TANZANIA IN THE MEDIA

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INVESTMENT CODE IS NICE AS FAR AS IT GOES
Under this heading AFRICAN BUSINESS in its July 1990 issue stated that 1I1any businessmen in Dar es Salaam had welcomed the new Investment Code (analysed in Bulletin No 37). While many felt that it could have offered more carrots, it represented a crucial break with the past and thus an important beginning. The new code was said to have offered few new guarantees to investors but had restated the constitutional position that no property could be nationalised without compensation. Tanzania would be joining the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) as well as the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). A local business consultant was quoted as having said that potential investors had nothing to fear. Tanzania was undergoing fundamental changes.

THE GENESIS ARCHIPELIGO
‘One hundred years ago Baron Adalbert Emil Redcliffe le Tanneur von Saint Paul-Illaire, the Governor of German East Africa (later Tanzania) found a pretty blue-flowered plant growing around limestone out crops near Tanga … he posted some seeds to his father who grew the plant … and in turn sent some seeds to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Herenhausen. The first of those plants to flower were exhibited lit the International Horticultural Exhibition of 1893 in Ghent under the name Saintpaulia ionantha – the African violet.’ Thus began an article by Jonathan Kingdon in the May 1990 issue of BBC WILDLIFE.

The article went on to describe how the Tanga region was later taken over by estates and the plant became extinct in its original habitat. The wild Saintpaulia was then lost to science for several decades until , in 1985, it was rediscovered by John Lovett in the Uzungwa mountains 300 miles from the place where it had been found originally.

In October 1989 the Society for Environmental Exploration (Bulletin No 35) enabled Jonathan Kingdon to visit Tanzania and in particular the Matumbi range of sandstone hills close to the Indian Ocean. He found a second surviving population of African violets . He went on to explain why he expected he might find the violet there and compared and contrasted what he described as ‘stable’ as distinct from ‘fluctuating’ habitats in many other parts of Africa. He stated that about a quarter of Africa’s species are clustered in old enclaves with stable climates. He concluded by referring to the ‘profligate and irreversible waste’ now occurring in the Matumbi forest and the need for conservation of the remaining forest.

THE POPE IN TANZANIA
Commenting on the Pope’s frequent use of Kiswahili during his visit to Tanzania for three days from September 2, 1990 one local priest said he “sounded like a foreigner who had lived in Tanzania a long time” (UNIVERSE September 9, 1990).

This visit gave Tanzania much greater publicity in the international press than it is accustomed to.

The DAILY TELEGRAPH: ‘Pope’s Call to Shun Condoms Fuels AIDS Row’ According to the Telegraph the Pope had declared in Dar es Salaam that condoms would only encourage – the very patterns of behaviour which have greatly contributed to the expansion of the disease”

The French newspaper LIBERATION: ‘Jean Paul II Face a L’Afrique Qui Bouge’: ‘Addressing 80,000 people in Dar es Salaam yesterday the Pope ordained 43 new priests who would help to ‘prepare the African Catholic Church for the third millennium.’

The NEW YORK TIMES wrote of the Pope’s intention to prepare an encyclical reinforcing the Catholic Church’s hostility to all forms of contraception.

The London TIMES: ‘Pope Calls for Moral Drive Against AIDS.’ The Pope arrived at the Jangwani sports ground to the rhythms of Swahili hymns and traditional drums. As he drove through the crowd in an open black Rolls Royce the huge congregation rose to its feet , ululating, clapping and waving ….

UNIVERSE: ‘AIDS Cure Rivalry Must End’ . “AIDS brings a unique cultural unease because in it the life giving functions of human sexuality, and the blood which epitomises health and life itself, have become a roadway to death”. The Pope praised the rapidly growing Church in Tanzania for its ministry to the sick and needy and for its overall spiritual vitality.

The DAILY TELEGRAPH: ‘Africans Flock for Pope’s Blessing’. Father Giorgio Battifolo, an Italian who has been working In Tanzania for 36 years, said “I never thought to live to see this. It’s beautiful. This is a great reward for the early missionaries who had so many difficulties~

BUSINESS AS USUAL
Reviewing police efforts to deal with the problem of prostitution in Dar es Salaam during the last eighteen months, AFRICAN CONCORD in a recent issue, described how the Police had launched a major campaign at the end of 1989. About 100 prostitutes had been rounded up and within days some 50 had been sentenced to prison for six months. Several others were fined and the youngest and oldest were placed under the care of the social welfare services. But the nation, led by fervent feminist groups, reacted angrily, saying it was unfair for the Police to carry out a one-sided scoop, singling out women and leaving behind their male counterparts. AFRICAN CONCORD said that it believed that the women had eventually received a Presidential pardon. As one of them put it recently “it is now business as usual”.

NEW APPROACH TO CRAFTS PROMOTION
‘Almost everywhere in tropical Africa where there are ore deposits, iron ore is produced. The Negro possesses a marked talent for working iron. Reportedly, even entire rifles have been fabricated including the bores for the barrels’ . With this quotation from a 1910 document entitled ‘Handicraft and Industry in East Africa’ a recent issue of the German publication AFRIKA reviewed historically the work of craftsmen in Africa with particular reference to Tanzania.
‘Colonialism based on the primitive exploitation of men and raw materials afforded traditional crafts no new opening or markets … Liberation brought no improvement – traditional artisans ‘under a tree’ were viewed by the new elites as a sign of backwardness and underdevelopment …..

Far more than churches, schools, or health centres, the structures that Strike the eye in rural Tanzania are the water tanks. These are all so sophisticated in their design that maintenance and repair can only be carried out by specialists with modern equipment … hardly any system of water supply is today operational except where a new development project has been initiated to rehabilitate the dilapidated water tanks.

For years now efforts have been made to develop appropriate technologies for the Third World. The spread effect has remained minimal for various technical, economic and ideological reasons …

But in Singida, the Usambara mountains and Morogoro a new approach to craft promotion has begun in arrangements made in partnership with the churches. The key concept is that promotion should be directed at existing, local workshops … aid donors provide direct business consultancy in conjunction with credit facilities and flexible individual training of craftsmen. Particularly successful is the Crafts and Artisans Promotion Unit (CAPU) set up in Singlda. In the first phase the craftsman is provided with what he needs to fabricate axes, hoes, knives, spears, arrows etc with new tools in a more rational manner. In the second phase … a workshop is constructed and provided with manual machines … In the third phase new technologies are introduced.’

FOREST CONSERVATION MEASURES
The German publication AFRIKA (9-10/90) stated th8t Tanzania had launched ‘a fire and environment war’ to reduce the damage caused by bush fires and discourage firewood 8nd charcoal use. Tanzania’s trees, which supplied 90% of domestic fuel requirements, were being felled at an annual rate of 300-400,000 hectares and another 65,000 hectares were destroyed by fire each year. New planting accounted for only 20,000 hectares.

New measures included taking tax off electric, gas and solar stoves, a ban on charcoal exports, extra fire fighting units, more patrols and a public awareness campaign.

BODIES ROT
Under this heading AFRICA HEALTH in its September 1990 issue reported that in Bukoba, one of the districts worst affected by AIDS, a major problem has arisen in the disposal of bodies of people who have died from the disease. Relatives often do not come to collect bodies for burial. The Red Cross has provided 2,400 metres of shroud cloth to the Kagera Regional Hospital which has no cold room.

