Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania over the weekend.
Police release Lissu, others after hours of detention
Police on Sunday evening released CHADEMA deputy national chairperson (Tanzania Mainland) Tundu Lissu and three other party senior leaders after detaining them for hours, accusing them of holding an illegal rally and obstructing law enforcement officers from carrying out their duties.
Mr Lissu and his fellow CHADEMA leaders, which include the party’s women wing (BAWACHA) secretary-general, a central committee member Susan Kiwanga and the party’s mobilisation leader Twaha Mwaipaya were arrested earlier in the morning, causing uproar among the party’s members and the general public.
The arrest followed Lissu’s decision on September 8, 2023, to hold two rallies in Ngorongoro and Loliondo despite an earlier directive from the Police ordering him to cease all rallies in the area.
Police said that CHADEMA did not have a special permit from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), and in the case of Loliondo, Police explained that they had been informed that no rallies should be held there.
Nonetheless, Lissu went ahead with the rallies, emphasising that “Ngorongoro is not a prison, and its residents have the same rights as other citizens.”
For background on the issue, read our full story here.
Fire erupts on Mount Kilimanjaro – second time in less than a year
More than 130 firefighters were dispatched to Mount Kilimanjaro over the weekend to combat a wildfire that has been raging for nearly a week, authorities announced.
The Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) issued a statement that said the fire broke out near the Indonet-Rongai area in the Rombo district.
It added that a team of 134 firefighters from various military branches are tirelessly working to contain the blaze.
Catherine Mbena, TANAPA’s senior conservation officer in charge of communications, said the exact cause of the fire, which started Sept. 3, is still under investigation.
“We are still in the process of determining the root cause and will inform the public once we have sufficient information,” she said, adding that tourism activities around Kilimanjaro continued uninterrupted.
This is the second time in less than a year that fire rages at the world’s tallest free-standing mountain at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level. In October 2022, a fire burned for three days at the mountain until it was finally put off with the armed forces’ assistance.
The fire was burning near the camp Karanga site used by climbers ascending the mountain, at about 4,000 metres altitude on the mountain’s south side.
The latest fire outbreak at the mountain also comes a few months after authorities revealed that they have started taking measures to protect Mount Kilimanjaro.
On April 5, 2023, the Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office responsible for Union and Environment said a team of experts had been formed to investigate the causes of the fire outbreaks.
Mr Jafo made the statement in response to a question from Same East MP (Chama cha Mapinduzi – CCM) Anne Kilango Malecela, who had wanted to know about measures being taken by the government to protect Mount Kilimanjaro from recurrent fire outbreaks.
He said the team includes members from the University of Dar es Salaam, the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in the Morogoro region and the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in the Arusha region.
It is unclear if the team has finalised its investigation into the matter and if the report has been submitted to relevant authorities.
Amplifying youth ingenuity in shaping Tanzania’s 2050 Development Vision
Tanzania’s journey toward progress has been steered by visionary strategies intended to catapult the nation into economic, social, and infrastructural advancement.
As the government initiated the process of crafting the Tanzania Vision 2050 earlier this year, a crucial question arose: How can the youth actively participate in shaping this vision?
The youth will contribute to and benefit from the 2050 Tanzania Development Vision. We draw from historical milestones and the transformative role that youth-focused initiatives have played in shaping previous visions.
Tanzania’s voyage towards development traces its origins back to the pre-independence era, an epoch defined by British colonial rule. The absence of formalised development blueprints during this era stands in stark contrast to the subsequent chapters in the nation’s story.
Full analysis here.
Making sense of coups and democratic renewal in Africa
Africa has experienced an uptick in Unconstitutional Changes of Government (UCG) over the past three years, with Gabon recently joining a fray host of countries – Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan and Guinea – who have all experienced successful coups.
These latest developments in the widening ‘coup belt’ across the Sahel, West Africa and Central Africa underscore the need to understand better the underlying socio-economic drivers of this rise in coups and how to address them.
A new research paper by UNDP entitled Soldiers and Citizens: Military Coups and The Need for Democratic Renewal in Africa, published in July 2023, examines these structural drivers and finds that persistent insecurity, stagnant growth, exclusionary economic governance and low development indicators are associated with higher coup risk.
The research findings in this report were based on a vast perceptions survey, which captured the views of 8,000 citizens across Africa. Among the respondents, 5,000 are African citizens who lived through coups or equivalent UCG events in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan.
Full analysis here.
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