THE ‘NO-POTHOLE’ POLICY – TANZANIA’S AMBITIOUS INTEGRATED ROADS PROJECT (IRP)

Tanzania has benefited from a number of donor assisted highway projects over the years many of which provided fast smooth roads which then disintegrated because too little was done to maintain them; many were broken up by over-loaded lorries. The World Bank estimated that Tanzania was spending up to US$ 150 million annually (one third of total export earnings) on vehicle operation due to the bad roads.

Tanzania therefore launched in 1991 a much more ambitious programme than any that had gone before the 5-year Integrated Roads Project (IPR) for which World Bank and other donors are contributing 90% of the total cost of US$ 901 million. Under this project it is intended to improve 34,650 kms of Tanzania’s 55,000 kms of roads to ‘all weather, maintainable standards’: 10,150 kms will be trunk roads (only 10% of which were regarded as satisfactory in 1991) and the remainder rural roads. The IRP will also decentralise the Ministry of Works to enable it to cope better with maintenance and hopes to introduce a new’ road maintenance culture’. There will be a ‘no pothole policy’ aimed at repairing faults before they damage the road foundations and new methods are being introduced such as grinding up old Tarmac and using it again. The target is to have 70% of the trunk roads and 50% of key regional roads in good condition by 1996.

Work began in mid-1991. The Chinese are building the 226 km Tunduma-Sumbawanga road giving better access to the maize-rich Rukwa region: local firms are rebuilding the 310 km Bereku-Singida- Shelui and the 278 km Usagara-Lusahanga roads. other components of the project include a 58 km section of the Tanzania-Zambia highway from Igawa to Igurusi which is assigned to a British company (stirling), the Dar es Salaam-Kagera corridor via Oodoma and Mwanza with a branch to Tabora: and a design study of a new road from Tabora to Kigoma.

In Morogoro Region, in the interests of austerity and greater permanence, local ‘petty contractors’ from the villages are repairing short lengths of minor routes, and tracks for oxen, donkeys and horses using hand labour.

DAR ES SALAAM ROADS
The roads in and around Dar es Salaam are a special problem which is being tackled by the Japanese. When I was last in Tanzania I was shocked by the number of private cars, especially the host of new ones bearing the ‘TX’ number plates (formerly used for duty-free vehicles) many belonging to aid agencies. Perhaps too much is being spent by donors on these cars and other creature comforts. I think it would be a good thing if development could be drawn away from Dar es Salaam which is creating part of the problem by being so insatiable for supplies from afar. I visited Dodoma in 1991 and it was clear to the officials I met that even they did not agree on where they would be able to find enough water to support the town as a capital city. I think that Tanzania would be better served if there were a number of prosperous and fairly self-sufficient regional centres and market towns rather than one huge megalopolis on the coast.
C T Hart

Rifle illustration

In the north west of Nzega district there is a village called Igusule where, sometime in May ’91, I found myself in the process of organlslng a village seminar. I would be meeting with my friend, the village Extension Officer, at the cattle crush which can be found in the forest along Igusule’s southern edge.

When I found Gordons he was busy vaccinating cattle; there were only some thirty or forty head, but since this is Tanzania, where nothing is simple, it turned out to be tremendously hard work. The cattle crush was in an extremely sad state of repair, so much so, that rather than aiding Gordons with his work it was in fact inhibiting him.

Let me explain by using a small metaphor; the water funnel; the mob of cattle enter at the wide mouth of the funnel and, as they progress inwards they are eventually reduced to a single file procession; at this point, as they pass Gordons one by one, he vaccinates them.

That, anyhow, is the theory. In practice it worked out like this … so many cattle had passed through the crush that by the time they had come to a single file they had worn a deep trench into the ground. By now the trench was so deep that the cattle could no longer keep their heads and horns above the latticed steel bars that formed the crush’s frame. As soon as a cow would enter the single file area its horns would become entangled in the steel frame and it would panic, thrashing its head from side to side and sometimes bucking and kicking, so that its compatriots behind would decide unanimously to retreat.

