Challenges to Election Results.
A total of 13 petitions have so far been filed in the High Court of Tanzania challenging this year’s 26th October election results. It is the longest list of petitions ever recorded in the country’s electoral history since independence in 1961. The deadline for filing petitions to the High Court was on the 22nd of this month. Justice Mustafa of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania said in an interview that the petitions were a healthy expression of the people’s awareness of their rights. The Attorney-General, Ndugu Joseph Warioba, said the petitions, on the other hand, reflected the successes of the country’s policies in creating politically-conscious people …
C.C.M. Appointments.
Following the Cabinet changes also changes there were also changes in the C.C.M. throughout the country. One of the surprises was Pius Msekwa’s move to Tabora.
Regional Party Secretaries:
Arusha – John Mhaville
Kigoma – Bruno Mpangala
Shinyanga – Gwasa Sebabili
Kilimanjaro – Edward Barongo
Coast – Lawi Sijaona
Mtwara – Moses Nnauye
Tabora – Pius Msekwa (the former C.C.M. executive secretary)
Tanga – Major-General Kiwelu
The new executive secretary of the C.C.M. is Daudi Mwakawago who has for the past five years or so been principal of Kivukoni College. He was previously a Cabinet Minister and nominated MP.
Another important administrative change is that the Head of the Civil Service is now Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, instead of as before, to the President.
The Economy.
The National Executive has decided that the practice of some leaders of giving permits to private individuals to obtain essential commodities from industries or companies must stop at once. The Executive was holding a special session to examine problems of scarcity and high prices.
In December petrol and Kerosene pr ices were raised. Petrol went up to Sh9/35 per litre for premium and Sh7/25 for regular. Meanwhile Tanzania had another energy problem. The water level at Kidatu dropped so low that electricity output had to be cut. Low rainfall in many parts of the country meant that if factories maintained their usual output using normal electric power, the water behind the dam would be exhausted in a short time. TANESCO ordered Tanzania’s forty-eight largest enterprises to close down for a month last November in order to rectify the situation. The recent heavy rain is believed to have improved the situation.
Swiss Aid.
Tanzania signed an aid agreement for 42,000,000 shillings with the Swiss Government. The aid is equipment and technical assistance to improve rural road networks in Kilombero and Ulanga districts. The Tanzanian Government will contribute about 6,850,000 shillings to cover the cost of Tanzanian staff and local manpower on the project. The Swiss-Tanzanian Development corp plans to help Tanzania in various other projects in 1980-81, including the faculty of engineering in the University of Dar es Salaam.
Finnish Aid.
Finland has pledged to give Tanzania a grant of about 96,000,000 shillings during 1981 to cover four main Finnish-financed areas of forestry, water development, mining and construction industry.
Danish Development Aid.
Denmark has agreed to grant Tanzania 970,000,000 shillings to finance rural development projects during the next four years; the projects include rural water supply and rural electrification. According to an agreement signed in Dar es Salaam on 6th December the grant will also finance teacher training programmes, the construction of three girls’ secondary schools, a vocational training centre at Dodoma, and health programmes.
Rebuilding of Kagera.
Bukoba: Eighty per cent of Kagera has already been rebuilt. An officer of the rural district development committee said since the rebuilding started in August of last year the rebuilding has been carried out satisfactorily. He said this while briefing the Swedish Ambassador in Tanzania, who visited the area to see the progress of the rebuilding of the Kagera area. The officer thanked the Swedish Government for its assistance of 10,000,000 shillings for the rebuilding of the area. He said all schools, dispensaries and government buildings that were destroyed during the war have now been newly rebuilt. Ambassador Wirmark saw the Kagera sugar factory and the area destroyed when the troops of fascist Amin occupied the Kagera area between October and December 1978.
Tanzanian commission on reviving co-operative societies.
The International Co-operative Alliance, ICA, has welcomed the idea of restoring regional co-operative unions. It said the move would consolidate co-operative activities in the country. This was said by the ICA regional director for East and Central Africa. He was talking to newsmen in Dar es Salaam yesterday on the idea. A special commission looking into the possibility of reviving the co-operative societies in the country is expected to submit its report to the Prime Minister soon.
Policy on village shops.
A statement from the Ministry for trade stressed that the trade policy directed that by 31st December 1980, leaders in the villages should ensure that every village has a well-established village shop with the capacity and capital to replace private shops. The emphasis of the trade policy was to open, not to close shops. The statement said licences would re withheld from private shops only in those villages which had reached to goal of well-established village shops.
Wine Project.
A modern multi-purpose wine factory is to be built at Dodoma next year at a cost of about 80,000,000 shillings. The new factory would be built in two phases. It would be producing an annual 500,000 litres of wine upon completion. The Dodoma rural district office has set aside some 200 ha for growing grapes for use at the factory.
Cost of University Education.
President Nyerere has commented adversely on the very high cost to the country of University education. Speaking at the degree ceremony in August he noted that the university was taking no less than 31% of the Ministry of National Education’s entire annual budget. He wondered whether such an amount could be justified. He called for people to come up with ideas for making higher education Cheaper, especially in view of the C.C.M. policy of building more universities.
Foreign Affairs.
Mozambique. On 11 January President Nyerere welcomed home members of the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force from Mozambique. The President announced that there was a mutual defence agreement between Tanzania and Mozambique. Tanzanian forces helping to organise the regular Mozambique army had been in action repelling Rhodesian raids. Mozambique had in turn assisted Tanzania with men and weapons in the war against Uganda.
Tanzania-Mozambique unity bridge proposals. At a three-day meeting
in Dar es Salaam engineers from Mozambique and Tanzania had recommended that work on the construction of the 68,000,000 shilling unity bridge across the Ruvuma river should start in August 1981. The construction camp should be located near Masaguru on the Tanzanian side.
Kenya. The border remains closed. But progress has been made. There was a summit of the three East African states in Kampala which was also attended by President Kaunda. Last July, President Nyerere commented that it was “not good” that Tanzania was doing business with all its neighbours except Kenya. But he said, there were still some outstanding issues of difference that had to be resolved.
The Tanzanian Government confirmed that the 22 people killed on 22nd December by Kenyan police at Talek along the Tanzania-Kenya border were its nationals. The people, armed with arrows, bows and guns were killed after they had crossed into Kenya to steal cattle. A Government statement issued in Dar es Salaam today said that those who were involved in the incident were not members of the Tanzanian armed forces; they were Tanzanians living along the border in Mara region. The statement said the Government has strongly condemned the act of crossing the border into a neighbouring state to steal cattle as an act of lawlessness.
Zimbabwe. At the end of the year, President Nyerere, accompanied by the then Minister of Trade, Ibrahim Kaduma, and Foreign Minister Salim Salim went to Zimbabwe. Various bilateral agreement were signed.
Graham Mytton