as Your Excellencies” Mwalimu Nyerere said. “If an MP insisted on being called Mheshimiwa then it would not be bad if he was addressed as Ndugu Mheshimiwa Mbunge”.

The whole issue has sparked off a lively debate. A reader in the Daily News complained that Waheshimiwa sounds colonial and bourgeois and brings in people’s minds the idea of a class opposed to other classes. It should be remembered that the President introduced the word Ndugu to show that Tanzania is a classless society.

DEVELOPMENT LEVY
Effective July 1, 1987 Villages have become the official agents of the District Councils in the collection of Development Levy. Under the new arrangements the villages will be able to retain 17% of the collection to help run their own village governments. Village governments will use the ten cell leaders to collect the levy and these leaders will receive 3% of the collections as an incentive. District Councils will cooperate with the village governments in drawing up registers of Development Levy payers – Daily News.

HISTORIC BUILDIIGS: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
The Architectural Association of Tanzania at a recent meeting with a UNESCO expert, Dr. J. Jokilehto from the International Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property has complained about the increasing and widespread demolition and rebuilding of historical buildings under the pretext that they are dangerous or unsuitable for human habitation. They cited the new structures being added to the German built headquarters of the Tanzania Railways Corporation in Dar es Salaam which they considered to be not only ugly and disfiguring to the remainder of the building but also as lacking in imagination. It would have been better if the corporation had looked for office space somewhere else.

The most famous Dar es Salaam landmark to suffer from the craze for Demolition is generally considered to have been the New Africa Hotel. This was followed by the Splendid Hotel and a host of others – Shihata

ISLES RE-INTRODUCE HISTORY TEACHING
Zanzibar will, this year re-introduce the teaching of history in its education system. The subject was struck off the syllabus soon after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. It was replaced at that time by lessons on political education which centred mostly on the protracted liberation struggle in Zanzibar which culminated in the overthrow of the Arab dominated regime – Daily News

GOLD EXPORTERS TO RETAIN 70%
The Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr. Al Noor Kassum, has announced that the Government intends to allow gold and gemstone exporters to retain 70% of their foreign exchange earnings as an incentive and to enable them to import the necessary inputs for mining.

YOUTH JUMPS TO DEATH
The son of Butiama village chairman and former head of Tanzania’s youth organisation, Mr. Joseph Nyerere, died in April after allegedly jumping from the first floor of a building in Upanga, Dar es Salaam. Mr. Kwame Joseph Nyerere was twenty six. His body was flown to Butiama for burial – Daily News

RAILYAYS SECURES 1 BILLION SHILLINGS FOR WAGONS
The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) has secured 1,576.2 million shillings from the Government and eight foreign donors for the purchase of 32 locomotive engines, 1,000 freight wagons and seventy five container wagons. The locomotives are to be bought during 1988/89. Some of the funds will also be used for laying sleepers along the Ruvu-Mnyusi and Kilosa-Dodoma lines.

BUT THE MANYONI-SINGIDA LINE MOVES SLOWLY AHEAD
In October 1985 the TRC took up the task of relaying the line between Manyoni and Singida which was removed by the colonialists in 1947 after it had been found to be running at a loss. The 115 mile line was expected to take about two years to complete.

However, the project has been facing a lot of problems including lack of equipment, building materials and labour. The line is now scheduled to be completed in thirty months but cost will have gone up because of the devaluation of the Shilling – Shihata.

SECONDARY EDUCATION
There are now 103 Government secondary schools in Tanzania compared with 95 last year. The student population in these schools has increased from 43,911 to 46,120. 136 private secondary schools and seminaries had 56,293 pupils – Daily News.

CHIMPANZEES AND AIDS

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The well known ethologist, Dr. Jane Goodall, widow of the late Mr. Derek Bryceson, the former Minister for Agriculture, who has become an international authority on chimpanzees and works mainly at Gombe, near Kigoma, spoke to the Bulletin recently in Dar es Salaam about her fears for the future of chimpanzees. For, as D. J Eichberg, head of a major AIDS research programme in Texas was quoted as saying recently, ‘Chimpanzees are the only model available to do human AIDS virus vaccine work. They are 100% affectable with the disease. Once you get to the nitty gritty, essential questions like the efficacy and efficiency of vaccines have to be tested in chimpanzees” The centre in Texas has 172 of the.. Now, in Britain too, the Porton Down research centre is looking for 30 chimpanzees for similar work.