Unfortunately, that sensible option was no longer available to them, for not only had the funnel mouth been long since closed, but also, there was the presence of several enthusiastic youths armed with long flexible sticks. These drivers had their own goal and that was to force the cattle down the funnel so that Gordons could do his work. By rushing about wildly, gesticulating and yelling, the boys encouraged the miserable cattle to congregate in the narrow end of the funnel. This was bad enough but, occasionally, a lone and foolish cow, panic stricken by the confusion in the front ranks of its fellows, would break through the cordon of youths thereby provoking them into terrifying action. I stared amazed as another cow broke free from the bovine melee and attempted to rush the stockade frame. Two youths left the cordon and neatly out-manoeuvred the hapless escapee who then received several lightning quick blows with the sticks right between the eyes. Such alarming treatment was enough to persuade the cow that the unknown dangers of the narrow path were preferable to those presented by these horrendous demons with the awful sticks. The cow would dive back into the safety of its own kind thus further encouraging the general forwards motion.

All these cattle were the property of one man who stood to the side quietly leaning on his long staff. I asked him how many cattle he owned and he answered by indicating the scene in front of us, replying, “Only thirty to forty”. In fact he was currently the owner of around eight hundred head, and that wasn’t including the many goats and sheep he undoubtedly had as well. He had not always been a rancher; only two years ago he’d been a successful businessmen in Shinyanga owning two buses and a few other smaller vehicles. One day he had sold them – all bar one – and moved back to the village to keep cattle.

By now the youths had valiantly forced the cattle past Gordons’ vaccinating gun, but for the beasts the ordeal was still far from over. Once out of the first single file passage the cattle would emerge into another stockade with another funnel, this time followed by the need to leap into the dipping pit. But the passage, having suffered the passing of countless thousands of hooves, had had a deep trench worn into its bottom. The boys were now covered from head to foot with wet green cow manure and were using the sticks so often that the weapons would fragment and shatter until all they had left was not much more than they were grasping in their hands. In the end it was worth the effort; the cattle had been dipped and vaccinated so were now fit for transportation and to be sold.

The cattle owner, who went by the name of Mzee Balole, invited Gordons and I back to his house to eat, which, I might add, I refused. His house was typical of Igusule and other villages of his district in that it was surrounded by his cattle corrals and therefore, as far as I was concerned anyway, was plagued by the millions of insect followers that African cattle inevitably attract. Besides, when I’d arrived in the morning I’d expected to have more of Gordons’ time and so I was already lacking in patience. We did go to Mzee Balole’s house. We stayed and drank some sour milk. But lunch was going to be a long time coming and eventually my patience plus my inability to deal with the flies forced me to drag Gordons away from a free meal. Nobody else noticed the flies, not even Gordons who is from Mount Kilimanjaro where this kind of cattle culture doesn’t exist. Should one or more of the insects happen to investigate a particularly sensitive orifice or organ, it was calmly wafted away like the useless and poor excuse for an irritation it was.

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF RIFLE MAKERS
When I had left the homestead I knew I had committed an unforgivable social faux-pas and I became depressed, so Gordons tried to cheer me up by telling me a few tales of the bush. Like myself, Gordons had a passionate interest in all things to do with the wild and, having lived in Tabora region for some years, he was capable of telling the most incredible stories. To begin with he tells me that some of the villagers here still manage to hunt in the forests that lie to the south. Unfortunately for the wildlife, Igusule is a large village and so most of the bigger game have been forced deeper into the woods; the last lions here were poisoned as far back as 1971. The one notable exception though was the magnificent and secretive Greater Kudu whose meat is regarded as especially sweet by many Tanzanians; an adult bull male may weigh in at over three hundred kilogrammes and has, mounted into his skull, two spectacular spiralling horns. However, though its exceptionally shy nature means that even a large adult male would rather run whenever threatened it must still be quite a handful to kill, so I remarked on that to Gordons. “No” he replied, “if you have a torch and you hunt at night it is really very easy. Many people have rifles in this village”.

This was definitely news to me and I said so. “Yes” said Gordons, “we use this local rifle, the one where you load the ammunition and the gunpowder in the muzzle” and he offered to show me one when we got back to his house.

When I saw it I was taken aback. In its dark wooden stock there were inlays of bright metal, and perhaps ivory too, fashioned into subtle Arabic shapes and signs; it had a long barrel braced its entire length with the wood of the stock and slung below was the ramrod that confirmed for my disbelieving eyes that it was indeed a muzzle loader. I took it from Gordons to examine it. I was sure that it could be ancient so I asked Gordons if he knew its age, “Oh yes I think maybe, fifteen years” he replied.

Gordons really knew how to surprise me and having so gained my attention he began to tell me more about the rifle. Some eighty or a hundred miles south east of here there is an extremely large and wild tract of bush where lives a secret society of rifle makers. So secret are they that, should an unwelcome stranger happen to stumble upon them, they might well murder him in order to protect the secret.

