Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Wednesday, April 6, 2022.

Two tasks await Kinana as Zitto hands over TCD chairmanship

The newly appointed Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) deputy chairperson (Tanzania Mainland) Mr Abdulrahman Kinana will be confronted with at least two main challenges facing the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) as he is replacing ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe as the centre’s chairperson.

On Wednesday, Mr Kabwe handed the leadership of the non-partisan democracy think-tank over to Mr Kinana after serving as its chairperson for six months. TCD’s leadership is rotational where members get to lead it for a six-month period before letting another member take the helm.

In his hand-over notes released yesterday, Mr Kabwe identified what he thinks are critical challenges facing the 2005-founded institution, urging Mr Kinana to use his shrewd leadership acumen in trying to find their solutions.

“The main challenge [facing TCD] is the one that concerns political parties not to take part fully in the meetings organised by the centre and even issuing statements that tarnish the image of our institution,” said Mr Kabwe in the notes shared on social media.

TCD’s current members are the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), CHADEMA, the Civic United Front (CUF), NCCR Mageuzi, and ACT- Wazalendo. Originally, the centre was intended to bring together political parties with representation in the parliament.

While Mr Kabwe fell short in naming the parties that have not been taking part in the TCD-organised meetings, at least two opposition parties have on numerous occasions shared publicly their boycott of the meetings as well as expressed what they think about TCD in general. These are CHADEMA and NCCR-Mageuzi.

“It is very likely that some political parties that are TCD members harbour some personal differences that hurt the growth of our institution,” Mr Kabwe added. “It is important for the incoming chairperson to use his office in making sure that [political parties’] leaders do not transfer their personal differences to the institution.”

Another challenge that Mr Kinana should be prepared to confront at the centre is the one that concerns financial constraints that continue to prevent TCD from undertaking its stated activities.

TCD is supposed to serve as a platform to strengthen a culture of multiparty democracy in Tanzania through dialogue, consultation, strategizing and implementing an agenda for democratic development.

“Financial constraints have made it impossible for the centre to implement its projects,” said Mr Kabwe in his hand-over notes. “Also, [the challenge] renders TCD ineffective in organising capacity-building sessions for political parties that would make our multiparty democracy efficient.”

Mr Kabwe hopes that Mr Kinana will take up the proposal that the former’s team prepared titled ‘Tanzania Democracy Strengthening Facility’ and that Mr Kinana will engage important stakeholders in raising the fund needed to implement the project.

Among steps that Mr Kabwe said he undertook to strengthen TCD institutionally include the successful hiring of the centre’s executive director Ms Bernadetha Kafukwe; conducting an audit of the centre’s expenditures; plus ensuring that all the meetings that the TCD constitution outlines are being conducted.

Other steps include the preparation of TCD’s strategic plan as well as ensuring that the centre really provides a platform for a dialogue where political parties and other important stakeholders could discuss challenges facing Tanzania’s multiparty democracy and discuss ways to solve them.

The successful organisation of the ongoing justice, peace and reconciliation conference in the capital Dodoma is cited by Mr Kabwe as one of his legacies as TCD chairperson.

Mwigulu: Thorough discussion needed before Tanzania makes decisions over cryptocurrencies

Finance and Planning Minister Mwigulu Nchemba said Tuesday that both Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and crypto-assets need “thorough discussions” before Tanzania could make commitments about them.

Dr Nchemba was speaking during told a regional conference hosted by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The conference aimed at giving Anglophone countries in Sub-Saharan Africa more insight on issues such as financial inclusion and integrity, digital and cybersecurity risks, legal issues and interoperability in relation to CBDCs and cryptocurrency dealings.

“[Tanzania is] finalising preparations of a business case for [the] establishment of a CBDC in Tanzania and evaluation of crypto assets after recording significant progress,” The East African newspaper quoted Dr Nchemba as saying.

“Banks [in Tanzania] have developed solutions to integrate informal small business and saving groups to the formal banking system through digital platforms,” he added. “These innovations will demand reforms in legal and institutional structures to enable requisite governance.”

BoT governor Prof Florens Luoga CBDCs and crypto assets have become critical contemporary issues that are impacting central bank policymaking and operations around the world.

“We need solutions to the challenges we have faced or expect to encounter in dealing with these issues,” the paper quoted Prof Luoga as saying. “For CBDCs, it is apparent that some central banks are still at conceptual discussions and research, others already have set the ball rolling to the experimentation phase, and a few have launched.”

IMF deputy managing director Bo Li pointed out that central banks in each country are expected to determine their own main objectives before embracing CDBCs “as there is no across-the-board formula for all countries,” he said.

600 game rangers to be recruited to control destructive wild animals

Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mary Masanja told the parliament on Tuesday that the government is in the process of recruiting 600 games rangers that will help in controlling destructive wild animals.

Masanja said that the game rangers will help control wild animals that stray from protected areas to villages and destroy farm crops.

Masanja said in addition to the recruitment of the 600 game rangers, wildlife authorities are training villagers on how to protect themselves in case of raids by the wild animals.

She was responding to a question by Special Seat MP Minza Mjika. Mjika wanted the government to explain measures being taken by the government in controlling human-wildlife conflicts in villages located close to protected areas.

“The authorities have already conducted such training in 17 districts in the country,” Masanja told the House in the capital Dodoma.

Statistics by the Wildlife Department in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism show that 1,069 people were killed from wild animals attacks between 2012 and 2019.

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