It was in 1960 that the famous palaeontologist/archaeologist Dr. Leakey persuaded Jane Goodall to undertake a long term study of chimpanzees at Gombe. During the intervening twenty seven years she has written numerous scientific papers, and received many international awards. She has also published the definitive work ‘The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behaviour’ which is now in its 4th printing. And this is what she told us.

She lives in a house on the lake shore in the midst of a high canopy forest. In the forest is the spectacular Kakombe falls. The water hurls itself over a rock ledge and drops forty feet on its way to a stream and ultimately, the lake below. And there, up in the giant fig trees chimpanzees can sometimes be seen at play.

The Gombe park is only 30 square miles in area. It is situated 30 miles north of Kigoma. The research work, which can be expected to continue for many years yet, involves many visiting scientists and some 30 Tanzanians work there. . Tourists find it difficult to get there although they can arrange to be brought to the beach by boatmen from Kigoma. When they do arrive, they stay in an old student hostel. “We share with chimpanzees 98% of our genetic make-up” she said. “Chimpanzees are much more like us than are baboons. There are only 150 chimpanzees at Gombe. They live in three social groups of about fifty. I know one group quite well.”

Apparently, they can be capricious and brutal as well as charming and friendly. Jane Goodall has always responded to them as individuals. She writes in her book about Gigi, considered very sexy by males despite her unusual (for a female) size and aggressiveness. Fagan was ousted as dominant male in the group by his former protege, Goblin. He regained his position when he and four other males ganged up on Goblin. There was Passion, a psychotic primate who, with her daughter Pall stole infants from other chimp mothers and ate them. There was Honey Bee, who stayed with her mortally wounded mother for five days, grooming her and shooing away flies, after the two were attacked by a group of males.

To the usual human ear the sound made by chimpanzees is a sort of hoot. “But”, says Jane Goodall, “I have managed to record 25 different chimpanzee sounds. But they find it difficult to make a sound on purpose.”

Normally chimpanzees used in research have been bred in captivity. But young chimpanzees captured from the wild – an extremely difficult operation – rarely breed satisfactorily in captivity. Jane Goodall fears that, with the greatly increased demand for them now because of the needs of AIDS research, there will be increasing pressure on wild colonies to provide extra chimpanzees for testing purposes.

Jane Goodall realises that such is the enormous concern about AIDS that there is no way anyone can prevent chimpanzees being taken from the wild. But she is angered by the way in which many of them are being kept in captivity. She spoke of conditions being like in Nazi concentration camps. “Sometimes they are shut up in little cells only 6 ft. square”.

TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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The comments made in the extracts from the media which follow – and indeed articles in other sections of the Bulletin – do not necessarily represent the views of the Britain-Tanzania Society. They are published to illustrate the impressions of various writers on what they have seen and heard about Tanzania – Editor

TOURISM African Business in its May 1987 issue indicates that big changes in Tanzania’s tourism policy may be underway. Some sources contend that the Government has decided to go for mass tourism with the private sector playing a big role in the promotion of the trade. “According to the General Manager of the Tanzania Tourist Corporation (T.T.C.), Mr. Timothy Kassela, the policy would contain, among many other things, a code on investment and repatriation of dividends by foreign firms.

In a move to improve tourist services, the Government has accepted a proposal by the T.T.C. to relinquish day-to-day management of the 15 state-owned tourist hotels and lodges to foreign management agencies which are expected to give better services to the tourist.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors at the T.T.C., Mr Iddi Simba, confirms that negotiations have reached an advanced stage with foreign hotel management agents, so that the change of management should be effective by January 1988.

However, ardent adherents to African cultural values fear that a decision to go for mass tourism will open the flood gates for the destruction of the country’s ecology and national culture. Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mrs Gertrude Mongella, has stated recently that “We will not destroy our ecology. We will not disturb the habitat of our wild animals, and we will not disfigure our virgin coastline for the sake of tourism”.

RETURN OF INVESTORS
According to African Business’s June issue, Lonhro has acquired a
second tea estate near Njombe. Lonrho – one of the first major investors to return to the country after a 7 year absence – is now understood to be strongly positioned to proceed with its development plans in Tanzania.

