Bongoland's Press

Sakina Datoo, the Editorial Director of The Guardian Newspapers Ltd, and Ayoub Rioba, of The Citizen, were interviewed on the talk show Channel Ten on Monday last night on the question of whether the behavior of the press in Tanzania can cause disharmony, or even violence. The subject matter was inspired by the government's statement earlier in the day that rebuked Reginald Mengi, the Executive Chairman of IPP Media and Rostam Aziz, owner of New Habari Media Group, for using their media outlets to attack each other, saying that such behaviour is potentially divisive and could sow 'the seeds of discord [and] disharmony [that] may lead to breach of the peace.' 

Now, I don't want to contribute even more words to the soap operatic catfight between Mr. Mengi and Mr. Aziz but just to provide some context; a fortnight ago Mr. Mengi called a press conference where he listed, Joe McCarthy-style, five prominent businessmen, among them Mr. Aziz, he considers to be the most corrupt figures in Tanzanian society. Mr. Aziz responded in kind, accusing him of being a 'graft whale' and releasing his own list of charges against Mr. Mengi. And on it went, prompting yesterday's intervention by the government which in turn lead to that discussion on Channel Ten.

So, are reporters being used to propagandize the agendas of their bosses'?

Ms. Datoo was quick to rebut such charges, saying that none of her reporters are parrots. She went on to make a passionate defense of journalists arguing that they are a serious minded bunch who take their responsibilities of reporting the truth seriously. On this, either Ms. Datoo was being disingenuous or demonstrating a remarkable lack of awareness. Take a look, for example, how this story got reported. From the Daily News:

The Civic United Front National Chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, has criticised the IPP Executive Chairman, Mr Reginald Mengi, for his recent list of corrupt businessmen and accused him of eroding efforts on war against graft. Prof Lipumba said in a statement to the press yesterday that the style that Mr Mengi used to name five fellow businessmen as sharks of corruption can not be supported by any patriotic citizen. 

“Mr Mengi’s statement is dangerous as it intends to implant seeds of discrimination and hatred between Tanzanians of Asian origin and other members of the society. It is not true that those five are the perpetrators of corruption in the country,” he said.

Compare the above quote with Nasser Kigwangallah's version of events that appeared in The Guardian:

'[Prof. Lipumba] commended IPP Chairman Reginald Mengi for taking a bold stand by naming those he referred to as sharks of corruption...[He] said Mengi should name more corrupt officials in the government involved in graft (29th April, 2009).

Now, do you believe, as Ms. Datoo apparently wants us to, that the above graf made it into the article because that is what Prof. Lipumba said or is it because the journalist was spinning the narrative his bosses asked him to parrot, that of Mr. Mengi as a 'bold' anti-corruption crusader? I shall leave that up to your judgement. 

As I said before, I am not interested in the who-is-more-corrupt-debate between Mr. Mengi and Mr. Aziz. I actually think we owe a debt of gratitude to both Mr. Mengi and Mr. Aziz. Their little spat revealed, for all to see, how shoddy, unprofessional and unethical a significant part of our establishment media really is; how media owners shamelessly employ their newspapers and television stations (ITV, another one of Mr. Mengi's media outlets devoted a special programme to his press conference) to push their own personal agendas. But what is even more troubling is the sight of journalists, like Ms. Datoo, acting as apologists for such abuses of power.

Begging to Master

This little piece news was missed by most of the local press:

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement on Tanzania today:

“In the context of the ongoing dialogue under the Policy Support Instrument, an IMF staff mission and the Tanzanian authorities have reached broad agreement on policies that will help Tanzania address the impact of the global financial crisis. These policies aim at bolstering the Tanzanian economy, which has been affected by declining receipts from traditional exports and tourism, and protecting the most vulnerable segments of the population.

“In support of these policies, and to help mitigate the exogenous shock stemming from the global economic downturn, Tanzania has requested financial support under the high-access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility. It is expected that the request will be considered by the IMF's Executive Board before the end of May," Mr. Strauss-Kahn said.

The statement is too vague for my liking. What are the strings attached to this bail-out money and why is the government being so secretive about it all? Something fishy is going on here that they don't want us to know about. We'll be keeping an eye on this as it develops.

Bombs explode in Dar

Yesterday around noon, tremors were felt across the city after a weapons and ammunition dump exploded killing at least three people and leaving hundreds injured. The explosions took place at an Army Barrack in the Mbagala suburb, 15km from the city centre. From The Citizen:

The Government yesterday appointed a team to investigate a series of explosions at a Dar es Salaam military depot, in which 10 people, including several army personnel, are feared to have died. 

Sources in the Tanzania People's Defence Forces in Dar es Salaam told The Citizen last evening that the explosions occurred as Katyusha and anti-aircraft rockets were being moved.

Hundreds of Mbagala residents were injured in the blasts and taken to Temeke District Hospital, which was overwhelmed by a sudden influx of people seeking treatment. Scores of parents reported their children missing.