The raw material used in the manufacture of the rifle barrel is the steering rod of a car which, I believe, is somehow either cold or slow drilled through its entire length to form the business end of the muzzle loading musket. Should you wish for something more up market, you could go for one of their .404 hunting rifles, “the one they use to kill the elephants” Gordons tells me. Even the gunpowder for the musket is made by these experts. The shot on the other hand, is readily available in most big towns and comes in the form of standard sized solid, round steel bars known as ‘Nondo’; these are sawn up into suitably sized plugs of maybe one centimetre thickness that fit surprisingly well down the barrel of the musket. I couldn’t say what calibre the muskets were but the muzzle looked very wide. My imagination began to run amuck as I thought about the packing of the barrel with powder and then plugging it with that formidable steel shot. Pulling the trigger must have produced the most sensational results.

Gordons went out again and a short while later came back. This time he had some local ‘baruti’, or gunpowder, with him. “Watch” he said. “It works very well”. He poured a measure onto the floor, and then he touched a match to it and with a brief violent orange flash it flared explosively and died. My retinas were left with the impression of its brilliant signature. But I remained in doubt as to whether these locally produced items were really capable of performing their intended task. “Even shot like this kills elephants very nicely” Gordons solemnly assured me, rather unnecessarily I thought. I couldn’t imagine that it would be very accurate, but firing it must have been somewhat akin to loosing off an old siege cannon, and woe betide any being luckless enough to interrupt the passage of that formidable plug of steel.

A DIFFERENT PLACE
By the time we had conducted our business of the day I had toured much of Igusule, meeting and talking with some of the farmers. Gordons had also taken me to the market to meet a few of the stall holders. Igusule was going to be a boom town. The railway from Dar es Salaam came right through as did the fabled African trams-continental highway. In the future they were going to build at Igusule a new railway cargo terminus, with a new line going north to Bukoba starting right there. Blessed of all, the Tarmac part of the highway, beginning in Kigali, Rwanda, would be extended all the way to Igusule. Change was coming and Igusule was going to be a different place.

Michael Ball

The Department of Research and Training (DRT) in the Ministry of Agriculture has recently prepared a comprehensive new Research Plan. This Plan has been developed to ensure that Tanzania’s limited resources are focused on the most important technical problems constraining agricultural production. The Plan was developed with the financial assistance of Germany, the Netherlands, and the united Kingdom and the professional assistance of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). The plan was completed in 1991.

The Research Masterplan was launched by the Government of Tanzania during a Workshop held in the Kilimanjaro Hotel, Dar es Salaam in March 1992. This launching was effected with the help of the Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPARR). SPAAR was established in 1985 by 23 donor members to strengthen African agricultural research systems through the launching and start-up of a collaborative plan of priority agricultural research.

The Government has established a Consultation Group with its donor representatives in Dar es Salaam. This Group is called regularly into session by the DRT to discuss implementation plans and financing needs.

The Department of Research and Training are now putting the finishing touches to their detailed commodity research programme plans, to their plans for using some of the surplus research stations for alternative purposes and to the redeployment of some scientific and support staff from low to high priority research stations. Tanzania is fortunate to have one of the largest and best-trained teams in Africa (more than 350 graduates with over 10% holding a doctorate degree).

OPTIMISM AND ENTHUSIASM
There is a new mood of optimism and enthusiasm in the air at Temeke (the old headquarters of the Tanzania Livestock Research organisation and now DRT’s HQ near Dar es Salaam) and one can anticipate that this new consolidation and focus of effort will pay dividends in the years to come.

However, this new enthusiasm is likely to be difficult to sustain without rapid action by Government to reform its civil service with significant improvement of salaries and rewards for exceptional work. At present, Tanzanian scientists, including those with PhD and many years experience are paid little more than an attendance fee, needing to supplement their salaries with other work. No useful agricultural research system can ever function with part-time scientists. The long-awaited reform is coming but maybe not in time to stop the emigration of those who can find an incentive salary elsewhere.

This new initiative by Tanzania to consolidate the support of its donor community (about 16 SPAAR members now finance research in Tanzania) behind its new Research Plan is exciting and should help Tanzania develop its agricultural production with resulting benefits all round of greater food security and more foreign exchange earned.
Andrew Spurling

We came back to Tanzania in October 1991 and again are very happy here. We live at Mafiga, Morogoro, where we have a lovely old house (formerly a sisal farmhouse) and large garden: from our verandah we can see the steep Uluguru Mountains and the view from the back is dominated by another range, Mindu. The garden is a naturalist’s paradise: it contains a wonderful range of tropical plants – many of which provide us with our own fruit – and abounds in birds, reptiles and invertebrates.

