Monday, 2 January 2017
Ministers to move in 60 days
DODOMA. The government has revealed that preparations for its shift from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma has reached an advanced stage.
According to its schedule that is in place, by next month, all Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and their deputies should be in the designated capital. Other departmental employees would thereafter keep on shifting in batches after every two or three months.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has issued a directive indicating that from March to September, this year, at least 80 per cent of the government should relocate.
That is to say, in 2017 the designated capital will experience major changes in terms of increasing population, which is expected to receive 3 million people and, in all other socioeconomic facets.
Giving an exclusive interview to The Citizen yesterday, Dodoma Regional Commissioner Jordan Rugimbana said that 2017 would be a year of major renovations, constructions and relocations.
Capital centre expansion
As population is expected to grow, the government plans to expand the municipality. The plan include the establishment of satellite cities in all districts nearby the central business district. “We have already set a side chunk of lands in districts bordering the town districts. The districts in question are: Mpwapwa, Bahi, Chamwino and Kondoa. The envisaged satellite cities will comprise all necessary social services like schools, colleges, shopping centres, sport grounds and modern dispensaries and banks.
“The Master Plan for the projects have already been drafted and Reli Assets Holding Company (Rahco) has already assured us it would establish commuter trains,” he said.
Restructuring of plan
As Dodoma is increasingly growing into an important city in the country, the RC said, upgrading projects would adhere to standards and focus on attracting businesses. “A team of high-profile technicians picked by Prime Minister to study the Dodoma Master Plan and amend it has already completed the work,” he said.
According to him, the plan will see major renovations, constructions and relocations in the designated capital. “There will be demolitions of some buildings in the municipality and some people, especially traders, will be relocated to the outskirts. We want to construct many storey buildings,” he expressed.
Smart bus stations
“About 70 smart bus stations will be constructed in the first-phase of the project planned to start this month. The state-of-the-art bus stations will be installed with antennas for providing free Internet through WiFI. Other services include, mini shops for mobile money transfer, selling newspapers and shoe shiners. There will also be public telephones, CCTV cameras for security surveillance, and smart waster bins,” he briefed.
Nara business complex
Considering that from this year Dodoma will start receiving a number of high-profile diplomatic dignitaries, plans are afoot to establish a special business centre for the capital. The centre will be established at Nara area, about 20 kilometres from the municipality. “All traders at the town centre will be relocated to the envisaged centre,” Mr Rugimbana said.
He detailed that all important services will be available at the centre including shops and banks.
Construction of govt centre
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has concluded the surveying of the land that will be used by the government in all six districts of Dodoma region. According to RC Rugimbana, the surveyed land, which is about 20,000 acres, will be used for the construction of offices for all ministries and other government departments.
“Plans for the construction of the government city at Ihumwa, Bwigiri and Mtumba wards has reached an advanced stage. We expect that the project will take off this year. The City will comprise offices, residential buildings, commercial service blocks, playing grounds, an air strip, and other necessary social services, he said.
“I remain very positive that all of these intended projects will be accomplished as planned by the government and other stakeholders giving us a hand of support,” he added.
Friday, 4 November 2016
EWURA rated among best water regulators
THE Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) has been rated the best among various water regulators from Eastern and Southern Africa in terms of good regulatory governance arrangement.
“EWURA has excellent regulatory governance arrangements and in many respects could be a continental leader,” says the report by the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation (ESAWAS) Regulators Association Peer Review.
The Report’s findings were presented yesterday in Dar es Salaam at the end of three days ESAWAS’ Annual Conference. ESAWAS is currently composed of seven members which are Water and Sanitations Regulators from Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Burundi and Tanzania.
Of all, EWURA is the regulatory authority that oversee 130 utilities, the highest number among the block, followed by Kenya 103, Zambia (18), Mozambique (15) and Rwanda, Burundi and Lesotho has one-each.