ANC EXILES STAY ABROAD
NEW AFRICAN in its November 1990 issue wrote that many South African exiles were having second thoughts about returning home due to the instability and violence there. In Tanzania, it stated, ‘where most of the exiles found refuge, about 50 school teachers are known to have applied for jobs … Over 200 South African students have just joined the Soloman Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania because there are no alternatives at home.’

HOMECOMING
The Tanzanian writer Adam Lusekelo has been spending a year working with the BBC in London. He wrote in the November-December 1990 issue of the BBC magazine FOCUS ON AFRICA about his ‘homecoming’:

‘Sweltering Dar es Salaam. The sun burns you as you walk down the busy Samora Machel Avenue – now avoiding a heap of rubbish, now making a minor Olympic record as you jump over a pot-hole. Pretty damsels walk the opposite way but you ignore them. AIDS. But you are home again. It feels good ….

A friend hails me from across the street. “I say. When did you come?” You tell him that you came back four months ago … “Have you been to the Kremlin?” he suggests. .. Kremlin?” “Yeah. In Moscow. It’s a nice place. You can get roast chicken. Goes down well with ugali. There are also some very cold beers there.” So you take a cab to Kinondoni shanty township – the people there call it Moscow. The cab would have made Peugeot manufacturers pleased with themselves – if that is, they are still alive …. the friend takes out a packet of cigarettes. “Don’t” yells the driver.
“Why?”
“This car will explode” he says. You agree from the smell of petrol that is getting increasingly intolerable. The Kremlin is full of youngish men and women …
“Back to TZ, eh? We’ll see about those fancy shirts you are wearing. They will fade. And that hair will turn red. You see, God has lowered the sun by an inch or two. And those nice smells you are wearing will disappear. You will end up smelling of good old Tanzanian sweat…

STATISTICS FOR 185 ECONOMIES
WORLD BANK NEWS in its September 26, 1990 issue compared and contrasted statistically the economies of 185 countries. Tanzania’s GNP in 1989 was given as US$ 3,079 compared with US$ 3,775 in 1988. Its growth rate for the period 1980 to 1989 averaged 1.8% (compared with a population growth rate of 3.5%). Tanzania’s GNP per capita was US$ 120 in 1989 – equivalent to a real growth rate between 1980 and 1969 of minus 1.6%. Tanzania came out at the very bottom of the list in terms of GNP per capita. Only Mozambique with a figure of US$ 100 came lower. Ethiopia was said to have had the same rate as Tanzania in 1989 – ie: US$ 120.

The United Kingdom had a GNP of US$ 834,166 in 1989 equal to a per capita GNP of US$ 14,570. The figures for the United States were US$ 5,237,707 or US$ 21,100. Other African country GNP’s per capita were given as: Kenya US$ 380, Angola US$ 620, Botswana US$ 940, Burkina Faso US$ 310, Cote d’ Ivoire US$ 790, Gabon US$ 2,770, Gambia US$ 230, Lesotho US$ 470, Malawi US$ 160, Nigeria US$ 250, South Africa US$ 2,460 and Swaziland US$ 900.

DEFICIT IN ACCOUNTANTS
A national campaign by the accountancy profession in Tanzania over the last five years has successfully resulted in the 460 parastatal organisations bringing their accounts up to date according to E. B. Mndolwa writing in the September 1990 issue of CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANT. At present Tanzania needs some 6,000 – 7,000 qualified accountants and 15 – 20,000 accounting technicians according to the article but the numbers available total only 1,000 and 3,000 respectively.

AND THE NEW TANZANIAN NEWSPAPERS

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The relatively new part of the Tanzanian media the privately owned newspapers continue to illustrate the press freedom now apparent in Tanzania. The following items appeared in the privately owned Dar es Salaam press during the last part of 1990 – Editor.

FORMER HIGHJACKER ARRESTED
Musa Membar, who took a free ride to Britain aboard an Air Tanzania Boeing 737 which he hijacked with four other youths in 1982, was arrested on September 14th 1990 when he crossed the Kenya-Tanzania border. He had been jailed in Britain for eight years. After his release he became a founder member of the Tanzania youth Democratic Movement under the umbrella of a Tanzanian opposition front headed by Oscar Kambona, former Foreign Minister who has been in exile in Britain since 1967.

Speaking in a BBC interview the other day, Mr Kambona denied any prior knowledge of Member’s departure from London. “He did not bid any of us farewell” he said.
In a letter from the Ukonga maximum security prison, where he is being held, Member said “I returned to Tanzania … to lead a peaceful campaign for multi-party democracy …… (Business Times, October 19).

WHO DESTROYED THE COOPS?
‘Last year the CCM Party ordered the cooperative unions and marketing boards to clear their outstanding debts by the new year, failing which they would face liquidation. Almost a year later the unions owe the banks a staggering Shs 30 billion and the marketing boards owe another Shs 26 billion. To date not a single union has been liquidated.

The Nyererarian state’s handling of agricultural marketing is probably the worst example of the negative impact of collectivist policy …. during the last thirty years. From colonial times until Independence authentic farmers’ crop marketing cooperatives developed in different parts of the country … .. after Independence the freedom of the cooperative movement was systematically undermined by the state …..

Socialism worldwide and nation-wide has demonstrated its tragic but undeniable inability to provide either freedom or progress to the toiling masses. Trying to use cooperatives to achieve socialist objectives in 1990 is a complete aberration. The overpowering majority of CCM members do not believe that cooperatives can be a vehicle for building socialism. They do not want socialism. We all know that, after a generation of Ujamaa, there are hardly any socialists left in Tanzania!

In his parting address to the nation Mwalimu reiterated the CCM’s commitment to building a socialist Tanzania ….’ (Family Mirror, October 16 – 31).

CROCODILE TEARS
‘It raises no eyebrows to hear of loads of cashewnuts stuck in Newala, tobacco in Igalula or coffee in Muleba. These, after all, are confined crops whose markets are out there over the deep blue sea. The sole agents are the bureaucratic laden state marketing boards.

But not when beans are said to be stuck in Karagwe, maize in Sumbawanga or paddy in Malampaka. All these are staple foods, with ready markets in all the major towns …. What is sad about it all is the mentality we have cultivated over the years. The farmers in their memoranda to visiting leaders always appeal to government to help with trucks, with wagons, with gunny bags, with markets.

Given market in formation, loans for trucks and cash from the banks, entrepreneurs from the villages and towns alike could haul and sell off all the surplus crops …

Crying out to the government to undertake every task in this era of trade liberalisation is like shedding crocodile tears.’ (Business Times October 19).

MROSO COMMISSION VINDICATES UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
‘The Commission, under the respected Judge J. A. Mroso, appointed to investigate the closure of the University of Dar es Salaam last May has at last submitted its report, and, together with a number of actions taken since the closure, it seems that the students have been largely vindicated while the government’s handling of the crisis has been heavily criticised ….

A number of corrupt top officials of the university named by the students have been or are in the process of being moved or removed and the badly dilapidated campus is being hurriedly rehabilitated to remove one of the major grievances …

The report indicates that students had good reason to lose confidence in the government and VIJANA, the youth wing of the sole ruling party, which has been lording over the students ever since their autonomous organisation was suppressed in 1978 ….

