The President has appointed his long standing friend Edward Lowassa (52) MP for Monduli as Prime Minister. The East African described Lowassa as a fearless, hardworking man. His name was endorsed in parliament on December 29 by 312 votes against two. The opposition leader in the House, Hamad Rashid Mohamed (CUF) said the opposition welcomed Mr Lowassa’s appointment and that “We expect him to continue performing to the best possible standards….. Mr Lowassa has a good record. His performance speaks for itself.” Mr Lowassa is a CCM insider, having served it through various posts from regional assistant party secretary to head of department at CCM headquarters in Dodoma between 1977 and 1989. Recently, Mr Lowassa emerged as a tough negotiator for Tanzanian interests when he terminated a contract with City Water Services, a foreign company, contracted to enhance water services in Dar es Salaam and its environs. He also negotiated a settlement of a long-running dispute with Egypt over the use of Lake Victoria waters. He has occupied numerous ministerial posts.
The President made many changes when he formed his government in January but was widely criciticised for increasing the number of ministries from 19 to 22. He established seven new full ministries and two new state ministries while dropping three from the previous government. He said that critical issues like water had to be put under one ministry and he had also formed a new ministry to cater for East African co-operation affairs. The Home Affairs Ministry had been relieved of responsibility for the police (taken over by a new Ministry of Public Security) and would now concentrate on immigration, prisons and fire fighting. The new Ministry for Infrastructure Development took on all the activities of the former Works Ministry and those of the Communications and Transport Ministry. Activities of the former Co-operatives and Marketing Ministry were transferred to two new ministries, Agriculture and Food Security (for Co-operatives issues) and Industry, Trade and Marketing (for marketing). The former Ministry of Water and Livestock Development had been split into two – a Ministry of Water and a Ministry of Livestock Development. The Planning Department, formerly in the president’s, became the Ministry of Planning, Economy and Empowerment. The ministry would also be in charge of poverty reduction – previously under the Vice-President’s office. Another ministry was for Information, Culture and Sports which took over the activities previously under the Prime Minister’s office and the Labour, Youth Development and Sports Ministry. The Ministry of Labour now remained with two principle activities – overseeing labour matters and creating more jobs for the youths under a special Department of Youth Development. Vocational Training has been added to the Ministry of Education, while the cultural aspect had been shifted to the new ministry of Information, Culture and Sports – Guardian.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES
Fourteen of the 26 ministers in former President Mkapa’s government were excluded from the new Cabinet including Charles Keenja, (Agriculture), George Kahama (Co-operatives), Philemon Sarungi (Defence), Daniel Yona (Energy), Anna Abdallah (Health), Omar Mapuri (Home Affairs), Gideon Cheyo (Lands), Pius Ng’wandu (Higher Education), Hassan Ngwilizi. (State, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government), Dr Abdallah Kigoda (State, President’s Office, Planning and Privatisation) and Wilson Masilingi (State, President’s Office, Good Governance).
Andrew Chenge, Attorney General in the previous government, is the new Minister of East African Co-operation Affairs while Zakia Meghji became Finance Minister after previously holding the Natural Resources and Tourism portfolio.
The new Cabinet has a total of 6 full and 10 Deputy Women Ministers. This is a big increase from the 2000 cabinet in which, out of the 27 Ministers and 17 Deputies, there were only 4 full and 4 deputy women Ministers.
IRIN published the names of the 29 ministers and 31 deputy ministers with the highest number of women the country has had since independence – seven ministers and 10 deputy ministers.
CABINET MEMBERS
Vice-President: Ali Mohamed Shein
Prime Minister: Edward Lowassa
Zanzibar President: Amani Abeid Karume
Foreign Affairs: Asha-Rose Migiro
East African Affairs: Andrew Chenge
Education and Vocational Training: Margareth Sitta
Finance: Zakia Meghji
Planning, Economy: Juma Ngasongwa
Industry, Trade and Marketing: Nazir Karamagi
Agriculture and Co-operatives: Joseph Mungai
Natural Resources and Tourism: Anthony Diallo
Water: Stephen Wassira
Energy and Minerals: Ibrahim Msabaha
Infrastructure Development: Basil Mramba
Health and Social Welfare: David Mwakyusa
Higher Education, Science and Technology: Peter Msolla
Labour, Employment and Youth Development: Jumanne Maghembe
Lands, Human Settlement: John Magufuli
Information, Sports and Culture: Mohamed Seif Khatibu
Home Affairs: John Chiligati
Public Safety and Security: Bakari Mwapachu
Justice and Constitutional Affairs: Mary Nagu
Community Development, Gender and Children: Sophia Simba
Livestock Development: Shukuru Kawambwa
Defence and National Service: Juma Kapuya
Attorney General: Johnson Mwanyika