Africa’s biggest internet service provider ‘Africa Online’ has arrived in Tanzania with exchanges in Dar, Arusha, Mwanza and Zanzibar where customers can now dial up by paying local rather than national call charges. Ten new e-touch centres are being opened every month – Guardian
Former Tanzanian High Commissioner in London Anthony Nyakyi was appointed Chairman of the National Construction Council on April 4 Daily News.
The Deputy Minister of Education and Culture has told parliament that corporal punishment in schools will continue “until we think of another suitable way of punishing offences in learning institutions” -Guardian.
Tanzanian botanist Sebastian Chuwa has been awarded a Lindburgh Foundation Grant for his research project ‘Balancing Ecological Diversity with Art and Music -a Community-based Program to Replant African Blackwood’ (which is used for carvings and to make musical instruments but is facing extinction). Chuwa raises and replants the Blackwood and educates young Tanzanians about its conservation -Guardian.
Some 5,000 women underwent contraception by surgery in the Lake and West Zones during the past six years. But only 25 men agreed to vasectomy -Guardian.
Following several years of good rainfall, a low infant mortality rate and the continuation of the international ban on sales of ivory, the elephant population in the 2,600 sq km Tarangire National park is picking up after the heavy poaching of the 1980’s. The number of elephants in family groups has increased from 250 in 1993 to 420 now. One female produced six infants in seven years with three consecutive sets of twins -East African.
British High Commissioner Dinwiddy was present on July 23 when Tanzania’s WBA Continental Super flyweight boxing champion Mbwana Matumla beat Andy Roberts from Britain in a technical knockout in the second round. The fight was given massive coverage in the local press.
Of the 16 people being accused of involvement in the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar on August 7, 1998 one, 26-year-old Khalfan Khamis Mohamed from Tanzania, is destined to be the first defendant in an international terrorism case to be tried on capital charges in the United States. He is charged with helping to build the bomb used in Dar and to load it on to a truck which he rode part of the way to the embassy. The defence is arguing that he played only a minor role and was the least important member of the conspiracy and therefore should not be facing the death penalty -New York Times.
According to General Secretary Prof. Sebastian Sawatt of the Rural Foundation for Sustainable Development, Tanzania is now second only to South Africa in the list of African countries with advanced bio-gas technology. His organisation was now providing consultancy to other countries and was encouraging the use of a simple $100 tubular plastic biodigesters to provide domestic energy and reduce the demand for wood -The Guardian.
The Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) (through a subsidiary) opened a shop in Dar es Salaam on May 12 for the sale of light weapons and explosives. Consumers, who include licensed hunters, miners, construction companies and foreign markets, are able to buy locally (in Morogoro) manufactured ammunition and imported guns. Another of the five shops licensed to sell arms is the YMCA.