In July-August last year, at the instigation of VIJANA, two student leaders were detained under humiliating conditions … for calling into question the corrupt and oppressive behaviour of some Party leaders during a visit to Korea for the Youth Festival …’

The article went on to describe the students’ loss of confidence in VIJANA, the government and the Ministry of Education which is heavily criticised in the report. The Principal Secretary had been ‘unnecessarily provocative’, The Commission also did not agree with government criticisms of the staff for supporting the students. The Commission felt that they had played a ‘very positive role in preventing a breakdown in communication’. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor G. R. V. Mmari was described in the article as extremely hard working and honest and the most popular Vice-Chancellor the University had ever had.

The Commission examined the grievances presented by the students and, not surprisingly, in almost every case it found them to be genuine …. The Commission also illustrated how the government controlled radio and newspapers were used in this case as important tools of state against the students ‘some reports did not give an accurate picture of the events and others used language that could have provoked resentment;’ words like ‘traitors’ and ‘not one of us.’ Some of the reports wanted to ridicule the students in front of the nation … letters sent to the newspapers from the University community were either not published or published very late’…… (Family Mirror, October 1-15).

RICHEST UK ASIANS COME FROM TANZANIA
‘When the Prince of Wales invited a group of wealthy Asians to dinner last June, he asked them if they could subscribe one million pounds to his Youth Business Trust. By the time coffee was served five million pounds had been raised ….. four of the top seven Asians in Britain, all millionaires, came from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda … ‘ (Business Times, September 7).

PRESIDENT HITS AT FOREIGN JOURNALISTS
President Mwinyi has lashed out at foreign journalists who under-play the contribution made by the former President, Mwalimu Nyerere to the country’s social and economic development. Recounting the country’s achievements under the National Economic Recovery Programme he said that Mwalimu Nyerere was fully involved in formulating and adopting all economic policy reforms. “Our achievements are the product of collective leadership and efforts in the Party. Government and all the people, and Mwalimu played a major role” he said. “It is through his dedication and selflessness that we are here today.” – Daily News

WORLD BANK AND TANZANIAN CONSULTANTS
Tanzanian consultants will be more involved in national projects undertaken through the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Disclosing the move, the President of the Federation of African Consultants (FECA) Aloyse Peter Mushi, said the two banks would change their procurement rules to accommodate more African consultants. “We are currently negotiating with the bilaterals, some of whom come in with tied aid, using their own consultants, to adopt the same system”. “Some of them, including the governments of Germany, Netherlands and Canada have come out very clearly, that where local expertise exists, this should be given priority in the awarding of consultancy assignments” Mushi said. Tanzania formed its consultancy body, the Tanzania Association of Consultants (TACO) in November 1989.

At a German sponsored joint consultant seminar in Arusha in mid-December 1990 a member of the Tanzanian Planning Commission, Dr Mbogoro, said that development projects in Tanzania were only those which donor countries initiated and preferred to implement. “Because of economic constraints Tanzania does not have its own projects” he said.

This pronouncement provoked strong objections from a member of the German Government who said that Germany did not dictate to recipients but always assisted them to undertake their own projects – Daily News.

MATUMBI – MY SEARCH FOR A CAVE

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Matumbi Cave illustration on postage stamp

The illustration is of a non-postage stamp showing the entrance of one of the Matumbi caves, produced about 1910 by the Benedictine Mission. The picture size is 45mm x 31mm and it is grey in colour.

Although limestone caves exist at Tanga and at Songwe, (Mbeya District), very little is known of others elsewhere in Tanzania. It was therefore with the greatest interest that I saw a cutting from the Cape Argus of 17th June 1911 describing the discovery of two sizeable caves in the Matumbi Hills, some 50 kms from the coast in Kilwa Province.

Library research revealed three more contemporary accounts. Two were in the Berlin magazine ‘Deutsches Kolonialblatt’ and the third in the publication of an Austrian cave-exploring society at Graz. The caves were first noticed and recorded in August 1909 by Police Sergeant Weckauf from Kibata. Investigating an isolated patch of forest, he was surprised to find the large entrance of the Nangoma Cave, used as a refuge in the fighting of a few years before by tribesmen who had left the forest uncleared to hide it. This entrance, 43m wide and 21m high, is at the bottom of a deep hollow in the limestone. Weckauf’s find came to the notice of Ambrose Mayer, a Catholic missionary at the Nambiligja mission, and in February 1910 both men went there together, exploring more of the Nangoma Cave and recording passage lengths which totalled 329m.

At the very end of 1910 the much larger Nduli Cave was visited and found to be 3,630m long. As cave lengths are so often exaggerated in popular accounts, I should emphasise that Mayer has given precise passage lengths for each part of the caves, as if measured, or at least paced, and the totals have been obtained by summing these.

A stream flows through the Nduli Cove and eels and fish were found in it. Many fruit bats were seen there also. ‘A passage at the back of the third hole, leading perhaps to the Nangoma Cave, could not be entered because the flying foxes hung on the head, chest and back of anyone coming in and flew against the lanterns so that they were in danger of being extinguished.

That the caves were moderately well known locally at this time is evidenced by the fact that the Catholic mission produced adhesive stamp-like seals, showing ‘cave entrance at Matumbi’ as illustrated here. It seems likely that these may have been sold for charity and they certainly date from the period when the country was still German East Africa.

One problem that I faced when attempting to discover more about the caves was that their exact location was not known. Thurmann had published his sketch map in 1911, but direct correlation of this with modern maps could not be done because the small area it covers made it impossible to fit the river pattern, especially in view of its unknown accuracy. Fortunately. a copy of the 1900 map used by Thurmann as a basis for his sketch exists in the Royal Geographical Society in London. It names the rivers referred to by Thurmann and so allows the cave locations to be determined in two stages from the 1911 sketch map to the relatively small scale map of 1900 in which details are often only approximate, and then from there to the large scale map of 1968. The river confluence close to the caves is at 8″ 28′ 34″ 5, 38° 48′ 23″ E (grid reference 4787 0633) and the Nangoma and Nduli caves are in grid squares 478063 or 4 78064. The presence, on the 1968 map, of a main track (motorable) from Nandembo to the village at Nakilago should prove useful for reconnaissance.

A cave more than 3.5 km long cannot easily be lost, but the Matumbi caves have attracted hardly any attention since their discovery. A brief mention of their bat guano was made in 1934 and 1948 but I have not been able to find anything else in the normal scientific end general literature. Then in 1966 a list of the world’s long caves included Nduli, but the length given is the same as that in the original accounts, so there had evidently been no subsequent exploration, or at least none recorded. Similarly no plan seems to have been made.

Of course Matumbi was not a tourist area and the caves had negligible economic value, but surely someone must have explored or at least visited them in the last 80 years or so. Dr Waane, the present Director of Antiquities for Tanzania tells me that he went there in 1985 though he di d not travel the full length of Nduli Cave.

DOES ANY READER OF THE BULLETIN KNOW OF ANY OTHER VISITS TO THE MATUMBI CAVES, RECENT OR LONG AGO? Perhaps there are photographs, diary accounts, articles in newspapers or magazines or mentions in regional guide books.
Trevor Shaw

Dr TREVOR R. SHAW is a retired Royal Navy officer who has made a life-long study of caves. His doctorate (as an ‘antique student’) was awarded for work on the history of scientific cave studies.