The bird life is particularly impressive. We awake each day to the songs of white-browed robin chats (Cossypha heuglini), spotted morning warblers (Cichladusa guttata) and yellowvented bulbuls (Pycnotatus barbatus). Pied crows (Corvus albus) and white-naped ravens (Corvus albicoll is) come and drink from the water bowls that we have put out in the garden, as do balck-headed weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) and, from time to time, other birds such as bronze mannikins (Lonchura cucullata) and blue-capped cordon bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus). Scarlet-chested sunbirds (Nectarinia senegalensis) and variable sunbirds (N. venusta), feed from the flowers in the garden and little beeeaters (Merops pusillus) hunt insects. African yellow-billed kites (Mil vus migrans parasitus) often frequent our trees by day – there is also a large roost, mixed with the European race, only a few kms away – while barn owls (Tyto alba) hunt in the garden at night. Bateleur eagles (Terathopius ecaudatus) regularly soar overhead and cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) pass over morning and evening.

Reptiles are also prevalent. There are striped skunks (Mabuya striata) and house geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia) everywhere but we also see yellow-headed dwarf geckos (Lygodactylus luteopicturatus), chameleons (Chamaeloe sp.) and Nile monitors (Varanus niloticus). The commonest snakes appear to be the white-lipped or herald snake (Crotaphopheltis hotamboeia) which is rear-fanged and the tiny blind snake (Typhlops sp.) which is harmless. spitting cobras (Naja nigricollis) visit us from time-to-time and there is at least one green bush snake (Philothamnus sp.) in the bushes overhanging our outhouses. Puff adders (Bi tis arietans) are frequently reported by our Tanzanian neighbours and we are often called to remove them.

The invertebrates we see deserve a multivolume text to themselves. The most spectacular are the butterflies such as the mocker swallowtail (Papilio dardanus), citrus swallowtail (P. demodocus), African monarch (Danaus chrysippus), commodores (Precis spp.) and, especially after rain, grass yellows (Eurema spp.) which provide us with a far better spectacle than any butterfly house in Britain! Large wasps, bees, grasshoppers, mantids and beetles are ubiquitous and not proving easy to identify. Giant millipedes appear when it rains as do giant land snails (Achatina sp.), ant lions and termites.

We have a large collection of captive animals – some “permanent”, some temporarily with us while undergoing veterinary treatment and others in transit for only a few days. At present we have two dogs, four guinea fowl, two chickens (one the local Kuchi breed which has a bare neck),four pigeons, an Indian house crow, eleven rescued tortoises (of two species), an African rock python and various insects. other species which have passed through our hands have ranged from freshwater crabs to young ostriches.

John and Margaret Cooper

MANPOWER RETRENCHMENT
The Government is to lay off 10,000 workers before the end of this financial year under a manpower retrenchment programme. Minister of State in the President’s Office (Civil Service), Fatma Said Ali, said, on October 28th that the employees, whose list had already been compiled, were from 55 years old and above. To ensure that the exercise would go smoothly, the Minister said, a special committee would be established to take charge of the task. However, in some Government departments, new workers would be employed to fill vacant positions. She cited the Ministry of Education which has a shortage of 16,000 teachers and the Ministry of Health. The Minister said that under the second phase, some 28,000 would be laid off . These would comprise drunkards, the lazy, negligent, incompetent, the sick, unfaithful and uncommitted persons.

POWER SUPPLY
Power supply in the country is likely to stabilise in the next four months following serious power cuts which damaged industry in September and October in Dar es Salaam. There have been improvements of water intake at the Mtera Dam and a donors8 commitment to finance importation of gas turbines with the capacity to generate 60 megawatts. There has been a gradual improvement in water level at the dam, following heavy rains which fell in November. Donor agencies have expressed concern, however, over TANESCO’s outstanding debts and have called for drastic measures to ensure that payment is made for electricity. TANESCO’s main debtors are the Government (mainland) and the Government of Zanzibar which owe them TShs 2.2bn/- and TShs 1.3bn/- respectively.

CABINET RESHUFFLE
President Mwinyi swore in on October 21 Professor Sarungi – the new Minister for Communications and Transport, Jackson Makwetta – Minister for Agriculture, Livestock Development and Cooperatives and Amran Mayagila – Minister for Health; Juma Hamad Omar became Deputy Minister for Defence and National Service, Ditopile Mzuzuri, Deputy Minister of Communications and Transprt, and S P Makame Deputy Finance Minister.