EWURA, according to peer review has an excellent regulatory governance arrangement due to the fact that the law gives clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the regulator and foster a degree of stability and permanence in the governance and substance of the regulatory system.
The Peer Review further emphasised that among other things, the laws must clearly empower the regulator to establish tariffs, monitor the performance of regulated entities and make rules and subsidiary policy for the sector.
The law, according to ESAWAS peer review, must empower the regulator to fully enforce its decisions, standards, and rules, as well as relevant public policy, and set binding standards in such appropriate areas as technical and economic services quality.
The peer review focused among other things on regulatory governance looking at stability of policies and legislation, financial and administrative independence, accountability, reporting, appeals, transparency and participation that witnessed EWURA complying to.
ESAWAS began in 2007 as an informal meeting held among five Water and Sanitation regulators from countries in Eastern and Southern African region to exchange experiences and knowledge on matters related to water and sanitation. Among other objectives of the Association is to enhance regulatory capacity of members to deliver quality and effective regulation to achieve public policy objectives through cooperation and mutual assistance.
In 2009, EWURA emerged the best regulator in electricity, after a Peer Review conducted by the University of Cape Town and involving others regulators from Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Namibia and Ghana.
Also in year 2011, a research conducted by the European Union (EU) indicated that EWURA was the best regulator in Africa in terms of governance, transparency and independence. In June last year, EWURA won an award and trophy as Energy Regulator of the Year Award for Excellence 2015.
The event took place in Dubai at the Annual Africa Energy Forum. Also a report by the Bloomberg News indicated that in 2015, EWURA was leading in Africa for creating conducive environment for investment attraction in the energy sector in Sub-Saharan Afric
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
NECTA: Observe rules as Form Four exams start
A total of 408,442 students are expected to sit their Form Four exams starting today up to November 18, this year countrywide. Speaking yesterday in Dar es Salaam, The Executive Secretary of the National Examination Councils for Tanzania (Necta) Dr Charles Msonde, said among the candidates who registered for Form Four exams, 355,995 are school candidates and 52,447 are private candidates.
He said among the 355,995 school candidates who registered for the exams, 173,423 are boys which is equivalent to 48.72 per cent, and 182,572 are girls which is represented by 51.28 per cent.
He made a comparison with last year’s registered candidates as 448,382, adding that those who are visually impaired are 59 and those with poor vision numbering 283. Dr Msonde said that out of 52,447 candidates who registered as private candidates, 25,529 are boys which is equivalent to 48.68 per cent and 26,918 girls representing 51.32per cent.
He said the number of candidates sitting qualifying tests (QT) was 20,634 with the boys’ number placed at 7,819 (37.89 per cent) and girls’ numbering 12,815 (62.11 per cent), adding that seven candidates out of the number are visually impaired.
“All preparations for the examinations have been completed, including dispatching all the exam materials such as examinations, answer booklets and all necessary documents relating to the examination in regions of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.”
In addition, the Council has issued a warning to students, supervisors and teachers against violating examination regulations.
“We want to maintain discipline and observe regulations during the examination. If we find any one cheat with exam, we will take stringent action including the cancellation of exams results,” he warned.
Dr Msonde also urged the regional and municipal national examination committees to ensure that all operational procedures of the national examinations are followed properly.
He said among the 355,995 school candidates who registered for the exams, 173,423 are boys which is equivalent to 48.72 per cent, and 182,572 are girls which is represented by 51.28 per cent.
He made a comparison with last year’s registered candidates as 448,382, adding that those who are visually impaired are 59 and those with poor vision numbering 283. Dr Msonde said that out of 52,447 candidates who registered as private candidates, 25,529 are boys which is equivalent to 48.68 per cent and 26,918 girls representing 51.32per cent.
He said the number of candidates sitting qualifying tests (QT) was 20,634 with the boys’ number placed at 7,819 (37.89 per cent) and girls’ numbering 12,815 (62.11 per cent), adding that seven candidates out of the number are visually impaired.
