Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Monday, November 14, 2022.
Cabinet deliberates Bukoba plane crash, orders investigation
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday convened an emergency cabinet meeting at the Chamwino State House, in the capital Dodoma, to discuss the November 6 plane crash which took place in Lake Victoria, killing 19 people.
The aircraft, 5H-PWF, ATR42-500, was flying from Dar es Salaam to Bukoba when the accident occurred around 08:53 am. Reports suggest that there were 39 passengers (38 adults and one infant) and four crew on board the plane.
President Samia was away when the accident happened, attending the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh.
Briefing reporters on the cabinet meeting’s deliberations on Monday, the Government Chief Spokesperson Gerson Msigwa said in Dodoma that the cabinet received the preliminary report into the accident and steps that have been taken since the accident took place.
“The Cabinet directed local experts to partner with foreign ones in investigating the accident,” Mr Msigwa told journalists on Monday.
He said the scope of the investigation is to find the real source of the accident as well as proposals for preventing similar accidents from occurring in the future.
Already, France’s BEA air accident investigation agency is expecting to send in a team of investigators to look into the accident.
According to reports, the team will be accompanied by technical advisers from Franco-Italian planemaker ATR, which built the ATR 42-500 turboprop.
Full story here.
Will GNU survive ongoing CCM, ACT-Wazalendo wrangling?
The latest row between the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and its junior partner in the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zanzibar ACT-Wazalendo has had pundits musing on the sustainability of the power-sharing arrangement aimed at managing political crises in the semi-autonomous archipelago.
The fall-out follows President Hussein Mwinyi’s appointment of an official that ACT-Wazalendo disapproves of as the new director of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC). Mr Thabit Idarous Faina’s appointment was made during the reshuffling of Mwinyi’s team of Permanent Secretaries.
At the capacity of ZEC director, Mr Faina oversaw the 2020 general election that human rights organisations said was marred by “massive irregularities,” setting off a wave of violence that affected several people in Zanzibar, some died while others have remained with permanent disabilities.
It was against this background that ACT-Wazalendo criticised his appointment, urging Dr Mwinyi to revoke it, arguing that the decision does not reflect well on his commitments to building sustainable solutions to Zanzibar’s recurring political crises.
“It just shows that President Mwinyi has no plan to implement the proposals of his own task force,” Salim Bimani, ACT-Wazalendo’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “It seems his only interest is to line up a team that will deliver his reelection in 2025.”
Full story here.
CHADEMA rejects findings regarding Petra Diamonds dam breach
Opposition party CHADEMA on Monday rejected the preliminary findings from the investigation into the dam breach at Petra Diamonds’ Williamson mine which reports indicate affected an estimated number of 19 households and 59 individuals in Tanzania’s northern region.
On Saturday, the team formed by Shinyanga regional commissioner Sophia Mjema to look into the accident said that the public has no reason to fear following the breach, noting that the mud released from the factory is harmless.
Musa Kuzumila, the government’s chief chemist in the Lake Zone, told journalists on Saturday that based on the investigation, it was found that the mud is harmless both to human beings and animals.
“There are no chemicals that are known to be harmful to human beings and animals in the mud,” Mr Kuzumila was quoted as saying. “In fact, the water that this mud entered can be used for human consumption.”
Full story here.
Tanzanian national arrested for possession of cocaine in India
Indian law enforcement officers on Sunday arrested a 33-year-old woman from Tanzania for possessing and attempting to sell cocaine.
According to reports by the Indian press, the police said a tip-off was received about an African woman selling costly drugs in and around the locality.
Based on the information, a special police team organised a vehicle inspection at Santhi Colony 3rd Avenue.
Reports indicate that when they stopped a call taxi, the police team checked the African-origin passenger, and she was found to be in possession of cocaine.
The police arrested the accused identified as H. Prisca Hamsa of Tanzania and retrieved more than 10g of cocaine kept hidden in her bag.
The police later produced the accused before a judicial magistrate and sent her to prison.
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