Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on April 10, 2025

After Surviving 36 Bullets in 2017, Tanzanian Opposition Leader Tundu Lissu Now Faces Treason— Which Carries the Death Penalty

Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Antiphas Lissu has been charged with treason following his arrest on April 09, 2025, in Mbinga, SouthernTanzania. Lissu was transferred to Dar es Salaam and interrogated at the Central police station today, April 10, 2025, and later on brought to Kisutu Court.

At the Kisutu Court, Lissu faced two cases, the treason case and the case for publishing false information. Lissu, who survived an assassination attempt in 2017 when his car was spread with 36 bullets from assassins, joked with people as he was waiting to be brought inside courtroom, ‘I can’t use this door, I’am not a judge’, Lissu joked with a group of reporters and party supporters as he was waiting to be brought inside the court.

Lissu was charged with treason following his April 03, 2025, remarks at the CHADEMA’s offices in Mikocheni. Lissu was addressing a group of party aspirants for the upcoming general election 2025, where he emphasized the party meant what it said regarding the ‘no reforms, no election’ stance.

Through rallies and other platforms, Lissu has emphasized the party will neither boycott nor participate in the election, but stop it. Lissu has dubbed Tanzanian elections a ‘slaughterhouse’ due to a myriad of issues, including violence against its supporters, where in the 2024 civic election, two local government election candidates were killed from their homes.

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Mavunde Meets European Union Delegation, Commends Partnership in Developing the Mining Sector

The Minister of Minerals, Anthony Mavunde, met with a delegation from the European Union in his office in Dodoma. The delegation was led by Deputy Ambassador Isabelle Mignucci, and the meeting focused on the development of the mining sector in Tanzania, particularly the advancement of strategic minerals.

During the discussions, the European Union commended Tanzania’s efforts to ensure that the mining sector contributes significantly to the national economy. The EU also pledged to provide 60 million euros to support the development of the sector.

These funds are planned to be used for improving infrastructure such as roads in mining areas, ensuring reliable electricity supply, providing technical training to Tanzanians, and conducting in-depth mineral research in various regions.

Minister Mavunde welcomed the EU’s support and emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation in order to develop the country’s mining sector further. He particularly stressed the need to focus on value addition to minerals within the country to enhance economic benefits, especially in terms of job creation.

“Our top priority now is to ensure that our minerals are processed and given added value within the country, so we can gain more benefits. Therefore, our cooperation must also focus specifically on attracting investment in value addition industries within Tanzania,” said Mavunde.

On the Tanzanian side, the meeting was also attended by Dr. Musa Budeba, Chief Executive Officer of the Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST), and Assistant Commissioner for Minerals, Eng. Terence Ngole.

Aidan Eyakuze’s Reflection on Leadership and Democracy: ‘Never Underestimate the Lust for Power’

The following excerpt is from a presentation delivered by the outgoing Executive Director of Twaweza East Africa, reflecting on his ten-year leadership journey. The event took place on April 10, 2025, at the Protea Courtyard Hotel in Upanga.

Aidan Eyakuze: When you look around, it’s very hard to deny that there’s been a significant democratic backsliding or recession, deterioration when you look around the world. A picture can look really, really very grim. I think part of the challenge has been, we had a forward momentum after the fall of the Berlin Wall and, you know, an expansion of citizen participation in the choice of government. That forward momentum has slowed down.

Some have said it’s even stopped. In some countries, it has reversed. I think one of the big challenges, and maybe also for us to think about in our countries, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, has been us as citizens, I think, [we have] just let the train go. We took it for granted that this forward momentum of expanding freedoms was the natural order of things, that all we had to do was sit back or ride the train.

And there were very, very, very few of us, and I’m glad to say, some are in this very room, who actually stood up and made sure to drive that train forward. But I have a feeling that the burden grew heavier and heavier. Zitto will tell you, Mzee Utouh will tell you. These are the people here who were driving that train of expanding freedoms, expanding accountability of governments to citizens. But it got heavier because we, ordinary citizens, took it for granted that that was going to be the order of things going forward.

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New Cooperative Bank Set to Transform Tanzania’s Agricultural Financing

The Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, has announced that the Government of Tanzania will launch a National Cooperative Bank (CoopBankTanzania) to address challenges faced by farmers in accessing financial services through commercial banks.

Speaking to journalists on April 10, 2025, in Dodoma, Minister Bashe said the bank will be officially launched on April 28, 2025, by President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The bank will start with a capital of TZS 55 billion and will be owned 51% by cooperative unions. The remaining 49% of shares will be held by other stakeholders.

“In the past, Tanzania had a Cooperative Bank known as the Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (CRDB). However, after the collapse of the cooperative sector, the bank was transformed into a commercial entity, which is now known as CRDB,” Bashe explained.

He added that the failure of community banks like Kilimanjaro Cooperative Bank and Tandahimba Cooperative Bank — which needed government intervention and supervision to recover — reinforced the need to establish a new cooperative bank focused on supporting economic growth in rural communities, especially for farmers.

As of December 2024, Tanzania had 6,570 cooperative societies registered in the Cooperative Societies Management System (MUVU), out of 7,820 listed in the National Cooperative Societies Registry.

These cooperatives held assets valued at TZS 5.1 trillion as of the 2023/2024 audit. Additionally, 1.7 million tons of produce worth TZS 1.98 trillion were collected and sold through the warehouse receipt system under cooperative structures. This compares to 1.8 million tons worth TZS 1.76 trillion sold in the 2022/2023 financial year.

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