“All preparations for the examinations have been completed, including dispatching all the exam materials such as examinations, answer booklets and all necessary documents relating to the examination in regions of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.”
In addition, the Council has issued a warning to students, supervisors and teachers against violating examination regulations.
“We want to maintain discipline and observe regulations during the examination. If we find any one cheat with exam, we will take stringent action including the cancellation of exams results,” he warned.
Dr Msonde also urged the regional and municipal national examination committees to ensure that all operational procedures of the national examinations are followed properly.
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HESLB sets loan appeal window
THE Higher Education Students' Loan Board (HESLB) is opening a 90-day appealing window to allow new and continuing students to challenge the board’s grading decision and subsequently cover a gap of over 5,000 students whose funds for loans have already been set aside.
The window set to be open tomorrow will involve students who did not qualify for the bursary and those who were not satisfied with the grading system for academic year 2016/17. HESLB’s newly appointed Executive Director Mr Abdul- Razaq Badru told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday a total of 5,326 students will benefit.
The government approved 483bn/- budget support for HESLB for academic year 2016/17. The budget was for 119,012 students of which 93,295 are continuing students and 25,717 are new students.
But official statement issued by the HESLB boss says out of the intended 25,717 students only 20,391 students had been approved for bursary leaving a gap of about 5,326. The number lined-up to benefit from this year’s high education student loan board is relatively limited but other than budgetary constraints, the government outlined yesterday that other reason why some students were not considered for this year’s support included poor filling of application forms.
It’s on record that the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) has this year announced to enroll about 58,000 students with Form Six qualifications and those with equivalent credentials, who were not admitted in the previous rounds.
Mr Badru said at the conference that at least 6,851 students did not bother to apply for financial support, whereas some also tried to apply but did not finish the application process as others were disqualified for lack of qualification.
“Some were above 30 years and some had finished Form Six three years prior to application,” he noted. The HESLB boss insisted however that the decision by the board to issue a 90-day grace period will allow those who were not happy with the earlier decision to appeal for additional bursary.
Mr Badru said the board has so far disbursed about 90 per cent of the required funding to all benefiting higher learning institutions’ account ready for allocating the funds to respective students.Yet he said the organisation is expecting to collect 56bn/- this year from previous recipients.
Meanwhile, the executive director said the government was reviewing all applicants to ensure all the students approved for bursary are those targeted by the governing law. He additionally said that from next month, the board will develop a special assessment form to review current financial status of all continuing students. This means that if students submit reports and their parents are proved to be financially stable, the board will revoke the bursary to a student.
But, Mr Badru said this will also help the board update its record however helping students who needs additional financial support. Institute of Financial Management (IFM) students organisation President Mr Kilonzo Mringa and University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) First Year Student Mr Edison Mwakyombe were concerned with the grading system used by the board, saying it had pushed away several students from poor family backgrounds.
“We have more than 50 continuing students at the Institute. Both of them are orphans and we are still registering more enrolled this year all of these have not been given student boom,” Mr Mringa pointed out.
Mr Mwakyombe, who is an orphan and enrolled to pursue Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Dar es Salaam, said he was not among the beneficiary despite having all the requirements to be part of the beneficiaries.
However, HESLB Manager for Information, Education and Communication, Mr Omega Ngole, explained that most students who did not qualify for financial support had not submitted the required documents or have not filled all the required details.
“Some applicants forgot to sign the documents while some submitted applications with their copies not having been certified ... they can’t get the loan,” he stressed.
The window set to be open tomorrow will involve students who did not qualify for the bursary and those who were not satisfied with the grading system for academic year 2016/17. HESLB’s newly appointed Executive Director Mr Abdul- Razaq Badru told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday a total of 5,326 students will benefit.
The government approved 483bn/- budget support for HESLB for academic year 2016/17. The budget was for 119,012 students of which 93,295 are continuing students and 25,717 are new students.
