Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories in Tanzania which were reported on Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Unemployment, skills mismatch dominates Samia’s ‘meeting’ with youths

President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday called Tanzanian youths “the guardians of the nation” in an address she gave in Mwanza where she has been since Sunday for a three-day official visit to the port city. Yesterday’s meeting between the Head of State and the youth of Tanzania is a continuation of President Samia’s arrangement of meeting with various social groups to learn their needs and share her administration’s plans to deal with them. Already, President Samia has organised meetings with elders and women and yesterday was her chance to meet with youths.

“[Youths] are the guardians of [the Tanzanian] nation. They are creative and daring people. They are brave and carry the visions and expectations of this nation now and in the future,” said President Samia. “In other words, the survival, security, progress and the welfare of any nation around the world depend on the youths [of that particular nation].” But as far as Tanzania’s concerned, President Samia thinks that a number of challenges remain that prevent the youth of the East African nation from meaningfully contributing to these roles. Among many other challenges, the biting youth unemployment and a mismatch between youths’ skills and jobs available in the market stood out in the Head of State’s speech yesterday.

According to the government’s figures presented by the president, in every 10 people in Tanzania, four of them can be categorized as youths aged between 15 to 35 years old. There’s currently a total of 20.7 million people in Tanzania who can be defined as youths, according to the president. However, an average of 11.4 per cent of them who are able to work are without jobs. President Samia said that she is optimistic that the major development projects her administration is implementing will reduce the rate of unemployment in the country, urging her ministries to come up with more creative ways that would solve the problem.

Kabudi says its the role of gov to ensure citizens have access to justice 

The Minister for Legal and Constitutional Affairs Prof Palamagamba Kabudi said yesterday that justice “[is] a basic right of every person present in Tanzania” and while initiatives by non-governmental organisations aimed at facilitating access to justice in the country are important “we should also not forget that it is the role of the government as the key entity in ensuring that every Tanzanian and any other person present in Tanzania is enabled to easily access justice.”

Prof Kabudi made the remarks during a function to launch Haki Yangu App developed by Legal Services Facility (LSF), a local non-governmental organisation that champions access to justice for all, in order to enable citizens to have easy access to justice. Haki Yangu means My Right in Kiswahili. The App, which is available both in App Store and Playstore, helps users communicate directly with legal assistants or legal aid services providers via web and mobile by texting, calling or chatting in real-time.

“The ministry for constitutional and legal affairs works very closely with other ministries, departments and local governments in ensuring that individuals are enabled to access justice easily,” said Prof Kabudi. “At the ministry level, we have a special department dealing with legal aid and at the local government level we have social welfare officers and social workers, some of who have been stationed at courts of law to assist vulnerable groups, particularly children.”

Child rights activists want Marriage Act amended 

A coalition of non-governmental organisations that champion children rights in Tanzania yesterday asked the government to amend the Law of Marriage Act in accordance with the High Court ruling which pronounced the law unconstitutional and discriminatory towards girls and which raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 for both boys and girls.  In a joint press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the organisations, which include Msichana Initiative, C-Sema among others, said they were disappointed by the government’s silence over the matter despite being given a period of one year to amend the law. The organisations made the call ahead of World Children’s Day which is marked worldwide on June 16th of every year.

Thanks for reading this briefing, just letting you know that The Chanzo also receives stories and opinions from independent writers and analysts for publication. So if you want to have your say on our platform, or you have any suggestion on how we can improve this briefing, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com for further inquiries.