Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
Samia: I’m not pleased with state bureaucrats’ attitude toward investors
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday decried state bureaucrats’ handling of private sector investments, accruing them of preventing people from investing in Tanzania’s health sector.
She was speaking during the second Mkapa Symposium 2022 in Zanzibar where she criticised undue bureaucracy when it comes to welcoming investors to invest in Tanzania.
President Samia takes the issue of private sector investment very seriously, acknowledging on numerous occasions that if Tanzania is to make any stride in its development efforts private sector’s contribution cannot be ignored.
“We discourage the private sector from investing,” the Head of State decried. “I have reports of potential investors intending to install medical test machines but there is nobody to listen or welcome them.”
She blamed the failure of the five-year Health Sector Strategic Plan, launched on June 17, 2021, to deliver its targets on state bureaucrats’ failure to embrace the private sector and what it can offer to the nation.
“It’s one year now since we launched the plan,” Samia pointed out. “But what have we achieved in incorporating the private sector in provision of social services—do our words, deeds and writings match?”
The 2nd anniversary of the death of President Mkapa, who died on July 24, 2020, took place at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Zanzibar on Thursday, July 14, 2022, with President Samia leading other former Heads of State in commemorating the life of the third-phase president of Tanzania.
This includes former South African President Thabo Mbeki who described Mr Mkapa as “more than a pan-Africanist,” saying: “He understood that Tanzania’s neighbours faced very similar problems to those he had helped solve during his tenure as president. As such, he had a commitment to the African people and their problems, regardless of their country.”
Another deadly car accident kills five in Simiyu
A road accident in the Bariadi district of the Simiyu region killed five people on Thursday leaving 11 others with injuries following two vehicles ferrying passengers collided head-on just outside the Bariadi town.
Simiyu regional police commander Balsius Chatanda told reporters that the accident involved two Toyota ProBox and Toyota Wish passenger vehicles plying the Bariadi-Lamadi-Busega route.
“Survivors admitted at the facility sustained injuries at different parts of their bodies,” Dr Constantine said. “their condition is progressing well though they’re still receiving treatment.”
The accident in Simiyu comes one day after another road accident killed eight people, including a mother and her four children, on Tuesday after two vehicles collided head-on at the Busiri area of Biharamulo district, Kagera region.
The accident also comes 13 days after another Toyota Wish crashed at Luguru, Itilima district, killing five people and injuring five others.
Govt to build 13 irrigation schemes in highland regions
National Irrigation Commission director general Raymond Mndolwa said on Wednesday that plans were underway to construct 13 irrigation schemes in the country’s southern highlands breadbasket region of Mbeya, covering 24,550 hectares of land to boost food production.
Mr Mndolwa said the 13 irrigation schemes will be constructed during the 2022/2023 financial year that runs from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
Briefing journalists on his tour of the southern highlands regions of Katavi, Rukwa, Songwe and Mbeya where he inspected irrigation farming, Mr Mndolwa said the 13 irrigation schemes will be constructed in Mbeya’s districts of Mbarali, Kyela, and Rungwe.
“It is high time Tanzania lessened dependence on rain-fed agriculture,” said Mndolwa, adding the construction of the irrigation schemes will go in tandem with the renovation of old schemes.
Mbeya regional commissioner Juma Homera pledged full support to the National Irrigation Commission in ensuring success in the construction of the irrigation schemes.
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