But official statement issued by the HESLB boss says out of the intended 25,717 students only 20,391 students had been approved for bursary leaving a gap of about 5,326. The number lined-up to benefit from this year’s high education student loan board is relatively limited but other than budgetary constraints, the government outlined yesterday that other reason why some students were not considered for this year’s support included poor filling of application forms.
It’s on record that the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) has this year announced to enroll about 58,000 students with Form Six qualifications and those with equivalent credentials, who were not admitted in the previous rounds.
Mr Badru said at the conference that at least 6,851 students did not bother to apply for financial support, whereas some also tried to apply but did not finish the application process as others were disqualified for lack of qualification.
“Some were above 30 years and some had finished Form Six three years prior to application,” he noted. The HESLB boss insisted however that the decision by the board to issue a 90-day grace period will allow those who were not happy with the earlier decision to appeal for additional bursary.
Mr Badru said the board has so far disbursed about 90 per cent of the required funding to all benefiting higher learning institutions’ account ready for allocating the funds to respective students.Yet he said the organisation is expecting to collect 56bn/- this year from previous recipients.
Meanwhile, the executive director said the government was reviewing all applicants to ensure all the students approved for bursary are those targeted by the governing law. He additionally said that from next month, the board will develop a special assessment form to review current financial status of all continuing students. This means that if students submit reports and their parents are proved to be financially stable, the board will revoke the bursary to a student.
But, Mr Badru said this will also help the board update its record however helping students who needs additional financial support. Institute of Financial Management (IFM) students organisation President Mr Kilonzo Mringa and University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) First Year Student Mr Edison Mwakyombe were concerned with the grading system used by the board, saying it had pushed away several students from poor family backgrounds.
“We have more than 50 continuing students at the Institute. Both of them are orphans and we are still registering more enrolled this year all of these have not been given student boom,” Mr Mringa pointed out.
Mr Mwakyombe, who is an orphan and enrolled to pursue Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Dar es Salaam, said he was not among the beneficiary despite having all the requirements to be part of the beneficiaries.
However, HESLB Manager for Information, Education and Communication, Mr Omega Ngole, explained that most students who did not qualify for financial support had not submitted the required documents or have not filled all the required details.
“Some applicants forgot to sign the documents while some submitted applications with their copies not having been certified ... they can’t get the loan,” he stressed.
Do you have anything to add or comment about this article? Let us know below.
Kidnapping lands 3 Chinese in court
THREE Chinese nationals, who were arrested by the police recently in connection with kidnapping their colleague, appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday facing two criminal charges.
They are Chen Chuw Bao (34), Wang Yong Jian (37) and Zheng Pa Jin, alias Mr Ping (40), who are accused of kidnapping and causing grievous harm to a female, Liu Hong (48), who allegedly works at Le Grande Casino.
The accused persons are alleged to have demanded a ransom of 19,000 US dollars from her relatives in China. Bao pleaded guilty to both counts, while Jian admitted the kidnapping charge only, but Jin denied all the counts.
Principal Resident Magistrate Cyprian Mkeha, who is hearing the matter, ordered the trio to remain in custody until November 14, when the accused persons would respond to an affidavit presented by the prosecution, led by Senior State Attorney Hellen Moshi, objecting them to be granted bail.
The prosecution told the court that on October 23, this year, at Palm Beach area in Ilala District, the accused persons kidnapped Ms Hong in order to dispose her, putting her in danger of being murdered. It was alleged further that on the same day and place, the accused persons beat the victim thereby causing her to suffer grievous bodily harm on her different parts of her body.
When objecting bail, the prosecution submitted the affidavit sworn by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Salum Ndalama, who is police officer working as Regional Crime Investigation Officer incharge dealing with criminal investigation matters within Ilala Police Region in the city.
According to SSP Ndalama, the accused persons are from China, who are all jobless and without a permanent address and place of aboard in Tanzania. He stated that information gathered through investigations of the case suggested that the accused persons and others not before the court, were still planning to involve in criminal activities of kidnapping, torture and blackmailing in the city.