LAND COMMISSION
President Mwinyi received on November 12, 1992 a report by the Commission on Land which had been formed two years ago. The report was presented to the President by the Commission’s chairman, Professor Shivji at Ikulu, Dar es Salaam. The report will be studied by the Government before being made public.

TREASURY EXEMPTS KENYA BEER FROM DUTY
Beer imported from Kenya is no longer subject to import and excise duties. However, this move has caused some concern. Demand for locally produced ‘Safari’ and ‘Pilsner’ beers has gone down rapidly and border regions are said to be flooded with foreign beer. Beer from Kenya is now selling at TShs 115 per bottle in these border areas compared with TShs 350 before, to the detriment of Tanzanian beers which are selling at TShs 300 – Business Times.

COTTON BUYING LIBERALISED
Private businessmen are now being allowed to purchase cotton directly from growers. When the move was first announced there were strong protests from MP’s and, as a result, the Government agreed to rescind the decision, NOW, the Government has allowed businessmen to purchase cotton in areas where cooperatives fail to secure bank loans.

TANZANIA PRAISED
Both France and the United States have recently praised Tanzania publicly for her efforts to bring peace in Rwanda.

Rubondo Island National Park is a unique place, situated in the South-West waters of Lake Victoria; it is exceptionally beautiful, far flung from the madding crowd and last, but definitely not least, cheap, since this is a park where hiring a four-wheel drive vehicle is not an obligation. Therefore, between the 19th and 24th September 1991, five of us (all volunteers with VSO) took a break here on this island. I am quite certain none of us will ever forget this trip end that none of the five will ever deny that much of the memorabilia we have stored in our minds are the events of one single day,

We begin in the early morning at the Rangers Headquarters camp where we were staying. We hired a park boat and bought fifty litres of petrol because today we were going to the southern end of the island to look for Rhino and Elephant. We set off slightly late, and headed south, past the Island of Birds, the Island of Crocodiles, over the deepest blackest waters of Lake Victoria, and skirted a series of formidable rock cliffs that fell straight into the deep water. We reached our first port of call, a smaller Rangers outpost that we were already familiar with, having spent our first night on the island there. This is where things really began to happen. To begin with, we foolishly let the Rangers take our boat (and our petrol) to the opposite side of the island to buy some cigarettes. Meantime, we brewed up some tea and had a simple breakfast. Eventually, the boat came back and we were prepared to leave.

Into the campfire I threw a pinch of the magic powder that I had bought from my local medicine man (he sold ‘dawa’ in the market place) for drawing the animals to us, imploring whoever was listening, in my best Kiswahili, to “Bring us Elephant and Rhino”. We had not quite gone when I was called over to the side for an urgent discussion with one of the Rangers. Reluctantly I disappeared behind a big tree with the man in order to listen to his problem, when, without further and to my immense consternation, he began to silently unbuckle his trousers and undo his fly. My mind began to reel with the possibilities. He silently carried on until his lower midriff was totally naked, and then, wedding tackle in hand, he began to beg me for help. His genitalia had been beseiged by insects of a variety I had no inclination to study more closely, and he, having seen me with the magic powder and having heard my Kiswahll, had obviously decided that I was an Mzungu to whom all could be bared. As it was, I was in no position to help and somewhat befuddled by his unique situation, All I could do was to worm my way out from behind the tree by claiming that two of the other VSO’S (who lived at the nearest mainland town) were the ones to see and that he could feel free to drop in on them any time he saw fit. We pushed off, and thus it was that we came across the poachers in the lake.

The day’s plan was that we were to be left at the southern end of a long sweeping bay, and that we would walk north following the line of the shore until we’d reached the end of the bay, where we would be met. We’d just rounded the northern tip of the bay formed by a headland crowned with a large steep hill, when we spotted another boat. Obviously they were poachers and so we set off to arrest them. As we drew nearer it became clear that their vessel was waterlogged; there were two men sitting up to their chests in the lake astride their stricken and totally useless boat.

At first I had thought they were using a cunning trick to hide from us – The lower they were in the water, the less we could see of them. In fact they were drowning and had been so since nine pm the previous night when their boat had begun to sink.