MISCELLANY

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UNIVERSITY TO REOPEN
The Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, President Mwinyi, has announced that the University will reopen on January 1st 1991 for students who were expelled in May 1990 to enable them to finish their studies. It is likely that fresh students will be able to join the university in October 1990. The Chancellor has however ordered the expulsion of 13 students for their leading role in the earlier unrest. He directed that eight other students should be given stern warning for ‘utterings and conduct associating them with the instigation.’ Expelled students may re-apply for admission one year after the university reopens. Their applications will be determined by their behaviour during the one year period. Among those awarded honorary degrees on December 1st were Mr Amon Nsekela, who was made a Doctor of Literature.

A CASE TO ANSWER
The former Chief Minister of Zanzibar, Mr Seif Shariff Hamad, who has been charged with possession of secret state documents has a case to answer said District Magistrate Taratibu Adama who has been conducting a 17 month Preliminary Enquiry. Mr Hamad has been committed for trial in the Zanzibar High Court – Daily News.

MAJOR EDUCATION SCANDAL
The Government has foiled a plot to burn the Ministry of Education Headquarters building in Dar es Salaam – one of the most beautiful structures in the city. The aim of the plot was to destroy evidence for the alleged theft of Shs 40,224,436 between May 1988 and April 1989. The Principal Secretary of the Ministry announced that 125 workers had been sacked and that 86 of them would be appearing in court for the alleged theft. Those sacked included a chief accountant, a senior finance management officer, six teachers, 73 accounts personnel and stores assistants, 42 personal secretaries, registry assistants, office supervisors and typists and two artisans.

The crimes include false imprest claims, night allowances, meal allowances and entertainment allowances. Some secretaries were being paid travelling allowances when they did not travel. The drama began on the weekend of October 13th 1990 when the Ministry’s building was surrounded by armed policemen. Some of the accused persons are still missing.

A month later the Home Affairs Minister, Mr Augustine Mrema, announced that the government had formed a 16-man task force of Senior Investigation Officers to deal with the scandal – Daily News.

MULTI PARTYISM
President Mwinyi has set up a Presidential Commission to monitor peoples’ views on the political system most suited to Tanzania. The Commission is to be known as the ‘Presidential Commission on Single or Multi-Party, 1990.’ Daily News.

KILIMANJARO CONQUEROR GETS AWARD
One hundred and ten year old retired Alpine guide Mzee Yohana Kinyala Lauwo, probably the oldest man in Tanzania, has been given a replica of the British Empire Medal given to him by the British Government in 1958. He got the original medal after rescuing British mountaineers in difficulty on the mountain but the medal was stolen by thieves a few years later. The British High Commissioner, Mr Thorold Masefield, made the presentation at the Regional Commissioner’s office in Moshi – Daily News. Mzee Lauwo became famous as the person who led Hans Meyer up the mountain in 1889. The full story was given in Bulletin No 35 – Editor.

MALECELA HAILS JOHN MAJOR
Prime Minister and First Vice-President John Malecela has sent a congratulatory message to John Major on his appointment as British Prime Minister. Mr Malecela said the good relations which exist between Tanzania and Britain and their two peoples are based on a strong foundation. “It is my genuine desire to work very closely with you in consolidating and enhancing these relations for the benefit of our present and future generations” he said – Sunday News.

AND GIVES A STERN WARNING
Mr Malecela, who, since taking up office again in Tanzania. has pursued a vigorous programme of work himself with meetings, speeches and travel all over the country, has warned that he will not hesitate to take punitive action against public officials violating civil service regulations. Apparently setting the standards of his new leadership, he said, in Dodoma, where he received a warm welcome, that he would start by dealing with leaders and other top civil servants. He emphasised accountability and gave as an example reporting time for duty in government offices. He noted that senior officials, even though they had cars, were setting a bad example. “Don’t be surprised if leaders like regional commissioners are sacked” he said – Daily News.

INVESTORS MUST FOLLOW RULES
The Registrar of Companies has cautioned companies seeking to invest in the country under the National Investment Promotion Policy (Bulletin No. 37) that they must abide by the provisions of the Companies Ordinance. The new policy did not repeal the company law he said.

There are great discrepancies between the investor’s registered authorised capital and the costs of projects expected to be undertaken by the firms under the National Investment Policy. According to a list of investors released to the press recently, most of the firms that intend to invest in a wide range of agricultural and industrial projects are local companies. And most of these applied for ventures whose costs greatly exceeded their registered authorised capital – Daily News.

REVIEWS

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DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS. 1841-1872. Editor: T Bolmes. The
Livingstone Museum in association with Multimedia, Lusaka, the Indiana University Press and James Currey, London. 1990. f. 30.

This selection of letters and documents, many of them previously unknown or unpublished is without doubt a major contribution to Livingstone scholarship and also an important footnote to the history of African exploration. It covers four areas of Livingstone’s life and travels: the early years (]841-1853), the Zambezi Expedition (1857-1864), the Interlude in Brilain (1864-1865) and finally, the Last Journey of Livingstone (1865-1872).

It is obviously the concluding section which is of most interest to serious students of Tanzanian history and affairs but, unfortunately, though the time-span covered is long the letters during this period are few and far between. There are very many gaps so that we simply do not know what Livingstone was doing or thinking in any detail for much of his time In Tanganyika as it was then called. But one must be grateful for small mercies. There is sadly no letter or document here which describes 1n Livingstone’s own words anything of his famous meeting with Stanley at Ujiji. If there had been it might have thrown a valuable light on an encounter which has probably been seen with at least some distortion, through the eyes of Stanley alone. But there is a lot of detail of the last great journey and one feels something of the strain and loneliness of the explorer’s life in its last phase.

Livingstone’s desperate search for the source of the Nile, which grew more feverish with each passing year, is brilliantly recorded in his own words. ‘I hope’ he writes with eagerness, ‘I am not premature in saying that the sources of the Nile arise from 10 to 12 South – in fact where Ptolemy placed them. The Chambezi is like the Chobe 40 to 50 yards broad … but the country is not like that at all .. it is full of fast-flowing perennial burns .. . we cross several every day … and crossed the Chambeze in 10 34 South”. This was written near Lake Bangweolo on 8th July 1868 and in the same letter he gives vent to some of his frustrations. He complains bitterly of much needless annoyance by two blockheads, the busybodies on the Council writing ‘instructions for my guidance and demanding all my notes – copies if not originals’. This, of course, is only one of many quarrels with his official sponsors in Britain, and there 1s considerable sadness as well as anger in his comment in another letter – ‘all who serve me will have a good lump of wages to show. When I have finished I shall have nothing except empty fame and sit down as a slave and copy my notes for the gaping busybodies of the Council’. How many of the world’s finest composers, artists, writers and creators would echo that comment!

There are marvellous insights into his life and character in these closing years, full of grim humour and superb courage. In a letter of 1872 to W. C. Boswell sent from what he merely describes as ‘Tanganyika’ he wriites, ‘Did I dream that Baker had all his guns taken away from him by niggers of whom he speaks so contemptuously – I could not pitch into even slaves without being certain of finding them all gone through the first night afterwards, but he thrashed them and the Arabs and they carried him meekly while I have to tramp every step I go.’

