Category Archives: Transport

THE KIGAMBONI FERRY SAGA

Posted on by
1

The press (and public) have been having a field day over the intriguing story of the new Kigamboni ferry.

After a long absence of ferry services at Dar es Salaam’s harbour mouth a brand new ferry – the Uniflote – took to the water in March midst much public satisfaction. The satisfaction may have been tempered by some surprise however at the extraordinary shape of the ferry. It consists of a pontoon pushed or pulled along on each side by two brightly coloured box-like structures standing high out of the water at varying distances from the pontoon itself. It was not surprising therefore that the crew faced considerable difficulty in manoeuvering the vessels in the early days after the launch and trying to push the pontoon to the other side in a more or less straight line. There was always a fascinated crowd watching the proceedings.

On April 23rd however the ferry decided to travel no further. Shihata commented, rather cautiously, that “no one who has seen the Uniflote can resist the temptation to suspect that the purchase of the vessel was not a fair deal; the deal was done either by non-experts or the deal was shoddy. It must be remembered that the Uniflote was brought to the country after the grounding of the MV Ukombozi which had served the country faithfully without major hitches, for nine consecutive years before breaking down last year. The Shs 71.5 million needed for its repair would have been a justified investment. Now, with the purchase of the useless Uniflote, at least Shs 21. 5 million has gone down the drain into the deep sea”

The Sunday News’ humorous writer Adam Lusekelo speculated on what might have happened now that the ferry was ‘lying on the Forodhani front like a beached whale’:

Scene at the Dar es Salaam International Airport: Two Tanzanians given the task of going to buy us a ferry prepare to embark. Both are very excited but do not show it (from long training in Tanzania). One is thinking about his broken down pick-up. It needs spares. The plot at Mbezi Beach too needs attention. The wife is almost declaring the marriage null and void because he failed to buy a Japanese car ‘like everybody else’.

The heart of the other buyer of our ferry is pounding in his chest. He doesn’t have a car and this is his chance. A house too is not a disagreeable idea. Then be is jolted by his wife who is seeing him off. “Don’t forget the dress like the one Mrs Chaurembo was wearing on the night when the Revolutions Band was playing and I caught that girl winking at you … and we need a bigger TV screen”

The moment they hit Europe the private company fellows receive them like kings. “Your hotels, food, shopping, transport and even the air you breathe have been paid for. Relax. Enjoy yourselves”.

“Thankyou” one of the ferry men says. “But we must remind you that this matter is of the utmost importance”
“Yes. I know how important this ferry is to you but…”
“Who’s talking about the ferry? We are talking about our cut”
“Ah. I get you sirs. You mean the usual 10%. Alright, it could be arranged. But it depends on the amount of money you came with”
“We came with Shs 21.5 million”
“I see. Then you did not come to buy the best in Europe”
“Au contraire, Monsieur” says one of our ferry men, showing off a bit of French he learnt at the Alliance Francaise. “We in fact came to buy the worst”.
“Is that your Government’s policy?”
“Er .. If you don’t mind let us not worry about that”.
“Well, there is this ferry” the company man says sheepishly, “the machine is vintage 1944″ …..
They discuss the cut.
The writer of the article speculates that it is more likely to have been 90% than 10%
“Another thing” says one of the ferry men.
“You must give us two of your boys to go with us to Tanzania …. we will call them experts who will be coming to check on the behaviour of the ferry. Makes good press at home”
“We don’t have extra people here. But wait a minute. I have too guys here we have been planning to layoff. One is a gardener and the other is in plastering and bricklaying ……… ”
The deal is then presumably finalised.

And the latest news?
The Minister for Communications and Works, Mr. Mustafa Nyan’anyi has appointed a seven man team to probe the matter. The Government, he said, wants the National Assembly and the people of Tanzania to know what happened. The team has been given a seven point list of questions in its terms of reference. It comprises two lawyers, two marine engineers, an auditor and a supplies officer.

According to the Daily News the 160 ton pontoon had been delivered by a British company.
David Brewin

RESUMPTION OF RAIL TRAFFIC

Posted on by
Reply

The November 1984 issue of ‘Railway Gazette International’ reports that at a meeting in Nairobi in October the chief executives of the Kenya Railways and Tanzania Railways Corporation signed an agreement covering the resumption of rail traffic between them. Both form part of the metre gauge system, which formerly comprised, with Uganda, East African Railways. The Tanzania Railways Corporation general manager, Tom Mmari, announced that repairs of the 32km. section across the frontier between Kahe and Taveta stations had already been completed and through freight traffic was expected to begin almost immediately. A passenger service would be resumed when sufficient coaching stock became available.

On Lake Victoria, the train ferries ‘Victoria’ and ‘Umoja’ would start to ply between Mwanza in Tanzania and Kisumu in Kenya as soon as repairs had been completed. It is ten years since the break-up of the East African Railways system. In due course, the railways may be able to benefit from an exchange of staff for training and other purposes. The Railway Gazette also reports that, following a visit by Transport Minister John Malecela to Bruxelles, the Tanzania Railways Corporation is to receive shs.15 million worth of wagons from Belgian manufacturers. Following the recent completion of a study by Pakistan Railways into the proposed Musoma – Arusha line, the Government is to investigate sources of funding for the scheme.