Ridiculously, we offered them our greetings and condolecences, and finally we rescued them. The thing was that the two fishermen-cum-poacher s were so dispassionate about the whole affair. Since nine pm they’d been slowly drowning, not four hundred metres from the shore, yet they’d not attempted to attract our attention nor flung themselves into the sanctity of our boat, nor attempted to reach the shore, nor displayed any emotion whatsoever. This was very disconcerting and occupied our minds for a good part of the rest of the day. Though they could talk end breathe, it was as if we had just pulled two very dead men from the lake. Anyway, we the tourists and the Rangers, were left at our start point while the ‘dead men’ were taken back to the Secondary Rangers post that we had just left.

We began to rapidly move northwards. Our Ranger, an ex-soldier, must have been in the throes of some sort of Uganda War flashback, because what we were engaged in was not a gentle tourist stroll through the woods, but a tough physical speed march. The woods were magnificent and, as on the previous days, the magic powder seemed to be working for we were surrounded by wildlife: Bushbuck, Sitatunga, fresh spoor of Elephant, and a diversity of birdlife to make an ornithologist weep. Much marching later and we were approaching that part of the bay opposite to where we had made our rescue. Our Ranger stopped and casually informed us that there was a crocodile on the beach in front of us. At first I saw nothing, but then the ubiquitous tree trunk that was protruding from the forest edge suddenly become the neck and head of a crocodile.

In that instant of recognition, I knew why those fishermen had ‘died’. Had I been mad enough to wish to run forward and embrace the crocodile in a warm hug about its neck , its tremendous girth was such that my hands would have failed to meet on the far side of the beast. The crocodile was now looking at us with its rear eye (deep orange-yellow in colour and infinite in depth): it rose and began to emerge from the forest’s edge to cross the beach not fifteen metres to our front. The beast was extraordinarily large, elemental and awesome, as tall on its feet as a very, very large dog. Needless to say we, the tourists, were rooted to the spot. The crocodile’s length (perhaps five metres or so), passed us and entered the water. Its tail waved once and it was gone. So that was it. Can you imagine sitting up to your chest in that creature’s dark kingdom from nine pm last night till this morning? “But that was only a small one” announced our Ranger, “the bigger ones are in the Island of Crocodiles that we passed this morning”. Suckers for punishment that we were, we decided to have a closer look on our return journey. We carried on, but by now some of our party were suffering from the effects of the marching and the heat. It was necessary therefore for three of us to remain behind while the others went to bring the boat back. This we did. We all climbed aboard and began the return to the headquarters via the other Rangers post.

The two men from the lake were still in shock, though slightly more lively; we didn’t have anything to say to them. What could we say? We had just arrested them for poaching, after all.

The day was not over yet. The unforeseen activities of the day, the cigarette sortie, the rescue, and returning to pick up the retired tourists, had sorely depleted our petrol. In short, we didn’t have enough to get back. We were faced with two poor choices: stay here the night (with our insect laden friend), or go on and then row the rest of the way.

We chose the latter. At this point, let me tell you that I am terrified of deep water – but deep black water inhibited by large monsters? Well, as it was , we ran out of petrol as we were circling the Isle of Crocodiles. We were going to run out of petrol anyway, and as I said, we were suckers for punishment. The crocodiles put on a great display for us. On sighting us they rushed from their basking points, down their mud-slides, to crash with horrible momentum into the water. We screamed and, for an instant, I nearly began to run, when fortunately I remembered where I was.

Every one of them was a large beast, though, to the great disappointment of our Rangers, none were larger than the one we had seen on the beach. From here, it took us six hours of constant rowing through the inky night to reach our camp. Though I was frightened, I shall never forget how beautiful that night was. The moon was bright and we could clearly see the island to our left, the cliffs falling into the waters. The other four VSO’s were singing as they rowed, but I was silent, numb with fear and awe.

When we got back we found that the only other campers there had left us another gift from the lake, Tilapia – good fish for eating. We fried them up and it was delicious, and let me tell you, it was not just the taste I was enjoying.
Michael Ball

TANZANIA TO GET US$ 990 MILLION
Aid donors and international organisations meeting in Paris on June 29 th and 30th 1992 pledged about US$ 990 million to help finance Tanzania’s development programmes next year. Almost two thirds of the funds will be provided in the form of grants – World Bank News.

PRIVATISATION OF CROP SALES
The Tanzanian Government bowed on July 16th to pressure from Members of Parliament and delayed implementing a decision it had earlier announced to privatise the sale of cash crops. “The Government has, with immediate effect, suspended the new crop purchasing procedure until next year” Prime Minister John Malecela told the National Assembly.

