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Former Chadema’s Deputy General Secretary, Zitto Kabwe, has vowed that he shall appeal before the General Council of the party against being stripped off his positions in the party.

Kabwe’s advocate, Albert Msando, told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam that Kabwe shall appeal against the Central Committee on the faulty basis of procedures used to strip him off his positions.

Msonda said the procedures did not follow the proper channels to strip Zitto of his position but more importantly, he claimed that the reasons given for the stringent action taken were false. “The party contravened proper procedures…Kabwe did not first receive the allegations in writing as per party’s regulations,” explains the advocate.

“The allegations were against him were delivered over a mobile phone text message (sms) and later verbally during a meeting,” said the advocate all the while citing the related sections of Chadema’s constitution.

The central committee for Chadema on November 22 stripped three of its officials of all leadership posts except their party membership, which may also be at stake.

These were, Zitto Zuberi Kabwe, the party’s deputy secretary general,Chadema’s member of the central committee Dr. Kitila Mkumbo and the party’s Arusha Regional Chairman, Samson Mwigamba-,.

The trio is accused of conspiring to ‘disintegrate’ the party’s political movement as well as to denounce the names of the top party’s national leaders, particularly national Chairman Freeman Mbowe and his Secretary General Wilbroad Slaa.

Chadema National Secretariat officially issued letters to its three former senior officials on November 27, 2013. The letters contain at least 11 reasons that led to the decision to strip the former officials of their posts.

The trio former leaders were given 14 days – November 28 - to give an explanation as to why the party should not take the measures against them, a deadline that expired yesterday. Only one of the three has fled an explanation, Zitto Kabwe. . Source Tz.newshub

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Tanzanian Wildlife Threatened By Growing Human Population

As the population in Tanzania continues to grow, so do conflicts between humans and wildlife, making education an ideal tool to use for an intervention. Tanzania has one of the fastest growing populations in the world and researchers wanted to see how this boom would impact human-wildlife interactions in the country. Buffer zones are already set up in Serengeti and Tanzania’s other national parks, meaning human activity is only allowed if it benefits the environment and local communities.

Farmers living near Serengeti National Park get training on how to handle and protect wildlife in the area, and in return they are compensated in the form of community investments like schools and water wells. Moreover, 25 percent of the income from the parks is fed back into local communities, and local authorities distribute these benefits among the residents.

Despite these efforts, the researchers found that there are still conflicts between humans and wildlife beyond the border of these national park lines. Angela Mwakatobe, who recently defended her dissertation at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, said education and support must be given for people who live further away in order to dampen these conflicts.

Mwakatobe studied villages at various distances from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to see how people interact with the wildlife and the best ways to protect both. She found that attacks on livestock and crop raids are more common the closer villages are to the national park. People who keep livestock in the villages located close to the protected areas are on constant guard while their animals are out grazing.

The researcher found that villagers who lived the farthest away from the protected areas preferred livestock enclosures or bandas, as well as guard dogs, to protect livestock at night .

Primates like baboons and vervet monkeys were the most destructive animals for the villagers, followed by elephants. However, Mwakatobe said elephants were only a problem when villages were close to the park.

Destruction isn’t the only problems that animals were bringing to the villagers. Mwakatobe found that diseases from wild animals were also spreading to domesticated animals.

Hunting for bushmeat is most common close to Serengeti, but illegal markets were also found in the villages further away. In Tanzania, hunting for bushmeat is still considered to be highly illegal.

Mwakatobe looked at what kind of dried meat people preferred to eat in the different villages. She found that most people prefer to eat normal beef if they can get it, but availability is limited, which leads many villagers to kill wild animals illegally.

Illegally hunting for bushmeat becomes more common as animals migrate through the villages. These large migrations involve more than two million animals, such as wildebeests, zebras and antelopes.

Mwakatobe proposes that villages close to the national park receive support to help the villagers raise chickens and other animals. She also recommends that these villagers be trained in aquaculture to try to keep the need for bushmeat down.

