Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Monday, July 4, 2022.
‘Too much politics’ at TPA irks Samia
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday expressed her dissatisfaction over how the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), saying “too much politics” there denies Tanzania its rightful potential in terms of revenues.
The Head of State made the statement during the signing of the agreement for the construction of the 165-kilometre standard gauge railway section linking Tabora and Isaka, the event held at the State House in Dar es Salaam.
The agreement was entered between Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) Director-General Masanja Kadogosa and Turkish construction firm Yapi Merkezi CEO Aslan Uzun.
“The port of Dar es Salaam has a great potential to connect African countries with their Asian counterparts that have fast-growing economies compared to others,” President Samia said. “This means those entrusted with ports supervision should now work with utmost speed. I’m not satisfied with the current pace and political interference.”
In a manner that showed she meant what she was talking about, later that day President Samia revoked the appointment of TPA Director-General Eric Hamissi, appointing Mr Plasduce Mkeli Mbossa to fill the position.
Mr Mbossa had served as TPA deputy director-general, a statement by the director of presidential communications Zuhura Yunus said yesterday.
“The port of Dar es Salaam is the economic eye of the nation,” President Samia said earlier before the appointment of the new TPA boss. “If it performs well, half of the annual budget can come from the port. But, this will only be achieved if we take measures to reorganize ourselves and work hard.”
CHADEMA files habeas corpus seeking cadre Twaha Mwaipaya be produced in court
Opposition party CHADEMA said on Monday that it had filed a habeas corpus at the High Court in Dodoma seeking its detained cadre Twaha Mwaipaya be freed or produced to the court.
Mwaipaya, who works as a mobilisation officer with the party’s youth wing BAVICHA, has been detained since June 30, 2022, when police in Morogoro arrested him, accusing him of unspecified cybercrime offences, CHADEMA said in a statement.
Dodoma regional police commander Martin Otieno confirmed to The Chanzo on Monday that police there were holding Mwaipaya.
“It’s true we are holding him over statements he made online,” Otieno said without specifying the information. “[He’s being held] for investigation. We want to know more about them before we proceed with other steps.”
Mwaipaya was arrested while en route to Dar es Salaam from the capital Dodoma. While police promised to send him back to Dodoma to face the charges, they never did so and they declined to cooperate with CHADEMA-appointed lawyers and family members who were looking for him in Dodoma, Morogoro and Dar es Salaam.
On Sunday, however, armed police officers showed up at Mwaipaya’s house in Mbagala, Dar es Salaam with him where they searched his house before leaving with him without saying where they were taking him to.
On Monday, CHADEMA received information that Mwaipaya is being held at Dodoma central police station, where his fellow members in the region visited there and talked to him.
“We have filed a habeas corpus request at the High Court against Attorney General, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dodoma regional police commander and Dodoma district police commander (OCD),” John Mrema, CHADEMA’s Protocol, Communications and Foreign Affairs director said in a statement on Monday.
“We have asked the court to demand the police to produce Mwaipaya in court and explain why they arrested him in the first place,” Mrema added in a statement.
Mrema said that CHADEMA “strongly condemns” the arrest and detention of people in violations of the country’s laws and procedures, saying doing so is tantamount to violations of people’s fundamental rights.
WHO’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Projects to roll out in Tanzania
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday named Tanzania among the priority countries that will benefit from the implementation of its Emergency Preparedness and Response projects aimed at promoting multisectoral convergence of resources and skills for rapid and efficient response to a disaster.
Called Emergency Preparedness and Response Flagship projects, the initiative seeks to ensure Health Security in the African Region; builds upon existing infrastructure to put in place a well-organized partner support system that augments national capacity when needed, incorporating lessons learned from COVID-19, Ebola, and other health emergencies.
Initially implemented in select countries, the projects will be scaled up regionally over the next five years. To initiate the projects in Tanzania, WHO Tanzania has received eight vehicles that will be positioned within the Ministry of Health multisector coordination mechanism after the capacity-building activities with guidance from the Regional EPR Cluster.
“This is an opportunity for Tanzania to further strengthen the capacity in emergency preparedness, early detection and response,” Dr Zabulon Yoti, Acting WHO Representative in Tanzania, said in a statement.
“The resources, including the vehicles that have arrived already, will be positioned with the government. The aim is to foster government leadership, with WHO support and collaboration with a wide range of partners,” he added.
“In the coming months we will be rolling out training building on available capacity in areas of coordination, surveillance, risk communication, but especially to this approach we are taking multisectoral outlook because disasters do not affect health exclusively,” Dr Yoti added.
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