The decision was a setback to economic reforms being pressed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Government had originally decided also to abolish further interest-free loans for cooperatives to help them to buy crops after the State-run National Bank of Commerce had accumulated US$’5 million in bad debts from cooperatives; the reversal of policy meant that this decision was also reversed.

Mr Malecela explained that the Government’s earlier decision to end a monopoly enjoyed by the cooperative movement had been designed to encourage competition. But angry legislators said that farmers would turn to smuggling if private businesses were allowed to buy crops. “We cannot let cooperatives compete with the wolves” said the Member of Parliament for a northern wheat growing constituency.

ELECTRICTY MONOPOLY ENDED
Tanzania Electricity Supply Company’s (TESCO) 30-year monopoly on the production and supply of electricity has been ended. Minister for Water, Energy and Minerals Jakaya Kikwete told Parliament that it would take years for the whole country to be energised unless private organisations and individuals were free to enter the power market.

TELEVISION COMING
The new Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr Shija has told the National Assembly that plans have been finalised for a three-phase programme (estimated to cost Shs 13 billion) for the introduction of television. Some 18 TV stations would need to be built and the Government had agreed to cooperate with local and foreign investors who had shown interest.

PRAISE FOR TANZANIA
Mrs Lynda Chalker, who, in spite of being defeated as a Member of Parliament in the recent British elections, remains Minister for Overseas Development, praised Tanzania recently for having the courage to bring about economic reform. She said that, during the last six years, she had seen Tanzania undertake serious reforms and that that was why Britain had decided to cancel debts owed by the country – Daily News.

JUNIOR DOCTORS ON STRIKE
A strike by some 70 junior doctors at the Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC) Hospital which started on January 24-th 1992 soon escalated. The doctors had a number of grievances about allowances and insisted that they would not return to work until, as a minimum, their full On-call allowances were paid. On January 26th they were instructed to return to work on pain of dismissal. Meanwhile, senior doctors worked overtime to fill in the gaps. The junior doctors were then sacked and the Government ordered private hospitals not to employ them. By January 30th riot police had to be deployed to evict some of the doctors from the hostels, The sacking of the doctors then resulted in a general strike involving hundreds of nurses and workers at the MMC and a boycott of classes by students at the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences. Following a march on the Prime Ministers office, a protest at Government actions by the Organisation of Tanzania Trade Unions WTTU) , and the setting up of a grievance investigating team, Prime Minister John Malecela ordered the unconditional reinstatement of the striking doctors. By February 1st all were back at work.

However, five weeks later, following a civil case by 76 doctors and 8 pharmacists, the Acting Director General of the Medical Centre Professor Mmbaga found himself sentenced to 14- days in jail for disobeying an earlier order of the Magistrates Court prohibiting him from evicting from the hostel the persons concerned. The next day, however, his sentence was suspended pending an appeal to the High Court. He was released on Shs 2 million bail – Daily News.

WARIOBA BACK AGAIN
Former Prime Minister and First Vice-President Joseph Warioba has regained his seat in Parliament in a by-election. He won 21,038 votes compared with 10,136 for his opponent. His previous election had been nullified by the National Electoral Commission. – Daily News.

LUTHERAN DISTURBANCES
Serious disagreements involving members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ameru District, Arusha Region have resulted in the death of one man and the injury of others. During a meeting at the Usa River Rehabilitation Centre a crowd of some 1,500 people started hurling stones. One Bishop was slightly injured and had to be rescued by Police.

CAPTURING HEARTS AND MINDS
How a Devon man and his engineer colleague captured the hearts and minds of Tanzanian villagers was described at the recent annual meeting of the ‘Friends of Urambo and Mwanhala’ at Exeter University. The Devon-based group’s technical training officer, Martin Gilbert, and Mark Holdsworth spent a long time repairing and reconstituting mill and pump engines in villages in the Tabora region. “The fact that we put the machinery back into working order was not the most important factor” declared Mark. “What really mattered was that we gained the confidence, respect and friendship of the people”. Their work is now being continued by VSO engineer Chris Lowey, the newly appointed technical tutor under the group’s village mechanics training project which cost more than £37,000 last year – John Budge.

BANKING MONOPOLY ENDED
President Mwinyi signed into law 1n February 1992 the ‘Banking and Financial Institutions Act No 12 of 1991’ which ended the 24-year old monopoly of commercial banking in Tanzania by the National Bank of Commerce. Applicants for licenses to operate private banks are now being prepared. The Government hesitated for a long time before implementing this change which had been one of nearly 200 recommendations made in 1991 by a Presidential Enquiry into the Monetary and Banking Systems of Tanzania. The Bulletin had hoped to publish an article on this matter in this issue but problems of time and space prevented this. It is hoped to do so in the next issue.