SPP Ndalama stated that he had reliable information that the accused persons, and others not yet arrested were still planning to harm the victim in order to destroy evidence in the case which is pending.
He stated that investigations were still underway and, thus, if the accused persons were bailed out, chances are that they would likely interfere with the process and the arrest of other suspects allegedly connected with the crime.
The information he had gathered through investigations into the matter, he stated, indicated that other Chinese who are relatives of the victim were planning to revenge against the actions of the accused persons by causing them actual bodily harm if they get chances.
“It the best interest of the republic for the accused persons to remain in custody till the completion of the case so as to protect the safety of the victim, smooth investigation process and safety of the accused persons,” SSP Ndalama stated.
The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commissioner of Police (CP), Simon Sirro, was quoted as saying that the kidnapping incident occurred on October 23 this year, in the morning at the Casino, which is located on Samora Avenue in the city.
He said that investigation of the police discovered that the kidnappers were hiding themselves in Palm Beach hotel and demanding a ransom of Yen 100,000 equivalent to 19,000 US dollars to release the victim.
“In October 24 in the evening, police through the cyber crime unit went to the Palm Beach hotel at Upanga in the city and discovered that the suspects were hiding in room number 9, where they knocked the door but the suspects refused to open,” he told a press conference.
According to him, police decided to break the door and suddenly one of the suspects, Wang Young Jing, opened the door that is how the police got into the room and found another Chinese man and a woman who had been kidnapped.
She had lost her consciousness from the beatings she got and had been wounded in the face. CP Sirro further explained that in the hotel room that was rented by Chen Chuw Bao the police found two pieces of towels with blood, plastic ropes and a syringe.
They are Chen Chuw Bao (34), Wang Yong Jian (37) and Zheng Pa Jin, alias Mr Ping (40), who are accused of kidnapping and causing grievous harm to a female, Liu Hong (48), who allegedly works at Le Grande Casino.
The accused persons are alleged to have demanded a ransom of 19,000 US dollars from her relatives in China. Bao pleaded guilty to both counts, while Jian admitted the kidnapping charge only, but Jin denied all the counts.
Principal Resident Magistrate Cyprian Mkeha, who is hearing the matter, ordered the trio to remain in custody until November 14, when the accused persons would respond to an affidavit presented by the prosecution, led by Senior State Attorney Hellen Moshi, objecting them to be granted bail.
The prosecution told the court that on October 23, this year, at Palm Beach area in Ilala District, the accused persons kidnapped Ms Hong in order to dispose her, putting her in danger of being murdered. It was alleged further that on the same day and place, the accused persons beat the victim thereby causing her to suffer grievous bodily harm on her different parts of her body.
When objecting bail, the prosecution submitted the affidavit sworn by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Salum Ndalama, who is police officer working as Regional Crime Investigation Officer incharge dealing with criminal investigation matters within Ilala Police Region in the city.
According to SSP Ndalama, the accused persons are from China, who are all jobless and without a permanent address and place of aboard in Tanzania. He stated that information gathered through investigations of the case suggested that the accused persons and others not before the court, were still planning to involve in criminal activities of kidnapping, torture and blackmailing in the city.
SPP Ndalama stated that he had reliable information that the accused persons, and others not yet arrested were still planning to harm the victim in order to destroy evidence in the case which is pending.
He stated that investigations were still underway and, thus, if the accused persons were bailed out, chances are that they would likely interfere with the process and the arrest of other suspects allegedly connected with the crime.
The information he had gathered through investigations into the matter, he stated, indicated that other Chinese who are relatives of the victim were planning to revenge against the actions of the accused persons by causing them actual bodily harm if they get chances.
“It the best interest of the republic for the accused persons to remain in custody till the completion of the case so as to protect the safety of the victim, smooth investigation process and safety of the accused persons,” SSP Ndalama stated.