Mwakatobe says further studies should focus on the conflicts between humans and other primates. She says a combination of several kinds of guarding practices will be the most effective in minimizing animal raids on crops.  source tz.newshub.org

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The government plans to use about seven billion US dollars to construct two standard gauge railway lines to facilitate the country’s rapid economic growth.

 Minister for Transport, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe

                                 
The Minister for Transport, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, said on Tuesday that the preparations for the construction of the railway lines were going on well.

He mentioned the railway lines to be constructed as that of the Northern zone of Tanga-Arusha -Musoma and Southern zone of Mtwara-Mchuchuma-Liganga-Mbambabay.

He said apart from the plans to construct the new railway lines, the government will embark on intensive rehabilitation of the central railway line so that it could operate at its maximum capacity as it was in previous years.

Clarifying further on the new railway lines, Dr Mwakyembe stated that the Tanga-Arusha-Musoma line will cost about three billion US dollars while that of the Southern zone would consume 3.6 billion US dollars.

Dr Mwakyembe was responding to questions from transport stakeholders who wanted to know, apart from other things, what the government was doing or will do to improve the transport sector especially construction of new railway lines which would ease goods transportation within and outside the country.


 The Tanga stakeholders also wanted to get further information on two big projects of the construction of the new Mwambani port and railway lines of which Dr Mwakyembe said, the process had reached a good stage and that the railway line project are penciled to take off next year.

He said the government considers the project as economically viable that is why it is determined to embark on them, to boost the growth of the country’s economy and neighbouring land locked countries that need an easy way for their transit goods from Tanzanian ports.

“We have already got a contractor, a Chinese firm known as ‘China Railway Number Two Engineering,’ is the one which constructed the Tanzania-Zambia Railway line popularly known as TAZARA now our experts are still going through some final analysis before submitting to the government for the work to start so we are moving,” he stated.

He further said that the railway line will pass through all areas which are economically viable in order to make the line more economical feasible in future, something which would also attract more investors and increase the volume of business.

Speaking about Mwambani port project, Dr Mwakyembe said that the project is still on preparations though much efforts were being directed to improving the present Tanga port which is the second largest port in the country, in order to increase its capacity in handling cargo and offer better service to customers.

According to Mr Mwakyembe the government is determined on infrastructural development projects in transport sector, to contribute to the country’s economic growth.

The minister who was on a one day tour to study the development of Tanga port was accompanied by the Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) Board Chairman Prof Joseph Msambichako and TPA acting managing director Eng Kipande Madeni. source In2Africa

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Dr Edmund Sengondo Mvungi, who died on Tuesday afternoon at Milpark hospital in South Africa, will be buried on Monday in Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro Region.

The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) member was being treated for severe wounds sustained as he fought off suspected robbers, who invaded his residence in Dar es Salaam on November2, this year.

Speaking on behalf of the family, NCCR-Mageuzi National Chairman James Mbatia said the body of Mvungi will be flown to the country tomorrow and be preserved at Lugalo Military referral hospital in Dar es Salaam.

“On Saturday morning, the body will be taken to St Joseph Cathedral for prayers after which government officials, politicians and other civil servants will pay their last respects to Mvungi mid afternoon at Karimjee grounds,” said Mbatia.

The body will then be taken to Dr Mvungi’s residence at Kibamba-Msakuzi for members of his family and other colleagues to pay their last respects. The body will be flown to Kilimanjaro’s Mwanga district on Sunday for burial on Monday.

According to Mbatia, NCCR-Mageuzi will fly its flag at half mast until next Tuesday to mourn Dr Mvungi who was also a member of the party’s National Executive Council.

Meanwhile Essero Mafuru, UoI and Chenjerayi Millinga, TSJ report that Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commander, Suleiman Kova announced yesterday that police had arrested one more person in connection with the attack on Dr Mvungi, bringing the number of suspects to ten.

Kova named the suspect as John Mayunga (56) alias Ngosha who was found in possession of the pistol allegedly belonging to the Dr Mvungi.