The re-acquisition in 1985 of a 75% stake in its previously owned Mufindi Tea Company, with the Tanzania Tea Authority (TTT) retaining the Balance, marked Lonrho’s first major re-involvement in Tanzania under the new “liberalised” foreign investment policy initiated by the Tanzanian Government 18 months ago. “We now intend to present a comprehensive 10-year re-development programme to be partly funded by enhanced export earnings retention through the Bank of Tanzania”, said Lonrho Tanzania Ltd Director J. L. Platts-Mills in Dar es Salaam.

The Luponde Estate near Njombe already has 500 hectares of tea but
this was in a ‘seriously neglected’ state when Lonrho acquired it in February 1987. according to Platts-Mills. In 1986 production from Luponde was 285 tons of made tea. “Lonrho plans to more than double this”, he said. Lonrho is currently negotiating for a third tea factory and an estate near Mufindi so that by 1991 it plans to have nearly tripled its existing area.

A SLUM
A scathing interpretation of recent East African history filled 16 pages of the June 20th edition of the Economist. The feature began by stating that “In a quarter of a century colonial British East Africa has diversified into three utterly different nations – one slaughter-house (Uganda), one slum (Tanzania) and one risky success (Kenya). The article went on to examine “tragic Uganda, failed Tanzania and upwardly mobile Kenya”. “The three nations bicker all the time and behave as badly towards each other as, until very lately, neighbours in Europe did”.

On the subject of Tanzania the Economist had much to say including the following: “Stable government, say some wise people, is what Africa needs for its development. It would be hard to be stabler than Tanzania. Mr. Julius Nyerere was its President from 1961 to 1985 when he handed over the reins to his former juniors. As party chairman he is still hampering his successor’s efforts to bring Tanzania into the real world …..

Mr. Nyerere is a persuasive, eloquent man, the leading spokesman of the third world and articulator of its proclaimed injustices. He has toured the world preaching what his friends half-affectionately call the Gospel according to Saint Julius. It includes the parable of the Tractor and the Bale of Sisal, concerning the relative prices of industrial goods and of a Tanzanian crop that was unfortunately rendered unprofitable thirty years ago by the invention of synthetic course fibres …..

Aid donors have picked Tanzania as a show-place for grand and often grossly inappropriate projects. The pattern was established in the late 1940’s when the British Government’s huge scheme to grow groundnuts became a by-word for well-intentioned extravagance. Chairman Mao’s engineers completed a new railway and hoped to hand it over to local control. …. but it still does not haul the copper out and works at all only because 1,000 Chinese engineers are still employed on it …. Zanzibar town contains a disgraceful little replica of East Berlin’s Stalinallee; roasting six story flats without running water or electricity, overcrowded, filthy, unfinished as they were when Mr. Ulbricht’s men walked away in 1972. The army’s barracks are junkyards of unrepaired vehicles from every imaginable producer in the world from Brazil to Albania.

Arusha was designated in the 1960’s as the headquarters of the East African Community; high rise buildings paid for by kindly Scandinavians litter the landscape, their maintenance a pointless burden on the national exchequer. Not far off the Canadians who run a huge wheat-growing scheme must find each year a fresh excuse for not meeting their production target…. Aid has done good service to many recipient countries …. Tanzania shows aid at its worst. Donors complete project after project, the expatriates leave and the hardware starts to rust. Mr. Nyerere, in his passion for equality, denied his people the incentive to work …….

NEWS AND VIEWS
Colin Legum took the International Herald Tribune to task in a letter published in the paper on July 30th.

What has happened to the crucial teaching of C.P. Scott on the Manchester Guardian that newspapers should not mix factual reporting with comment in the same news story? In your issue of July 20 you published an agency report stating ‘Former President Nyerere whose socialist policies plunged his nation into bankruptcy, has confirmed he will retire as chairman of the ruling party ….’

This is a glaring example of mixing news with comment. It is debatable whether Mr Nyerere’s ‘socialist policies’ did indeed plunge Tanzania into bankruptcy. The country’s situation was no worse than that of many other African countries that did not practice socialism. Distinguished academic economists have identified seven reasons for Tanzania’s economic setback since 1973, of which five involve external factors (for instance, the impact of the fourfold increase in the price of commodities) and climatic conditions; only two have to do with wrong government policies. Some of us would argue that, mistaken as some of the policies were, the rural transformation in Tanzania has in fact laid the foundation for the country’s rapid economic recovery, depending mainly on good rainfalls and the correction of some past errors …

However, the purpose of this letter is not to argue the case in favour of Tanzania’s ‘Socialist experiment’ but to express disappointment that a newspaper of distinction such as the International Herald Tribune should have offended against Scott’s cardinal rule.