This is the last letter but one and to some extent the iron has enterred his soul. The accumulated effects of so much labour, hardship and privation, quite apart from the sheer loneliness of this final march, had taken its inevitable toll. And as he makes his way by grim determination from Southern Tanganyika to the borders of the country now known as Zambia, the threads of his life begin to unravel. But they are marvellous letters, full of description of the natural landscape and the African scene he had made so much his own. And we must be very grateful for them and to the editor, Timothy Holmes, for giving us the opportunity to hear Livingstone the man speaking directly of the land he loved and yet sometimes cursed – the land which seemed not to want to let him go.

An excellent book and probably more moving than any mere book ABOUT Livingstone could possibly be.
N.K. Thomas

FOOD INSECURITY AND THE SOCIAL DIVISION OF LABOUR IN TANZANIA 1919-85 by Deborah Fahy Bryceson. Macmillan/St Antony’s College, Basingstoke and London. 1990.

This solid book brings an impressive range of material to bear on the problems of food supply in Tanzania. The author has been writing on related subjects since the mid- 1970’s. As a result the volume has a sense of drawing together many themes: the roles of women in production and reproduction; the nature of patron-client relations in Tanzania; the relationships between peasants, markets and the state.
The many short chapters are gathered into six substantive parts. We start with a statement of the problem ‘Roughly 85% of Tanzania’s population live in rural areas and derive a liveliehood directly from the soil, yet the country has experienced repeated shortfalls of food supplies during this century’ (p 1)

Various theoretical approaches to food supply within historical development are applied to this paradox. Particularly interesting here is the inclusion of Preobrazhensky’s prophetic views on the extraction of surplus from peasants by the state in the Soviet Union, which, as Bryceson notes, became the strategy in the Tanzania of the 1970’s

PROJECTS OF THE PEOPLE OR FOR THE PEOPLE: A LOOK AT VILLAGERS’ PARTICIPATION IN THREE PROJECTS IN TWO VILLAGES IN TANZANIA by J. Mannion and E. Brehony. Public Administration and Development . Vol 10. No 2. 1990

This paper examines the extent to which Villagers participated in three Irish NGO-supported projects (in forestry, agricultural extension and oxen training) at Ismani in Iringa Region. The conclusion of the study was that there was very little involvement of the villagers and that while village government leaders were involved by the project organisers often they did not reflect villagers’ views. Although democratically elected the elections were ‘often shabbily run affairs’ with the first twenty or twenty five names mentioned being elected by a voice vote.

In one case studied there was no great enthusiasm to be a ‘ten-cell’ village leader (these leaders had the main responsibility for implementing the projects but were not part of the decision making process) because the previous ten cell leaders had all been fined for not implementing government policy, a policy which required Villagers to plant two acres of sorghum.

The main factors influencing participation by Villagers were described as the strength of the leadership, the sex (males were more involved), age (older people were more involved), marital status (married people being more involved), literacy and adult education (literate people were more involved). The authors conclude with these words: ‘Perhaps Camus best sums up what participation is attempting to do:

Don’t walk before me I may not follow
Don’t walk behind lie I may not lead
Just walk beside me and be my friend.’

THE SERENGETI. LAND OF ENDLESS SPACE. L. and S. Lindblad. Elm Tree Books. London. £ 25.

This is a coffee table book of many splendid photographs interspersed with four articles by people who are much involved professionally with African wildlife: Alan Earnshaw, Keith Sh8ckleton, Sandy Price and Lisa Lindblad. It is not a book to use in order to obtain details of flora and fauna or statistics 8bout present-day Serengeti but it 1s a pleasure to read and to look through leisurely, and it does convey a lot of information in some depth.

The first article, ‘Ash, Rain, Earth, Fire’ covers the pre-history of the area including the geological formation and how our ancestors lived. It begins, of course, with an imaginative account of how the footprints discovered by Mary Leakey in 1976 came to be made 3.6 million years ago. The fact that the scene has changed little over 4 million years adds to the mystique of the area. ‘Consequently the great web of life on the savannah, the whole intricate network of interrelationships between soil and vegetation, vegetation and herbivore, herbivore and carnivore, has coevolved over an immense span of time.’

The second article, ‘Cycled Rhythms’, deals with animal life. We should remember that in 1890 Rinderpest struck East Africa and in two years about 95% of wildebeest and buffalo died. It was not until the early 1960’s that this disease was eliminated. This makes the great migration of today all the more remarkable. The point is also made that the herds cross the border into Kenya’s Masai Mara and remain there for four months. ‘The Serengeti-Mara cries out for a unified management , with power and courage, a level horizon, sufficient sense of urgency to bury national and tribal prejudice and see the place for what it is – a wild heritage’

The third article, ‘Preserving the Serengeti’ traces the human management of the Park. In 1929 900 square miles were set aside as a lion sanctuary by the colonial government which was somewhat alarmed at the excesses of hunters. All legal hunting was stopped in 1937. In 1940 the Serengeti, including the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands, was made the first National Park in East Africa. In the 1950′ s there followed some debate between government and conservationists culminating in 1957 in the final setting of the Park’s bound8ries. The Ma8s8i were then banned from the Central Highlands. In 1975 they were banned from cultivating in the Crater area and the Olduvai Gorge.

Various names which we need to remember are mentioned such as Professor Grzimek and his son Mich8el; Miles Turner, the first and long-serving Warden of W. Serengeti; and, Dr G. Schaller who writes the Forward to this book. George Schaller is quoted as having introduced ‘conservation biology’ which seems to me what our attitude today should be. He says ‘The biologists collect scientifically precise information about the ecosystem … we take this knowledge to direct conservation of resources, to help human need, to help local people to sustain the environment.’

The fourth article is a brief history of the Maasai connection with the Serengeti, learned through personal friendship with a Maasai elder. There is inevitably a thread of sadness running through: ‘When you take a nomad’s land away you are altering so much more than a pastoralists lifestyle .. . you are erasing his stories, the collective memory of his culture, the map he must give his children so that they can find their way back to themselves.’ But perhaps it is the same for all of us to some extent as we become more and more city folk. It is just that the Maasai, also the Ndorobo and others, are nearer to the event.
George Schaller says: ‘At least once in a lifetime every person should make a pilgrimage into the wilderness to dwell on its wonders and discover the idyll of a past now largely gone … There dwell the fierce ghosts of our human past, there animals seek their destiny, living monuments to a time when we were still wanderers on a prehistoric earth. To witness that calm rhythm of life revives our W8rm souls and recaptures a feeling of belonging to the natural world. No one can return from the Serengeti unchanged, for tawny lions will forever prowl our memory and great herds throng our imagination. ‘

This is a good book to read before making that special visit to the Serengeti, and even if you are unable to go at all.
Christine Lawrence


THE POLITICAL ECONOMY Of AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA AND TANZANIA. Bruce F Johnston. Food Research Institute Studies. Vol XXI . N03. 1989.
This paper is based on a chapter of a forthcoming book on the political economy of agricultural development and structural transformation by Bruce Johnston and others commissioned by the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute and supported by the Stanford Research Institute. On the basis of this paper the book should be a must for all followers of the effects of political ideology on agricultural and rural development. The paper presents an excellent and comprehensive summary/comparison of the differences in the rate and nature of agricultural development in Kenya and Tanzania over the past three decades, analyses clearly the differences in Government ideology and resultant agricultural sector policies and their effects and discusses why the Governments of Kenya and Tanzania chose such different approaches to development.

