When Tanzania’s fifth president Doctor John Magufuli on Friday inaugurated the new parliament in Dodoma, the political capital of East Africa’s largest country, all eyes and ears were glued to either TV or radio to hear him outline his policies for the next five years.
It soon became obvious that Magufuli has already come into his own when he mentioned that his upcoming cabinet will be small, and those appointed selected from among known performers, probably signaling the exit of a large number of his former cabinet colleagues, who’s working ethics and flaws he knows only too well, of course. He also once again served notice to corrupt and lazy bureaucrats that their days were numbered, again signaling a major cleanout among civil servants. Suggesting the establishment of graft courts no doubt also sent shivers down the spines of many who can now expect to be held to fully account for their economic crimes in the past.
While he reiterated his campaign pledges of free education for all Tanzanian children and a much improved health service, he then turned his attention to failing and failed state corporations.
Ears must be ringing in the executive suites of national power company TANSECO, Tanzania Railways including TAZARA, the Tanzania Revenue Authority, and notably Air Tanzania, which he singled out in his address to the new parliament. The so-called national airline has in recent years been a bottomless pit, swallowing subsidy after subsidy and depending on multiple bailouts, tilting the playing field for commercial aviation in Tanzania.
The two predominant large commercial airlines, Fastjet and Precision Air, have repeatedly voiced concerns over such bailouts which allowed Air Tanzania to remain in business while for all intents and purposes being broke. The president’s assertion that he will give those four parastatals “special attention” may mean anything from imposing management changes to investigating causes for potential financial and sectoral malfeasance, but for Air Tanzania the air is getting thin up there as revival after revival ran aground while carrying billions of shillings in liabilities and swallowing yet more billions in bailouts.
As a first appointment, President Magufuli has also named a new Prime Minister, Member of Parliament of Ruangwa, Mr. Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa, who was sworn in over the weekend, and all eyes will now be on upcoming cabinet nominations with particular interest in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Ministry of Transport.