SALE OF CLOVES
The Paris based ‘Marches Tropicaux’ in its August 7th issue reported that the Zanzibar clove season commenced at the beginning of July. Zanzibar is the world’s fourth largest supplier of cloves, but the world market has shrunk drastically during recent years. 14,500 tons were bought in the 1960’s but in the 1985-86 season only 1,548 tons were bought.

The Zanzibar Trading Corporation is offering prices to producers very similar to those of last year. ‘A’ quality cloves fetch Shs. 65 per kilo; ‘C’ quality Shs. 47. This year the harvest is expected to be lower than last year in quantity. .. Indonesia remains the main market.

CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE
Under this rather surprising headline the spring issue of Oasis, the WaterAid journal featured a number of articles about problems of water supply in Tanzania. Chocolate and cheese turn out to be the only things missing from the lives of two Britons, Tyrone and Cynthia Barnes from Wrexham who are working in Tanzania under the auspices of WaterAid.

The article goes on to explain how Tanzanian water and sanitation installations, sometimes dating from colonial times, have been particularly prone to breakdown due to lack of spare parts. Many of WaterAid’s projects therefore concentrate on ‘rehabilitation’ – on repairing existing installations, on providing spares for the future and on training staff for proper running and maintenance. Projects costing about £100,000 have been funded so far and these are said to have helped some 45,000 people. The low unit cost, not much more than £2 per person, reflects the fact that most of the WaterAid projects merely re-activate or build on other people’s earlier investments.

The Barnes’s live at the Mvumi hospital. When they first arrived there were eight projects on the books. Mr Barnes now reckons that there are over a hundred. His job is to get other people to help themselves through self-help methods.

MWALIMU NYERERE
The magazine New Africa is much exercised about the future of former President Nyerere. The subject has been raised under various headings in three of its most recent issues. Under the heading ‘What Next Nyerere?’ New Africa stated that “There is growing political controversy in Tanzania and particularly within the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party, over the political future of former President Julius Nyerere. After he stepped down from the Presidency in 1985 Nyerere concentrated his undiminished energy on a party revitalisation campaign and retained the post of Chairman of the C.C.M. It was widely expected that he would then relinquish his party post without a fight when the C.C.M. holds its electoral conference in October. But there are now signs that sections of the party are interested in him staying on and his maintenance of a high political profile suggests that he might not be averse to the idea ……

Nyerere’s most trenchant criticisms have been of what he has termed ‘unplanned retreats from socialism’ and the increasing role being given to the private sector in economic activity. In one particularly scathing attack on the greater leeway given to the private sector, the veteran leader said that ‘these moves to help the private sector forced people to steal from the state to enable them to acquire foreign exchange with which to import goods …….

Journalists in Dar es Salaam believe that there is considerable support for Nyerere among ordinary party members and that if Nyerere himself decided to stay on and implicitly challenge Mwinyi for the job. then there might be a snowball effect.

One factor in Nyerere’s favour is that rumours now abound that further austerity measures are on the way as part of the IMF influenced economic reforms. These could threaten living standards.”

IODINE DEFICIENCY
Some 80 million people suffer from iodine deficiency in Africa. The German magazine Afrika in its July – August issue states that a relatively high number of victims of this disease, manifested externally by an enlargement of the thyroid gland, are to be found in Tanzania, where about nine million people – 41% of the rural population – show symptoms of this disease.

The most seriously affected are women and children. The deficiency in the supply to the body of vital elements can lead to miscarriages or underweight among newborn children. Congenital diseases like deaf-muteness and mental retardedness are also ascribed to iodine deficiency.

The National Commission for Control of Iodine Deficiency Diseases (N.C.C.I.D.D.), has launched two campaigns to fight iodine deficiency. Statistical surveys to establish the distribution of the disease have so far been conducted in one third of the country’s 106 districts. In areas with an especially high incidence of the sickness, like the mountainous regions of Mbeya and Iringa in the western part of the country, people are being given iodine by injection or in capsule form.

According to the authorities, half a million iodine capsules have so far been distributed, with considerable success. After two to three weeks of treatment the enlargement of the thyroid, a result of the deficiency, generally recedes.