There are similarities in their physical and agricultural characteristics, colonial background, dominance of agriculture in their economies, total populations (Tanzania 22 million, Kenya 20 million) and amount of aid received. However, they have important differences, notably the population growth rates (3.8 to 4.0% in Kenya and 3.2 to 3.4% in Tanzania), the degree of colonial commitment to agricultural research and infrastructure (much greater in Kenya) and the transport networks (relatively poor in Tanzania and good in Kenya).

The major difference however has been the in the economic performance. In Tanzania the growth in per capita GNP increased at an annual rate of 0.9% between 1965 and 1984; it was US$ 210 in 1984 but since (and perhaps contrary to the author’s expectations) has declined to USS 120 in 1989. In contrast, Kenya’s per capita GNP increased at an estimated 2.3% between 1965 and 1984; it was US$ 350 in 1984 and US$ 380 in 1989. In short, in Tanzania the economy underwent a worsening crisis in the seventies which, by 1982, brought the economy of the country to the brink of economic collapse, a deteriorating food situation and shortages of all types of goods. By contrast, Kenya achieved considerable economic success over the same period.

The author maintains that internal factors (ie ‘unfortunate government sectoral and macro-economic policies’ would have given rise to the crisis and difficult food situation even without the exacerbating effects of some external factors (ie: the sharp rise in oil prices, the breakdown of the East African Community, the Uganda War and poor weather conditions). These ‘unfortunate’ policies adversely affected the six ‘I s’ necessary to influence agricultural production, namely: incentives, infrastructure, inputs, institutions, initiatives and innovations.
The causes of these adverse effects were, in summary: a) excessive bureaucracy and authoritarian intervention by government officials who lacked confidence in small scale farmers and their decision-making abilities; b) compulsory villagisation (ujamaa); c) disruption of agricultural marketing by government, leading to a deterioration of production incentives; d) a proliferation of parastatals; e) a large budget deficit (due to investment in industry, regional expansion of health, education and water supplies and financial assistance to ailing public corporations /parastatals).

In Kenya the dynamism of the rural economy was a result of the favourable government policies which positively affected the six ‘I s’ referred to above. The main reasons were, in summary: a) the emphasis on small farm production; b) the development of cash crops by smallholders ie: tea, coffee, sugar, cotton, pyrethrum and modern dairying; c) the essential point that the choice of what to grow was left to individual smallholders; d) the continuity of policies and smooth transition from colonial to independent rule (despite the Mau Mau emergency of the 195O’s and independence in 1963) due to the influence of Kenyatta and British civil servants; e) the benefits of greater colonial involvement in agricultural research; f) innovations such as policies for arid and semiarid lands and self-help ‘Harambee’ activities in relation to improvement of rural social services; and, g) greater expansion of secondary education.

The essential differences between the two countries were therefore the greater ability of smallholders to earn cash in Kenya and the lack of government intervention in Kenya as compared with excessive public sector interference and inappropriate and unstable agricultural policies in Tanzania.

The reasons why the respective policy makers chose different approaches clearly lie in ideological differences. In Tanzania the main aim was removal of inequality (through socialism). In Kenya the government favoured accumulation of wealth (through capitalism) rather than its redistribution. In Tanzania the dominance of a bureaucratic class with vested interests in enlarging control over agriculture had a negative effect on small farmers and muzzled local initiatives. In Kenya official government policy was to permit civil servants to engage in private business activities. This capitalist elite has a strong self interest in a prosperous agricultural economy.

As regards the future the author concludes that in Kenya, due to basic problems of high population growth and lack of additional good agricultural land, agricultural growth and the agricultural economy may deteriorate; due to problems of inequity he accepts that political instability may arise. Tanzania’s economy however is likely to improve as a result of macroeconomic policy reforms adopted in 1986, devaluation, and liberalisation of the marketing of agricultural products so as to positively affect producer incentives.

Overall, the paper provides a compelling analysis of the changing patterns and ups and downs of development in which the lessons for emergent agriculturally dependent economies are clear although the whole picture is far from complete.
Ian Talks

LETTERS

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CONSERVATION, DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM AT SWAHILI RUINS
Alex Vine’s article on the above subject in Bulletin No 37 reads very interestingly in conjunction with Mark Horton’s ‘Digging Up Zanzibar’ in No 35. Dr Horton says correctly that during the British period in Zanzibar there was a very ambivalent attitude towards the past. The same applies to the Mainland, except, as Mr Vines says, for the occasional professional like Neville Chittick – and, I would add, the occasional amateur enthusiast among the colonial rulers; one only has to glance at the District Books maintained by the District Commissioners (where are they now?) Mr Vine’s excellent report leaves one greatly depressed. It is difficult to picture what is going to happen, except that there is likely to be more robbery, more neglect and more riding roughshod over the archaeological past, as has been the case on Songo Songo. ‘There is no reason why development and conservation could not go hand in hand. ‘ True. But one only needs to remember that it did not in wealthy Britain until very recently. Surely legislation on the Botswana pattern is the first essential; is there no one in Tanzania prepared to take the first steps? If these first steps were set in train I don’t imagine financial assistance would be difficult to find, especially as Mr Vines says ‘both the Archaeology Unit at the University and the Antiquities Department have the expertise to carry out the necessary assessments.’ The article deals only with the Swahili ruins but if one takes the country as a whole there are many other important prehistoric sites, starting with Olduvai. As World Heritage monuments they could well attract not only specialist tours but also funds. And the European Community itself, three quarters of whose member states are former colonial powers, seems an obvious starting point in a search for resources. I look forward to hearing what happens next. And also to a report on Dr Horton’s 1990 excavations.
Paul Marchant

FACT AND FICTION IN RECENT HISTORY
Much has been achieved in the last thirty years to address the previous imbalance of Eurocentric perceptions of African history – and a good thing too. During the same period – perhaps inevitably – myths about the colonial period have come to be accepted as fact. Has any work been done on identifying the scale and nature of this new mythology, and its significance – if any? I can quote two examples relating to just Ukerewe district in which I served as District Commissioner from 1958 to 1961. A year or two before my arrival the Rubya Forest Reserve was earmarked as one of the country’s first ‘production’ reserves – as distinct from ‘protective’. It fell to me and the Assistant Conservator of Forests to establish it. It was an uphill task and there was a good deal of resistance to the idea from the local branch of the TANU Party. Eventually, after much discussion it was agreed that the local people would be paid to clear the land for a nursery and trial plots and would then be permitted to grow their own crops interplanted with the tree seedlings. The project was showing every sign of success when I left in 1961.

Four years later, whilst working with the British Council in Nigeria, I read in a local newspaper an article about the Rubya Forest by a Nigerian reporter who was doing a series on another former colony. It was an excellent article in many respects but I was astonished to read that the Reserve had been established as a result of local initiative in the teeth of opposition from the colonial government. When I visited Rubya again in 1971 I related this to the Tanzanian Conservator of Forests and his staff and they fell about laughing.