P.H. White

THE MACHINE AGE
Construction of phase 1 of the Kilimanjaro Machine Tools Manufacturing Company has been completed and production has started. It will manufacture machinery and machinery spares that will be used for both metal and wood working activities in agriculture and industry. – Shihata

TRANSPORT

Posted on by
Reply

At a recent meeting the Southern Africa Transport Commission allocated most of its available funds for a programme of rehabilitation and expansion of the Tazara railway line, while the EEC is to provide 10 million dollars for a maintenance programme involving the relaying mechanically of rails and sleepers. Funds are also being sought for a 17 million dollar project to weld the bolted rail joints installed by the Chinese and 15 million dollars for the repair of 30 landslides along the line identified by Australian consultants. Sweden, several other European countries and Canada have expressed an interest in helping to finance the rehabilitation programme.

The importance of the Tazara line has increased since the Mozambique Government has had difficulty in improving the rail links from Zambia to Maputo and Beira, partly because of the activities of dissident groups. In recent years Tazara has been operating at only a fraction of its full capacity of 2 million tonnes, carrying only about 700,000 tonnes a year. This has been due both to failures in the operation of the railway and to difficulties at Dar es Salaam port. Traffic over the line has been slowed by failures of the track, which may be due to the original design and construction, but are more likely to be the result of inadequate maintenance, a consequence of economies enforced by low revenues. In addition, there have been persistent troubles with the locomotives. The original Chinese-built locomotives are now being replaced by new ones from West Germany, which has provided finance for 14 of them, of which the first was handed over on 31st. May. These more powerful locomotives will be better able to work the steep sections of the line, where trains have at present to be double-headed’. The West German Government has begun talks on funding a further 11 locomotives.

The congestion at Dar es Salaam port has been mentioned in previous numbers of the Bulletin (e.g. Bulletin No.7 of December 1975) and has limited its use and reduced traffic on the Tazara line. There have, however, been improvements in the operation of the port and the Burundi Government has announced that it is satisfied with its working and with the operation of the Central line. It has therefore removed the special tax which it imposed in 1979 to recover the cost of having to air-freight goods from Dar es Salaam. A group of Zambian exporters stated that they had been encouraged to continue to use Dar es Salaam port by the reduction in cases of theft. At the same time, however, Zambia is developing a route for moving copper to Mombasa which avoids Tanzania by using a ship on Lake Tanganyika.

The Tanzanian Harbours Authority have disclosed plans for further major development of Dar es Salaam port by the conversion of berths nos.9, 10 and 11 for containers, building a container depot in Ubungo, setting up a grain silo and installing modern cargo handling equipment.

Tanzania’s link to the south-west is across Lake Nyasa by the m.v. Songea. There has recently been sharp press criticism of a reported loss of Sh8.25 million by this vessel due to underutilisation. The Sunday News asked why, since it is an area with the worst transport problems, the ship is not working at full capacity. Were there no proper studies done when the ship was purchased in 1975, or is the potential cargo not being organised?

In January the National Transport Corporation began to receive the first consignment of road vehicle rehabilitation kits, forming part of a programme financed by the EEC to rehabilitate 600 trucks and build 700 vehicle bodies. Meantime, the first stage of the British financed and built Makambako to Songea road is complete (Nakambako to Wino). Britain is providing a further shs.256 million for the second stage. The full length of 322kms. is expected to be finished late in 1985.

Public transport in Dar es Salaam has been improved by the licensing of the hitherto illegal private buses (‘dala dala’). These are now allowed to operate on the Dar es Salaam Bus Company (UDA) routes by paying a licence fee. The private buses charge a flat rate of shs.5 as against the UDA fare of shs.1. In the first week of July it was reported that the Ulii had been forced to restrict its operations to the periods from 6 to 9 in the morning and noon to 6 in the evening due to shortage of fuel and the National Bus Company (KAMATA) suspended all its services from 29th. June. Supplies of diesel were expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam in the second week in July.

The heavy vehicle assembly plant at Kibaha (35km. from Dar es Salaam) has officially been inaugurated by the Prime Minister. The plant was completed last year at a cost of shs.59 million land was built with technical assistance from SAAB of Sweden, which holds 10% of the shares, the rest being held by the Tanzania Automobile Manufacturing Company (TAMCO). The plant assembles Scania trucks from imported kits and has an annual capacity to assemble 1,200 vehicles, or up to 2,000 vehicles by working two shifts. The actual rate of production at present is about 350 per annum.

The Leyland Albion assembly plant in Dar es Salaam is in greater difficulties and may have to suspend production because of its inability to obtain a foreign exchange allocation to buy supplies of components and doubts over the renewal of a British Export Credit Guarantee. There is a national shortage of Leyland spares, which will further threaten the already precarious national transport system. There has been a provisional agreement with Leyland Albion to become Tanzania’s partner in the establishment of a local four-wheel drive vehicle assembly plant, but Japanese motor companies are showing considerable interest and may be willing to offer a package on easy loan terms, which would be very attractive to Tanzania. Will this be another example of Britain’s failure to appreciate that aid to developing countries creates employment at home?