MWINYI AND CORRUPTION
The journal Afrika in its April – May 1987 issue had much praise for President Mwinyi. He was said to have …”taken a tough stand on corruption and says he is determined to restore accountability in public offices. He wasted no time in summoning his cabinet and warning ministers that he would not tolerate a rotten administration and has already begun to prune out deadwood.

“Those eliminated include heads of a number of parastatals. Several corrupt public officers have received their marching orders. Five senior army officers who were alleged to have swindled more than $5.0 million at the Arusha-based Artillery Training School are in jail awaiting charges of theft.”

TANZANIA TRACTORS
African Business in its May issue discussed Tanzanian tractor Manufacture. Apparently a private firm in Mwanza wished to enter into competition with the Tanzanian Tractor Manufacturing Company (TRAMA) in which the Government holds 90% of the equity. Valmet of •Finland, which supplies imported kits, holds 10%. The Tanzanian Industrial Licensing Board refused to grant a license to the Mwanza firm on the grounds that TRAMA is capable of meeting the country’s demands for tractors.

TRAMA has assembled 1,500 tractors from imported kits since 1983, of which 50 were sold to Sudan for $244,000 last year, for refugee settlements.

TRAMA uses 17% local components for its tractors, such as Radiators, ballast weights, paints, batteries and cabins. It has an installed capacity, at the associated Tamco plant at KIBAHA near Dar es Salaam, to assemble 800 units per year, but Tamco confirms that ‘this can easily be changed.’ Actual production is well below that level in most years; Trama assembled 83 tractors in 1983, 414 in 1984, 729 in 1985 and 257 in 1986. Trama plans to utilise the whole capacity this year.

IN TANZANIA A WOMAN CAN GET PUNCHED
The International Herald Tribune has been featuring an article by Eileen Stillwagon highlighting examples of what it describes as the oppressive conditions under which woman still have to live in Tanzania.

One example was said to come from the University of Dar es Salaam. Women at the University can apparently get ‘punched’ if they are too visible. Not punched with a fist, but punched with intimidation, lies, public humiliation and shunning. The ‘punch’ used to be a political tool, the article states, by which students criticised state party and university leaders who, in the students’ view, had abused their positions or made bad decisions. The ‘punch’ was subsequently taken over by a secret group of male engineering students. Since then it has been used exclusively to punish university women who are too visible, successful or outspoken.

The woman’s likeness and biographical information are posted, along with lies about her sexual relationships. She is then shunned by women and men students, both for the fabricated charges and for fear of being punched themselves for not cooperating, according to the author of the article.

THE KIGAMBONI FERRY SAGA

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The press (and public) have been having a field day over the intriguing story of the new Kigamboni ferry.

After a long absence of ferry services at Dar es Salaam’s harbour mouth a brand new ferry – the Uniflote – took to the water in March midst much public satisfaction. The satisfaction may have been tempered by some surprise however at the extraordinary shape of the ferry. It consists of a pontoon pushed or pulled along on each side by two brightly coloured box-like structures standing high out of the water at varying distances from the pontoon itself. It was not surprising therefore that the crew faced considerable difficulty in manoeuvering the vessels in the early days after the launch and trying to push the pontoon to the other side in a more or less straight line. There was always a fascinated crowd watching the proceedings.

On April 23rd however the ferry decided to travel no further. Shihata commented, rather cautiously, that “no one who has seen the Uniflote can resist the temptation to suspect that the purchase of the vessel was not a fair deal; the deal was done either by non-experts or the deal was shoddy. It must be remembered that the Uniflote was brought to the country after the grounding of the MV Ukombozi which had served the country faithfully without major hitches, for nine consecutive years before breaking down last year. The Shs 71.5 million needed for its repair would have been a justified investment. Now, with the purchase of the useless Uniflote, at least Shs 21. 5 million has gone down the drain into the deep sea”

The Sunday News’ humorous writer Adam Lusekelo speculated on what might have happened now that the ferry was ‘lying on the Forodhani front like a beached whale’:

Scene at the Dar es Salaam International Airport: Two Tanzanians given the task of going to buy us a ferry prepare to embark. Both are very excited but do not show it (from long training in Tanzania). One is thinking about his broken down pick-up. It needs spares. The plot at Mbezi Beach too needs attention. The wife is almost declaring the marriage null and void because he failed to buy a Japanese car ‘like everybody else’.

