THE NILE PERCH
The Mwanza-based Fisheries Research Centre has begun preliminary studies on the Nile perch, a predator fish credited with the depletion of a number of species in Lake Victoria. The Director General of the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI), Professor Philip Dathondi announced recently that 200 Nile – perches had been tagged and released into the Mwanza Gulf. He said over 5000 others were expected to be released into the lake during the study, which is being conducted by Tanzanian and Dutch researchers. Profesor Bathondi assured fishermen and people living in the Lake Zone not to be scared if they caught the tagged fish because they were harmless and fit for human consumption. He appealed to them to return the tags to the Mwanza Fisheries Research Centre or hand them over to fisheries officers in their areas.
The Nile-perch was transplanted into Lake Victoria waters in Uganda in the 1950s, but by the 1960s it had already spread to Kenya waters reaching the Tanzania side in the late 1970s Daily News

IDENTITY CARDS
A Bill providing for the registration and identification of persons resident in Tanzania was passed by the National Assembly recently but only after amendment. The Bill tabled in the House by the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Ndugu Hamad Rashid Mohamed, provides for all residents in Tanzania to be identified. Members of Parliament who opposed the move had urged that if the Bill was passed, it would be misused by some officers. Winding up the debate, Ndugu Hamad allayed the MP’s fears, saying the enforcement of the law would not infringe on the peoples’ right of free movement. He said the Bill was intended to give citizens due recognition and rights. “Presently, non-citizens are enjoying equal rights with Tanzanians,” he explained.
The Minister said the Government had accepted MP’s recommendations and amended the Bill. One of the sections amended had made it compulsory for every person to register and carry an identity card all the time. Following the amendment, the carrying of cards would now be voluntary. Another amended clause had sought to empower officials to make arrests without warrant. Now officials would have to have an arrest warrant.
The Speaker of the Rational Assembly, Chief Mkwawa, accepted a call by Ndugu Timonty Ndunguru (Mbinga), proposing that votes should be taken on the Bill’s acceptance by the house. A total of 141 members present; 82 were in favour of the Bill and 59 opposed to it. Most of the MP’s who had spoken against the Bill had wanted the Minister to do some homework and later tell the House how much money would be involved in the exercise. One MP had estimated that TShs580m would be needed to make the identity cards for the 20 million Tanzanians.
Another argued that the nation had spent millions of shillings on making identity cards for nguvu kazi, an exercise which he said had been a failure. He objected to the Bill because he said it would be another way of legalising misuse of funds.