The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commissioner of Police (CP), Simon Sirro, was quoted as saying that the kidnapping incident occurred on October 23 this year, in the morning at the Casino, which is located on Samora Avenue in the city.
He said that investigation of the police discovered that the kidnappers were hiding themselves in Palm Beach hotel and demanding a ransom of Yen 100,000 equivalent to 19,000 US dollars to release the victim.
“In October 24 in the evening, police through the cyber crime unit went to the Palm Beach hotel at Upanga in the city and discovered that the suspects were hiding in room number 9, where they knocked the door but the suspects refused to open,” he told a press conference.
According to him, police decided to break the door and suddenly one of the suspects, Wang Young Jing, opened the door that is how the police got into the room and found another Chinese man and a woman who had been kidnapped.
She had lost her consciousness from the beatings she got and had been wounded in the face. CP Sirro further explained that in the hotel room that was rented by Chen Chuw Bao the police found two pieces of towels with blood, plastic ropes and a syringe.
Do you have anything to add or comment about this article? Let us know below.
NGO urges medics to stick to profession, not material benefits
IT has been learnt that many doctors in the country tend to give patients medications of high price to benefit hospitals or health institutions they work with.
Service Improvement Officer from an NGO PrarmAccess International, Mr Johnson Yakoyana made the revelation while handing over drugs to Mango Health Center and Marangu Hospital, both in Kilimanjaro region.
He said they have decided to provide pain killers, blood pressure and diabetes medicines because of their high price and demand especially to many people who are elders, who cannot afford their costs. He said that many health experts have been doing to earn huge profits instead of providing appropriate services to all patients ethically.
“Many doctors tend to benefit their employers, they issue prescription to patients with high price drugs, sometimes even when not necessary to the respective patients, resulting in the patients being given expensive drugs, while it would be fair for them to be given the low cost ones,” “said Mr Yakoyana Health Plan Project Manager for the NGO, Mr Prosper Msuya said that many doctors are giving patients many drugs at a time, a situation that could endanger their health, and hence called for doctors to stick to their ethics to serve the public.
Mr Msuya urged owners of hospitals to educate doctors to stop this poor behavior immediately, because the only secret to get profit is to provide a good service to a customer.
“If a patient is supposed to be given a medication like a pain killer, he/ she has to get a normal dose according to his/her conditions, but it is not advisable to prescribe to him/her the costly ones or one that should be used by a patient with a chronic ailment, but at times you can even give him/her some pieces of advice as option if his/her condition does not necessarily require medication,” said Mr Msuya.
Service Improvement Officer from an NGO PrarmAccess International, Mr Johnson Yakoyana made the revelation while handing over drugs to Mango Health Center and Marangu Hospital, both in Kilimanjaro region.
He said they have decided to provide pain killers, blood pressure and diabetes medicines because of their high price and demand especially to many people who are elders, who cannot afford their costs. He said that many health experts have been doing to earn huge profits instead of providing appropriate services to all patients ethically.
“Many doctors tend to benefit their employers, they issue prescription to patients with high price drugs, sometimes even when not necessary to the respective patients, resulting in the patients being given expensive drugs, while it would be fair for them to be given the low cost ones,” “said Mr Yakoyana Health Plan Project Manager for the NGO, Mr Prosper Msuya said that many doctors are giving patients many drugs at a time, a situation that could endanger their health, and hence called for doctors to stick to their ethics to serve the public.
Mr Msuya urged owners of hospitals to educate doctors to stop this poor behavior immediately, because the only secret to get profit is to provide a good service to a customer.
“If a patient is supposed to be given a medication like a pain killer, he/ she has to get a normal dose according to his/her conditions, but it is not advisable to prescribe to him/her the costly ones or one that should be used by a patient with a chronic ailment, but at times you can even give him/her some pieces of advice as option if his/her condition does not necessarily require medication,” said Mr Msuya.
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