The heart of the other buyer of our ferry is pounding in his chest. He doesn’t have a car and this is his chance. A house too is not a disagreeable idea. Then be is jolted by his wife who is seeing him off. “Don’t forget the dress like the one Mrs Chaurembo was wearing on the night when the Revolutions Band was playing and I caught that girl winking at you … and we need a bigger TV screen”

The moment they hit Europe the private company fellows receive them like kings. “Your hotels, food, shopping, transport and even the air you breathe have been paid for. Relax. Enjoy yourselves”.

“Thankyou” one of the ferry men says. “But we must remind you that this matter is of the utmost importance”
“Yes. I know how important this ferry is to you but…”
“Who’s talking about the ferry? We are talking about our cut”
“Ah. I get you sirs. You mean the usual 10%. Alright, it could be arranged. But it depends on the amount of money you came with”
“We came with Shs 21.5 million”
“I see. Then you did not come to buy the best in Europe”
“Au contraire, Monsieur” says one of our ferry men, showing off a bit of French he learnt at the Alliance Francaise. “We in fact came to buy the worst”.
“Is that your Government’s policy?”
“Er .. If you don’t mind let us not worry about that”.
“Well, there is this ferry” the company man says sheepishly, “the machine is vintage 1944″ …..
They discuss the cut.
The writer of the article speculates that it is more likely to have been 90% than 10%
“Another thing” says one of the ferry men.
“You must give us two of your boys to go with us to Tanzania …. we will call them experts who will be coming to check on the behaviour of the ferry. Makes good press at home”
“We don’t have extra people here. But wait a minute. I have too guys here we have been planning to layoff. One is a gardener and the other is in plastering and bricklaying ……… ”
The deal is then presumably finalised.

And the latest news?
The Minister for Communications and Works, Mr. Mustafa Nyan’anyi has appointed a seven man team to probe the matter. The Government, he said, wants the National Assembly and the people of Tanzania to know what happened. The team has been given a seven point list of questions in its terms of reference. It comprises two lawyers, two marine engineers, an auditor and a supplies officer.

According to the Daily News the 160 ton pontoon had been delivered by a British company.
David Brewin

TANZANIA APPRECIATES BRITISH AID

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President Mwinyi has expressed Tanzania’s appreciation for British assistance to the country’s economic recovery programme, particularly in the agricultural and transport sectors. The President conveyed the message to the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Robin Leigh-Pemberton who visited Tanzania recently.

The discussions centred on a number of issues including the on-going project to rehabilitate British made vehicles and tractors in Tanzania as well as monetary issues.

The Bank of Tanzania which had invited Sir Robin, maintains cordial relations with the Bank of England which has provided training for a number of Tanzanian bankers. The Bank of Tanzania has recently opened an account with the Bank of England in accordance with the requirements of the Paris Club – Daily News.

ZANZIBAR’S CHIEF MINISTER’S WARNING

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Zanzibar Chief Minister, Mr. Seif Shariff Hamed, has blamed the restive political situation in Zanzibar on disgruntled elements who are disillusioned by the socio-political changes which have steadily. whittled away their personal prestige and economic interests. Mr. Hamad, who was visibly angry, told Police and investigating officials at a meeting on July 7th that he denied allegations that, by accepting aid from Gulf countries or by liberalising trade and investment policies, the Zanzibar Government had abandoned socialism or compromised on the isles’ sovereignty.

He said the ongoing economic and structural reform were for the public good and not intended to blindly embrace capitalism or hand over Zanzibar to foreigners as claimed by its detractors. He described the disproportionate opposition to the Government’s policies as crocodile tears by those who had hitherto thrived on political terror and exploitation of the islanders – Daily News

OBITUARIES

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The death has been announced of two well known persons who have had a big impact on Tanzania. They are Sir Michael Wood and Dr. Bernhard Grzimek.

Dr. Michael Wood was for several years a farmer at Ol Molog in Tanzania but made his name by starting the first ‘flying doctor’ service in East Africa. In order to combine the two tasks he is understood to have flown in and out of his farm nearly 800 times before he had to give it up after the Arusha Declaration.

Dr. Grzimek died in Frankfurt while watching tigers train at a circus. He became internationally famous because of the assistance he gave in establishing Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro game sanctuaries and in spreading news about them around the world.

He was quoted as saying on one occasion, “Men fight and die to change borders and convert others to their way of life. My son and I must surely be right to work and risk our lives to help save the Serengeti”

They first came to Tanzania in 1957 and after learning to fly, carried out the first aerial survey of animals in the Serengeti. They counted a total of 366,980 large animals.