Recent correspondence with an inhabitant of Ukerewe island reveals the existence of the local perception that there was diamond mining at Rugezl during the period of my incumbency. This is a complete fiction. The rea1ity is that in 1959 when the channel at Rugezi , which separated the island (in Lake Victoria) from the mainland, was only about 200 yards wide, it was decided to build a causeway across the channel, retaining the ferry pontoon in a central gap – to be moved aside to allow fishing boats through as need arose. When we came to build the causeway the main item of equipment used was a large mechanical excavator with drag line of the kind used in diamond mining. For several months this was to be seen excavating soil and dredging mud as it pushed a causeway across the channel. This operation is evidently the source of the diamond mining myth.

About 1962 unprecedentedly heavy rains combined with Egyptian decisions about Nile irrigation caused the Lake level to rise by several feet, and a channel over a mile wide was opened up at Rugezi; the causeway was submerged and all evidence of its existence obliterated. One can understand pre-independence anti-colonial propaganda acquiring post-independence respectability. But how much of this has been permanently adopted?
Donald Barton

KINDWITI LEPROSY VILLAGE
I am writing this letter with a great sense of urgency. The Tanzanian department of Social Welfare (because the Treasury simply have not got the money) has cut our subvention by 50%. This means we are unable to feed our leprosy patients, many of them people who cannot feed themselves. We have done all we can to economise; we have cut the payroll, we have revised the ration list. We have been doing a lot of calculations; we need £75 a week to cover the short-fall. (This is the gist of a letter sent out by The Rev. Canon Robin Lamburn of the Kidwiti Leprosy Village at Utete. Contributions can be sent to the Rufiji Leprosy Trust, Horton House, Horton, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9RL – Editor).

TA ISSUE 37

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TA 37 cover

MAJOR LEADERSHIP CHANGES:
NYERERE – MWINYI – WAKIL – AMOUR – KAWAWA – KOLIMBA

REPORT ON THE 1988 CENSUS
THE NEW INVESTMENT CODE
NEWSPAPERS AND CENSORSHIP
CONSERVATION AND TOURISM AT SWAHILI RUINS
THE BUDGET
TAFICO – A CHEQUERED HISTORY

MAJOR LEADERSHIP CHANGES

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NYERERE “MOVING OUT”
MWINYI NEW PARTY CHAIRMAN AND CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY
PRESIDENT WAKIL RETIRES
SURPRISE CANDIDATE FOR ZANZIBAR PRESIDENCY
KAWAWA PARTY VICE PRESIDENT

“Suppose I was a young man. I would have said that I am resigning. But I’m a mature person. I am waiting to go back to Butiama, and that is why I like saying I am moving out. My time has come, and it came long ago, but I extended it for the last five years for reasons known to us all. That is why I am saying I am moving out, rather than saying I am resigning. You can resign and come back next year. But I do not have the intention of coming back next year. I am moving out” – Julius Nyerere quoted in African Concord (June 15 1990).

And at 3 p.m. on August 17th at an Extraordinary CCM Party National Conference in Dar es Salaam he made it official. In a vintage one and a half hour speech Mwalimu Nyerere ranged over most of the matters exercising the minds of Party members. Brief extracts:

THE ARMY. Three things have helped our nation to maintain the unity and tranquillity which we enjoy at present – the Swahili language, the Arusha Declaration and the one- party system. Perhaps I should add a fourth: the patriotic and political army.

THE CCM PARTY. Those who are nowadays called party leaders are not true leaders. They are just people who cause irritation …. had all our leaders had the inclination and habit of helping the citizens we would not be where we are, in a situation so abysmal that the President of our country is forced to solve even minor problems.

ON MULTI-PARTYISM. If one cost of changing from our system of one party democracy and trying a multi-party system is to make our army keep out of politics, this alone seems to me a sufficient reason for continuing with the present system……. When you divorce your wife and then marry another and you discover that your second wife is a disaster (laughter) it is difficult to return to your former wife. If we try multi-party democracy and then fail the likeliest system to ensue thereafter will be a one-man dictatorship or military rule.

ON HIMSELF. I shall cease to be Chairman … at the end of this meeting but I shall not cease to be a member and an active member of CCM.


REACTIONS
Mwalimu’ Nyerere’s departure has evoked considerable local and international comment. Here is just a small selection:

PRESIDENT MWINYI said that Tanzanians were most unhappy about his decision but they had received it with respect and honour .. . Mwalimu had bequeathed to him a Tanzania which enjoyed unity, peace and stability; a Tanzania with a good reputation and respect in the world ..

GBENGA AMUSAN in AFRICAN CONCORD wrote that Tanzanians had good reason to call him ‘Mwalimu’ – the teacher who knows how to teach the world glorious, long- lasting lessons in selfless service to humanity irrespective 01 colour, class and creed.

AHMED YAHYA in AFRICA EVENTS: It is in his ideals beyond bread and butter politics, that history will see him to have made his mark. He fired in his people a throbbing faith in the finer nuances of moral goals …. He gave Tanzanians a unique stamp of self-righteous superiority, in a way that no other leader in Africa has. But in being rigidly too true to his beliefs and doctrines, he has been like that other rare creature, the Panda in the wild, not extinct but doing little to avoid that sorry fate.

RICHARD DOWDEN in the INDEPENDENT: Discredited? Downcast’? Just a little disillusioned? Julius Nyerere, the man who inspired a generation with a philosophy of bootstrap DIY socialism, flicks away the suggestion of failure as if it were an irritating fly … the charm, the smile, the bursts of laughter, the challenging, ironical way of talking – at 68, Mr Nyerere still weaves a spell … he is the most influential African political thinker of his generation .. . (but) his ideas have been tarnished by their implementation under his leadership.

SALMIN AMOUR

Daily News article on Salmin Amour

Dr Salmin Amour (48) was unanimously nominated in a secret ballot by the 171 members of the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) as sole candidate for the Presidency of Zanzibar He has been involved in politics since the age of 15. He is a member of the CCM Central Committee and is the NEC’s Secretary for Economic Affairs and Planning. His PhD was in Political Economy. He is credited with having played a significant role in the formulation of the Party’s economic policies. He has worked as Principal Secretary in the Zanzibar Ministries of Finance and Trade and Industry and has also served as Secretary of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council.

OTHER CHANGES
Zanzibar President Idris Abdul Wakil said that he had retired because he needed time to rest. He had been widely expected to be nominated again as candidate for the Presidency.

The former Party Secretary General and now Party Vice-Chairman Mr Rashidi Kawawa said that he had been thinking of retiring due to his health problems but this had been refused by Mwal1mu Nyerere because they could not both retire at the same time.

Zanzibar Chief Minister Dr Omar All Juma, a likely successor to President Wakil, was praised by Mwalimu Nyerere for ‘not being politically greedy’. He had declined to be considered for the Presidency and had pleaded that he was young and a newcomer to politics.

The new Party Secretary General is Mr Horace Kolimba (47) who was formerly Chairman of the Union of Tanzanian workers (JUWATA).

Presidential and Parliamentary elections will be on October 28th 1990 – Daily News.

STOP PRESS. TANZANIA AND KUWAIT

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As we go to press and with the crisis in the Gulf at its height, a Senior Tanzanian diplomat, asked by the Bulletin what Tanzania’s position was, said that, as far as he knew, Tanzania had not issued an official statement on the crisis. But such a statement would hardly be necessary as Tanzania was well known to be totally and unequivocally opposed to aggression by one state against another.