One of the doctors at Temeke District Hospital, a medical student from Britain, told the BBC of his experience:

When the first casualties arrived, we received a lot of people who were very shaken up. All the doctors dropped what they were doing to help. There were children coming in with school uniforms on. There were a few people with explosion injuries. Some had severe head injuries. I also know of at least one amputation carried out on a casualty. I'm told that a lot of people were injured evacuating the area. I heard one of those people died. And there were a lot of people admitted with things like asthma.

As harrowing eye-witness accounts continue to make their way onto news reports, the question that's on everyones mind is: why did the army store such dangerous weapons near a residential neighborhood? 

UPDATE: These cats took 'the don't let a crisis go to waste' mantra a little too far:

[T]hieves and pickpockets had a field day helping themselves to an assortment of booty -- even as soldiers and their families ran for their lives from the base. At least two young men were arrested and were found to be in possession of ten explosive devices. “I saw them walk around the base … then I decided to follow them … they had various explosives when I arrested them … there were four of them … but another two managed to escape,” said Mr Abeid Mchopa, an auxiliary police, who was helping to guard the base during the blasts.

UPDATE II: The local press is reporting that the death toll has risen to 20 but unconfirmed, anecdotal reports say that the actual casualty number is higher than that being reported by the media. Then there is this troubling bit of news: 

The Dar es Salaam Red Cross announced that over 500 children had been missing since Wednesday. 

Initially, some 1,180 children had been reported missing, according to Red Cross chairperson Mayasa Mikidadi.

We pray that they will soon be re-united with their parents.

Bernie Madoff spawns disciples in TZ

Elsie over at Just Another Day In Paradise is on the case:

Development Entrepreneurship for Community Development (DECI) was registered by some shady independent church as a business, which allowed it to fly under the radar of our hawk-eyed Government undetected for quite the while. The organization encouraged people to 'plant' their investments so they could 'reap' returns of 100% interest or more...

CCM definitely in trouble

So claims a new poll. From The Citizen, the key findings:

A poll by the Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (Redet) shows that the ruling party's popularity has declined by half, from 60 per cent in 2006 to 32.6 per cent last year. 

Redet principal researcher, Dr Bernadeta Killian said the survey indicates that public support for opposition parties grew from 18 per cent in 2006 to 27 per cent in 2008.

On President Kikwete, the poll shows that while he remained popular, confidence in his leadership fell from 90.1 per cent in 2006, to 79.4 per cent in 2007. 

It dropped to 78.5 per cent in the latest poll. The President lost huge ground on public confidence with the percentage of those who said they did not trust him jumping from 7.8 per cent in 2006 to 19.3 per cent in the November 2008 poll. 

Now, polls can be notoriously unreliable. Ask Hillary Clinton. They don't necessarily foretell which way the electorate is going to vote. What they can provide, however, is a snapshot at a given moment of what voters are thinking. And the two most recent surveys (Read my review of the Steadman poll here), tell us that while the President remains enormously popular, his party is struggling. And the fall of support for the ruling party seems to have translated into significant gains for the opposition. 

What does this mean? I think for the first time since the beginning of multiparty democracy in this country, voters are tentatively expressing a desire for divided government. They are clearly not yet sold on the opposition as a viable governing alternative. But i think it is reasonable to extrapolate from these two studies that they want a more powerful opposition presence in parliament. They are giving a serious listen to what the opposition are offering. The question then becomes, will the opposition take advantage of this opportunity or will they continue to be ill-defined, disorganised and listless, the way they have been in the last 15 years? The next 18 months should give us an answer.

IN THE NEWS: A SCANDAL AT BOT, EAC DITHERING

• The Controller and Auditor General, Ludovick Utouh, finds evidence of inflated insurance payments and other suspicious irregularities in the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) accounts.

• The East African Community (EAC)-Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda- again fail to reach a consensus on the regional common market. Sukhdev Chhatbar lays out the challenges facing the EAC at their upcoming meeting in Arusha.

• Via The New Yorker Book Bench, Canadian women would rather read a book than have sex with their partners. (I wonder if Tanzanian women hold similar views).

• According to The New York Times Barack Obama's presidency is having a profound impact on the way Americans view race relations.

• Over at Louder Than Swahili, Ms. Pernille Baerendtsen relays some useful advice.
  

No natives allowed...

This is what David Maige, a local employee of Lake Manyara National Park, was told when he took his family to visit the Lake Manyara Hotel in Arusha. From The Guardian on Sunday:

Upon approaching the main gate of the prestigious lodge, watchmen relayed a piece of information to him which didn't register immediately as being factual - that the facility was a no-go zone for natives, but the preserve of foreigners and members of the power elite.

The reason:

'Since terrorists have no labels, the management decided to restrict an influx of local people into the lodge,' the hotel boss noted.

Ah, these bloody natives. Always annoying Master when he is having fun. Why do they not understand that this here territory is only for Master and his House Negroes? Go back to the plantation and stop bothering Master when he is trying to have a good time.