“When we searched Mayunga’s house we found the pistol belonging to Dr Mvungi. Documents we obtained from the family members showed that the pistol we found in Mayunga’s house indeed belonged to the late Mvungi, and was among items that were stolen on the material day,” Kova told a news conference yesterday.

In a related development, President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday visited and consoled Dr Mvungi’s family at Kibamba-Msakuzi.

Accompanying him were the Regional Commissioner Said Meck Sadiki, Members of the Constitutional Review Commission headed by Judge (rtd) Joseph Warioba and Kinondoni District Commissioner Jordan Rugimbana.

The President in a State House statement of condolences to the Chairman of Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), Retired Judge Joseph Warioba expressed shock at the death of Dr Mvungi, saying: “I am very much grieved by the news of his death.”

Kikwete said Dr Mvungi contributed to various development activities in the nation and that he met his death when the country still needed his wisdom in putting together the new constitution.

“From the time he was a journalist for Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) newspapers - Uhuru and Mzalendo - to his position as a lecturer at the university of Dar es Salaam and as a Lawyer with South Law Chambers and chairman for …NCCR and his aspiring to the Presidency in 2005 and now as a commissioner for constitution review commissioner, Mvungi has been instrumental in the developments of the nation, for which he shall be forever remembered,” said the President.

He added: “I join you in mourning…through you, I express my condolences to the family members, friends and neighbours. May God rest his soul in peace.”

CCM General Secretary, Abdulrahaman Kinana, sent CCM’s condolences to Mvungi’s family, CRC Chairman, retired Judge Joseph Warioba and NCCR Chairman, James Mbatia.

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Revealed: 40pc doctors ditch profession yearly

Muhimbili sickle cell specialist doctors address patients during a recent clinic for children. Specialists are located in cities and major towns.

Dar/Moshi/Mwanza.Tanzania spends between $40,000 (Sh66million) and $60,000 (Sh99million) to train a single medical doctor, but four out of every ten who finally graduate soon abandon their calling to pursue less exacting or better paying undertakings.

The cost of producing a medical doctor doubles if one goes for training abroad, especially in Europe and the US where medical education is still very expensive.

A recent study has revealed that slightly over 40 per cent of doctors who graduate in Tanzania ditch their profession in search of greener pastures. This is not about the infamous brain drain, whereby individuals trained at the expense of the taxpayer in a poor nation like Tanzania leave the country and go and serve abroad for better pay. Tanzania and other sub-Saharan African countries are amongst the countries that are worst hit by brain-drain, subjecting it to a massive economic loss, a new study shows.

According to a research by Canadian scientists in 2011, in nine African countries, Tanzania included, taxpayers are losing the equivalent of US$2 billion per year as their expensively trained healthcare professionals leave to seek jobs in wealthier countries.

The trend of doctors abandoning their profession is among the key factors that lead to shortage of doctors in the country, stifling efforts to improve the health sector, a report by civil society organisation indicates.

The revelations come amid a growing concern over the trend in which patients are routinely being flown abroad for treatment.

A survey conducted this year by a health NGO, Sikika, and the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT), indicates that in addition to the abandonment of the profession by over 40 per cent of graduate doctors, a further 42 per cent are of the graduates chose to stay in major urban areas such as Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya and Moshi.

“Dar es Salaam alone accounts for 32 per cent of all tracked medical doctors in the country,” Irenei Kiria, executive director of Sikika said at the weekend in a statement, quoting the report in Dar es Salaam.

Tanzania has a one of the world’s poorest doctor:patient ratio, with one doctor serving about 26,000 patients. The WHO recommended ratio is 1:1,000.

Generally about 60 per cent of all medical experts trained locally turn down job offers and leave the country to seek better paying hospitals and other health facilities outside the country, according to Kilimanjaro Medical University College Principal, Prof Egbert Kessy.

The two factors – brain drain and quitting the profession – explain why the country continues to face a shortage of medical experts despite an increase in their training institutions, according to Prof Kessy.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the weekend in Moshi, the don called on the government to improve the remunerations of the doctors in order to attract more experts.Source the Citizen

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