At the CCM Party Conference President Mwinyi is reported to have made a passing remark on the subject – “…. due to a modest increase in our foreign currency earnings in the 1989-90 fiscal year we have been able to pay our debts to the international monetary institutions …. for example, we were able to pay OPEC and the Kuwait Fund, thus making those institutions start lending to us afresh (Applause). It is a pity that Kuwait no longer exists” – Editor.

TANZANIA’S NEW INVESTMENT CODE

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In the June session of Parliament a Bill was enacted under the title: National Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act 1990. The purpose was to stimulate local and foreign investment by setting up an Investment Promotion Centre and establishing the rules governing investment in Tanzanian enterprises, particularly of foreign capital. The Act applies throughout industry, except petroleum and minerals, to which existing legislation applies. While it replaces the Foreign Investments (Protection) Act 1963 it incorporates, with necessary amendments, a number of other statutes, including the Companies (Regulation of Dividends and Surpluses and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1972. (Footnote – A useful account of the state regulation of foreign investment between 1961 and 1985 is given in an article by S. Rugumamu in Africa Development, VOL XIII, No 4, 1988. The new Act aims at avoiding the gross economic errors and mismanagement that have blemished so many parastatal enterprises financed from abroad by means of a monitoring mechanism with statutory powers of control. The Act is based on a coherent policy with regard to overseas investment, the 8srlier absence of which forms a central theme in Mr. Rugumamu’s article.)

The underlying purpose of the legislation is twofold. First, it establishes machinery for the stimulation of investment in Tanzanian industry and offers tax incentives for investment in new enterprises and the expansion or rehabilitation of existing enterprises. Secondly, it lays down rules to ensure that new investment, particularly from overseas, does not lead to abuses and is directed towards enterprises of greatest importance to the Tanzanian economy without creating new burdens only capable of satisfaction in foreign exchange.

The first of these objectives arises from a recognition that an attempt must be made to attract foreign capital if the pace of economic development is to be maintained. Despite attempts to stimulate domestic saving by a new government bond issue and maintaining interest rates at levels comparable with the rate of inflation, local resources alone will be inadequate to sustain economic development at more than a very slow pace. The appointment of Mr George Kahama as Director General of the new Investment Promotion Centre is intended to make use of his earlier experience as General Manager of the National Development Corporation, a holding company for the financing of Tanzania’s growing industrial base in the sixties and seventies, The establishment of the Centre will attract the approval of the World Bank and bilateral aid donors.

Tanzania has, however, learned the hard way how counter productive foreign investment can be. First, there is the danger of transnational corporations, having invested in Tanzania, exporting products at artificially low prices in order to gain a cost benefit elsewhere, a practice that would have the effect of forcing Tanzania to subsidise a foreign firm. Secondly, externally funded projects may be so designed as to rely heavily on imported raw materials and equipment, resulting in a net outflow of scarce foreign exchange. Thirdly, the technology chosen may be quite inappropriate to Tanzanian conditions and both expensive and difficult to maintain. There are examples of all these shortcomings in the earlier history of industrialisation in Tanzania. It was therefore essential to impose on the Director General a duty to satisfy himself that a proposal will a) maximise foreign exchange earnings and savings, b) enhance import substitution, c) expand food production, d) increase employment opportunities and enhance human resource development , e) conduce to the efficient use of productive capacity of existing enterprises and f) improve linkages between different sections of the economy. The Director General will also have to consider other matters such as the source of raw materials, employment conditions, siting, the financing plan and ‘the need to generate constructive competition among enterprises’.

These enquiries may seem onerous and could lead to bureaucratic delays. To minimise this risk the Act requires Ministries, to which aspects of a proposal are referred, to reply within 14 days and enjoins on the Centre to give its final decision within 60 days. It remains to be seen whether such time limits will be reasonable in practice or will lead to slipshod decisions. A great deal depends on the willingness of the promoters to provide reliable information without delay which they are bound under the Act to submit. If an affirmative conclusion is reached a Certificate of Approval is issued. The Certificate may be amended or transferred with the approval of the Centre. Where its terms are not adhered to, or in the event of fraud, a Certificate may be cancelled in which case the Centre may withdraw any rights and benefits and, if necessary, require the promoter to sell the enterprise.

INCENTIVES
As an incentive to investors The Act provides for a tax holiday of five years with respect to the taxation of profits and the witholding tax on dividends. Thereafter the normal rates of tax will apply to profits, namely, 50% for non-resident investors, 45% for residents and 22.5% for investors in cooperative societies; witholding tax on dividends – 10% for non- residents and 5% for residents.

Import duties and soles taxes on equipment, machinery, spare parts and materials to be used solely for the purposes of the enterprise are remitted. An enterprise may be allowed to retain in a foreign exchange account a proportion of its earnings abroad and up to 50% of such holdings may be used for the servicing of debts, the payment of dividends and the satisfaction of other external obligations. The apparent effect of this provision is to limit the proportion of foreign exchange earnings available for payments abroad to less than 50%, though the actual proportion is not defined.

RESTRICTIONS
The Act empowers the enterprise to pay dividends and profits to foreign investors in the approved foreign currency at the prevailing rate of exchange; to transfer abroad an approved proportion of the proceeds of sale of the enterprise; and to provide for the servicing or repayment of any foreign loan specified in the Certificate of Approval. Whether these provisions override the 50% limit referred to in the final sentence of the last paragraph could be a matter for legal debate. The payment of dividends is, however, limited by the terms of the Companies (Regulation of Dividends and Surpluses and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1972 to the average of profits made in the last three years, or 80~ of the profits arising in the previous year, or such sum as will reduce the net worth of the enterprise as disclosed in the balance sheet to not less than 125% of the par value of the paid-up capital. The Minister has the power, subject to prior approval by the National Assembly, to authorise an enterprise to pay dividends at a higher rate, but this provision is unlikely to be used except in exceptional circumstances.

The trouble with these provisions is the extent to which they rely on permissive powers to be exercised by the Bank of Tanzania, or presumably by the Centre. In order to remove the anxieties of investors it may be necessary to spell out in regulations made under the Act the precise meaning to be attached to such phrases as ‘A portion of their foreign exchange earnings’ or ‘an approved proportion of the net proceeds of sale’. The word ‘approved’ also requires definition. As it stands the Act appears to favour projects involving only a limited foreign exchange commitment for operational purposes and to operate against entirely foreign-owned enterprises, which would be unable to recover in foreign currency more than a proportion of the proceeds of sale in the event of withdrawal. These may be justifiable acts of policy, but it may be necessary to delineate the borderline more clearly if foreign capital is to be attracted.

An approved enterprise cannot be compulsorily acquired except in the national interest and after due process of law, in which case, full, fair and prompt compensation must be paid in transferable currency.

The Act lists in a schedule three types of enterprise. Part A refers to areas of priority for private investment. Part B enumerates the areas reserved for public sector enterprises, except where the Minister grants a special license. In Part C appear those enterprises reserved for investment exclusively by Tanzanian nationals and those that are closed to foreigners investing less than $250.000. By far the most comprehensive list appears in Part A.

This legislation is essentially experimental. Many developing countries, not forgetting Eastern Europe, are competing for investment capital and it is not known whether investors will be attracted by the prospects offered by Tanzania. Decisions about investment also take into account circumstances other than those covered by legislation, such as the country’s political stability, the climate, the availability of staff housing and the personal taxation of expatriate staff. So, only the future will show whether these investment provisions will have the intended results.
J Roger Carter