Dr. Grzimek campaigned ceaselessly for the preservation of wildlife. He once wrote “Men are easily inspired by human ideas but they forget them again just as quickly. Only nature is eternal unless we senselessly destroy it. In fifty years time nobody will be interested in the results of conferences which fill today’s headlines. But when, fifty years from now, a lion walks into the red dawn and roars resoundingly, it will mean something to people and quicken their hearts whether they are Bolsheviks or democrats, or whether they speak English, German, Russian or Swahili. They will stand in quiet awe as, for the first time in their lives, they watch twenty thousand zebras wander across the endless plains.”

Dr. Grzimek’s ashes were buried on May 26th in Ngorongoro crater next to the grave of his son Michael. Michael had died thirty years earlier while filming ‘Ngorongoro Shall Never Die’. Park rangers fired a gun salute at the burial ceremony. The Government has agreed to build a ‘Bernhard Grzimek Memorial Centre’ at Seronera in his honour.

SUNDAY DRIVING BAN LIFTED

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The Government has lifted the ban on Sunday driving imposed in 1974 to control the usage of fuel following rocketing oil prices. The Government indicated that it believed that recovery efforts would be expedited if citizens, including those with motor vehicles, were able to travel to and participate in agricultural activities on Sundays ..

Oil consumes more than half of Tanzania’s foreign exchange earnings and the driving ban had contributed to savings. Sunday News writer Adam Lusekelo indicated however that, for some people things would not really change.
“Our strategy was classified material” he wrote “but now that the ban has been lifted, we might as well narrate some of our ban beating manoeuvres.

“We approached the road block in our rickety pick-up. As was expected, the car cop stopped us with great authority. He stood in the middle of the road. I thought that was foolhardy because half the Dar es Salaam cars don’t have brakes.
License?
We showed it to him.
Registration card?
He got that too.
Sunday driving permit?
That is when all of us concentrated on our supporting roles to the star – the young lady we were with. She ‘inexplicably’, burst into tears. The rest of us wore long and sorrowful faces.
What’s wrong? asked the now flabbergasted cop.
Its just that (..sniff..), it’s just that … one of us renowned for his acting skills moaned, we have been to a funeral …
The magic word funeral worked. You know how we rally to each other when it comes to funerals.
He let us through.
True enough there was drink and fresh air at the beach hotel. And lots of official cars too – their owners on duty quaffing beer.
Or you can try something else.
The best method of all was to buy a football. No, not to play with. You tie it round the girl’s midriff and make sure that she is wearing a maternity dress …… “

PARLIAMENTARY MATTERS

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The National Assembly had something of a marathon budget session recently. It lasted six weeks. Once again members took advantage of their freedom of expression. A few extracts from the debates:

The Member for Kyela. “Why are interest rates on loans for agricultural purposes so high despite Government’s resolve to promote agricultural production?”
Reply: Interest rates for the agricultural sector are always below those paid by Banks to their clients. Bank clients were paying 24% compared to between 20 and 22% for loans for the agricultural sector. Beginning July 1987 short term loans for villages and primary co-operative societies have been 20% Mid and long-term loans for small village projects have an interest rate of 21%

The Member for Muleba: “What steps is the Government taking to reduce the gap between low and high income earners in accordance with the Arusha declaration?”
Answer: Recent salary reviews were intended to reduce the gap. In 1960 the ratio had been 1:20. Now it is 1:5.9.

The Member for Tarime pleaded with the Government to stop deporting cattle rustlers from the Mara region to Mtwara, Ruvuma and Lindi. The Government was wasting a lot of money on this. “When these people come back after serving their terms they are graduates. It is as if they went to learn new techniques. They should be deported, their property sold, and the Government should let the people of Mara solve the problem themselves by employing ‘Sungu Sungu’ or by killing the thieves”.

The Member for Tunduru suggested that coconut thieves in the Southern regions should be banished to the Mara and Kilimanjaro regions where the crop is not grown.

The Member for Mamtumbo said that since the crop boards had failed to provide the anticipated services to the peasants they were irrelevant and should be abolished.

The Member for Same asked the Government to look into ‘chronic’ problems in certain parts of the country, There were areas which had been facing the same problems since Uhuru – over twenty years ago and solutions were no nearer. He sited communication problems in Same, the mountainous area of which still remained isolated. He also urged the Government to reduce the number of sittings of Parliament because they were “unproductive”.