Peter White

HIJACKING OF A TANZANIAN AIRCRAFT

Posted on by
Reply

THE HIJACKING OF A TANZANIAN AIRCRAFT, FEBRUARY, 1982:

STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE TANZANIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER

The Hijackers
Five Tanzanians have been charged in the United Kingdom with the act of hijacking the Air Tanzania aircraft. All five are related through birth and marriage: two pairs of brothers and a brother-in-law (whose sisters are married to the eldest brother in each pair).

Their Particulars
All five are young people in their early twenties. Their standard of education is Primary School Standard Seven up to Secondary School Standard Twelve (equivalent to Junior Secondary in the U.K.). One elder brother (the leader of the group) is a taxi driver. The other elder brother is an odd job man. The rest were all school leavers at the time of the hijacking and were thus not in any employment. Despite claims to the contrary the leader of the group had had no military training in Tanzania nor any connection with the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces so far as could be ascertained. Only the leader of the group had been outside Tanzania before. He had worked as a seaman, in the course of which he had visited the United Kingdom and Greece among other countries where ships call.

Families
The two married men had their families on board the aircraft – one a wife and two children; the other a wife and one child. All the 5 relatives returned to Tanzania with the other hostages after failing to secure permission from the British authorities to remain in the U.K. The decision to refuse the request to stay was made by the British authorities.

Weapons
The weapons (real and imitation) used by the hijackers to secure control of the aircraft included: two wooden imitation pistols, an imitation hand grenade, two candles wrapped up to appear like gelignite explosive sticks and three knives. But in the course of the flight possession was obtained of a hand gun (0.38 revolver), a shot gun and a rifle. These weapons belonged to passengers who had surrendered them to the Captain of the ‘plane in accordance with the regulations on the transportation of arms on aircraft. The ammunition for the 0.58 revolver which wounded the First Officer was obtained by the leader of the group from the owner after threatening him with a knife.

Passengers and Crew
The aircraft was under the command of a Tanzania captain assisted by a First Officer and a crew of 3. The flight left Mwanza with 99 passengers on board all bound for Dar es Salaam. 5 disembarked in Nairobi and 2 in Athens, the rest continued with the flight to Stansted.

All hostages except two returned to Dar es Salaam in the hijacked aircraft. The two exceptions were the First Officer who was still in hospital recovering from his injuries and a subsequent operation to remove the bullet and a Roman catholic priest whose final destination when he boarded the ‘plane at Mwanza had been Rome. The priest had hoped to stay in Dar es Salaam for a few days making arrangements to travel to Rome for medical treatment. In the event he found himself at Stansted and it made no sense for him to return to Dar es Salaam only to arrange another trip to Europe. So he travelled direct to Rome. No other passengers remained behind despite wide-spread reports to the contrary.

Motive of the Hijackers
From the accounts of the many people who established contact with the hijackers and especially those who negotiated with them, there appear to be only two consistent themes in their demands. The first one is that of wanting President Nyerere to resign. The reasons they gave were incoherent, confused, even laughable e.g. the entire original charge of “fascism” advanced by the leader of the hijackers: The second one is derived from the way the hijackers acted. Why did they bring along their families? Did they expect that after carrying out the hijack the British authorities would allow them or their families to remain in the U.K.? Whatever they might have thought, the result did not warrant the methods and it is regrettable that some commentators should lay blame on anything else but wrong-doing.

Accomplices in Tanzania
The leader claimed a membership of some 3,000 young men and women of an alleged movement which he variously described as the “Tanzania Youth Democracy Movement” or the “Tanzania youth Revolutionary Movement”. Investigations carried out both during and after the incident have revealed no such movement. Instead they have led to the arrest of four accomplices in Tanzania. These have now been brought before a court to answer a charge of conspiracy.

Casualties
There was only one casualty throughout the ordeal, which lasted for 36 hours between Mwanza and Stansted – that of the First Officer who was shot by the leader of the hijackers in circumstances which suggest carelessness.

Release of Hostages
The whole strategy of handling the hijackers was to buy time without giving in to their demands. As part of this strategy the negotiations were intended to talk them into submission. By the end of the first round of negotiations involving the High Commissioner on Saturday night and Sunday morning the strategy was already paying off. The hijackers were already showing signs of fatigue and it was quite apparent that they could not hold out for much longer. That, at any rate, was the impression they gave the negotiators. For example, by about 2.00 a.m. on Sunday morning they were too tired to open the aircraft door to receive the food and water they had been clamouring for. Thus it was no surprise when they gave in and released the first seven hostages some moments before Kambona came on the scene. Soon after all the rest were released.

Trial
The five are facing trial in the U.K. in accordance with the law here. Despite press speculation, Tanzania is quite happy to see the law take its course and has made no attempt to seek the extradition of the five to Tanzania.