Opinion
Analysis
Transport costs inflate food
prices, what to do?
Consumers in urban areas, particularly Dar es Salaam, have been victims of
circumstance as far as the price of food crops is concerned.
Most food crops that are sold at various Dar es Salaam market places are
transported from upcountry, and what determines their prices is linked to the
mode of transport.
With regard to these means; using lorries and light trucks always makes the
charges high, but is advisable so as to deliver the foodstuff fresh, hence
traders who also want to make some profit have to raise the prices of food
crops.
The same type of equation affects meat sellers in the city. They depend on
cattle from upcountry, which are now being transported on trucks. This does not
only affect meat sellers but also consumers, as the prices rise to compensate
for the transport charges, and at least provide meat sellers with some profit.
Currently in most of the city’s market places, food crops have indicated a
slight increase which will rise as the harvest season ends.
All this is caused by the mode of transport that is used. The government could
do something to ease the burden on consumers. Let us take an example:
This can be done through special arrangements. Transporters and traders can be
allocated train wagons instead of using trucks. This can at least ease the
prices as the mode of transport is also cheaper.
It is also relevant that almost all food crops that come into Dar es Salaam are
from areas where rail transport is available. For example, potatoes and bananas
come from Mbeya, where TAZARA operates.
Cereal foods come from Kilombero, Ifakara and Morogoro, where TAZARA and TRA
operates, cattle and fish from the Lake Region, Singida and Dodoma where TRC
operates.
Let the respective authorities initiate the practice of giving priority to these
traders in the allocation of wagons, so that the price of commodities goes down
for the benefit of both consumers and traders.
Fighting AIDS
with an iron fist
Last week our country opened a new chapter in the fight against HIV/AIDS when
the former US President, Bill Clinton officially launched Tanzania Benjamin
William Mkapa National Fellows Program, which will be working closely with the
Clinton Foundation.
The fight against HIV/AIDS is a double edged one, meaning that we are both
fighting against new infections and caring for the people who are already
infected with the deadly virus.
We have learnt that, through this new programme, highly specialized
professionals will be deployed to assist many people in rural areas and
villages, where most people do not have much access to medical services.
The Clinton Foundation, of course in collaboration with the government, will
assist in the advanced training and deployment of at least 30 medical
professionals each year.
We sincerely think that, this programme has come at the right time because the
country is confronted with a severe problem in view of the fact that it is
estimated that 1.8 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. The situation is
particularly bad for the young people aged between 15 and 24.
We are pleased that the government has announced an unprecedented plan, in which
a total of US$ 20 million has been earmarked for purchasing life-prolonging
drugs. This year’s budget is quite promising compared to that of last year, when
the government only disbursed US$ 8.3 million.
These drugs commonly known as Anti Retrovirals (ARVs) are not for treatment,
they are only for helping those who are severely affected by the disease by
giving them relief.
President Mkapa pointed out last week that, while in the rich countries,
HIV/AIDS has changed from being a death sentence to being a chronic but
manageable disease; the sufferers in Africa are still finding treatment beyond
their reach.
In Tanzania for instance, by the end of this year 44,000 people will be
incorporated in the government’s programme of care and treatment.
Despite the low number, it is a good start. As Clinton said, the efforts to
fight HIV/AIDS need to be vigorous. We hope that those efforts being initiated
by the government will bear fruit and protect the entire country from the
dangers of losing human resource.
Analysis
No more Muafaka accords
By Evarist Kagaruki
The consequences of pluralism or multiparty politics on political viability and
social cohesion in Tanzania, which become manifest especially at election times
like this, seem to be distorting the very essence of democracy. The unity, peace
and tranquillity that are the hallmarks of our independence and nationhood have
been under threat since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1992.
Under the single-party system, our country was more at peace with itself and
more stable than it is today. It attained a level of national unity which was
unique in the whole of Africa, and this has been the envy of many outside our
borders. Our unity had almost succeeded in breaking tribal, religious, racial
and regional affiliations. But today, because of multipartysm, these have
resurfaced and fermented the divisive politics around which the prevailing
tensions revolve.
Despite all this, Tanzania will never ever go back to single-party authoritarian
rule. Democracy is here to stay, because that is the only way forward. The
dissolution of the one-party system had ushered in all kinds of fundamental
freedoms, enhanced the respect for human rights and brought hope for
socio-economic progress. This trend is irreversible.
However, ours is democracy at fault. The nature and form of the multiparty
politics we are practising is undermining the three pillars of our nation:
unity, peace and stability, without which democracy and prosperity are
impossible to attain.
The peace accord, popularly known as “Muafaka”, signed by the ruling party, CCM,
and the main opposition Civic United Front following the horrific events in
Zanzibar in January 2001, in the wake of the disputed results of the October
2000 general elections, bears testimony to the fact that the conduct of our
plural politics is just not right. In truly democratic societies, political
competitors don’t need peace accords, because democracy itself ensures
sustainable peace. However, the Muafaka has brought a semblance of serenity on
the Isles. It must be safeguarded for the sake of the forthcoming elections.
The scope of the Muafaka has now been extended to embrace the other 16
registered political parties and thus broaden the prospects for peace beyond the
political horizons of Zanzibar. This is a welcome development. For, we need a
national peace accord for political discourse not only between CCM and CUF, but
among all the key players (the registered political parties) if we have to have
peaceful elections.
The conference of the Secretaries-General of the political parties, which was
opened by President Mkapa last Saturday in Zanzibar as part of the on-going
process of dialogue between CCM and CUF, lends more weight to the spirit of the
Muafaka. We are all anxious over the state of this year’s general elections and
want our leaders to show that the conference wasn’t a waste of time and
resources – that indeed it was serious business and not merrymaking.
We may also link to this the vital signing by six political parties, the
National Electoral Commission, the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties,
etc., of an agreement “binding” them to a code of conduct during the next
elections. This is also a commendable step, which is unprecedented.
But all these positive developments will be inconsequential if the attitudes and
mentality of politicians does not change. Signing a piece of paper is one thing,
and implementing what is on the paper is quite a different matter. History is
replete with empirical evidence of peace accords broken even before the ink had
dried because those who signed did so with their minds, not their hearts!
Since 1995, Zanzibar has had two peace agreements which have not brought
sustainable peace in the country.
In view of past experience, wherein our leaders exhibited the tendency to put
national interests behind the narrow political interests embedded in their
respective political parties, cynics contemplate (God forbid) a “third Muafaka”
after October! But, let us hope this is sheer cynicism. Otherwise it is
incumbent upon the leaders (both in the political parties and in government) to
prove these cynics wrong, by living up to the commitments they have already made
in the Muafaka, and making our elections a big success.