HISTORIANS TO MEET IN ZANZIBAR
Zanzibar Museum and Archives Director Hamad Omar has announced that the Zanzibar Government is organising an international conference on the history and culture of the Isles to take place in December 1992. Some 150 participants are expected to attend – Daily News.

TANZANIA TORTOISES FLOWN HOME
Some 450 tortoises from Tanzania which had been illegally exported to the Netherlands last year were repatriated to Tanzania in January by the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). They are to be ‘rehabilitated’ before being returned to the wilds – Business Times.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE CHANGES
The Government has allowed Tanzanians and foreigners to bring into Tanzania any amount of convertible currency and open accounts with local financial institutions or ‘Bureaux de Change’ which were to be opened from April 21st 1992. No one would be asked how they earned the money. Nationals travelling abroad would be allowed to take out of Tanzania the equivalent of US$ 100 (Shs 30,000) – Daily News.

CYPRESS TREES DYING
Experts at the Morogoro-based Tanzania Forestry Research Institute have stated that thousands of cypress trees (Cupressus lusitanica) on which forest based industries such as Fibreboard Africa Ltd at Arusha depend are dying. The cause of the problem is not yet clear but mention has been made of drying through drought, aphids and deficiency of mineral nutrients in the soil 8S possible contributors to the problem. There are about 15,000 hectares of cypress trees in Tanzania mostly in Arusha, Mbeya and Kilimanjaro regions – Daily News.

STUDENTS PROTEST COST SHARING
Students in higher education institutions are becoming restive yet again. This time the protests are about the new Government policy of ‘cost-sharing’. As Prime Minister John Malecela explained on February 26th to students at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam, nobody is to be denied access to higher education. The object is to mobilise the better off parents to make a contribution to their children’s education. Mr Malecela explained how far enrolments in higher education in Tanzania fell behind those in other countries and the need to substantially expand enrolments in Tanzania. He pointed out that there were 6,071 students in higher education in Tanzania compared with 26,839 in Kenya. Only 25 out of 100,000 had access to higher education in Tanzania compared with Malawi 54, Uganda 75 and Zimbabwe 396.

The Prime Minister also said that the Government would not pardon the 10 students who had recently been expelled from the University of Dar es Salaam for’ instigating chaos’. He said that some of those expelled had also been ringleaders in the 1990 student unrest at the University. They had been pardoned by President Mwinyi early last year – Daily News.

AGAINST ISLAMIC ETHICS
Muslims in Mwanza who have been accused of and admit having participated in the killing of 13 pigs owned buy a Mr Rogasian John in September last year have refused to pay compensation, They have claimed that it is against Islamic ethics to compensate the forbidden, They said that they were prepared to go to prison rather than do what was against their belief. Investigations revealed that the housing for the pigs had been constructed near to a graveyard reserved for Muslims – Business Times,

CRIME DECLINES
The efforts by Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema to involve the people in fighting crime have reduced the incidence of serious offences according to Police Inspector General Harun Mahundi. Although the number of crimes was up by 12,6% last year many of these were of a minor nature. There had been 191 less murder cases and robbery with violence had declined by 374 cases, Housebreaking decreased by 619 and there had been less cases of theft of cars, Some 528 suspects in corruption cases had been netted last year – a figure 30% higher than in the previous year – Daily News,

MREMA DISMISSES CASE
Home Affairs Minister Augustine Mrema has directed the Director of Immigration Services to dismiss a case of staying in the country without a permit against German citizen Wermer Kreissle, It had been alleged that Mr Kriessle had been harassed by Assistant Immigration Officer Paul Nchemi who had demanded that Kriessle should bring him a fishing boat engine from Germany. Mr Nchemi had been transferred to a section where he would not be dealing with foreigners – Daily News.

Readers of the last issue of the Bulletin, which quoted an investigative article in Tanzania’s radical tabloid ‘The Family Mirror’ will be relieved to hear that, three days after the publication of the article, the Mirror found the Rolls, now again parked in a corner of the Dar es Salaam Museum. The limousine, a 1930’s model, is apparently in good condition save for a few missing parts. The Government issued a statement refuting any kind of conspiracy over the disappearance of this part of the national heritage. The Rolls had apparently been taken to Cooper Motors in December 1990 because its condition had deteriorated. For four years the Museum authorities had corresponded with the Rolls Royce Company in UK to seek their assistance in its restoration but had received no positive response.