Attack against Maghufuli's decision is uneconomical, says residents

SOME residents in the city of Dar es Salaam have warned people who keeps on speculating the recent decision by the Minister for Works, Hon. Dr. John Maghufuli of raising the fare charges on a ferry pontoon across magogoni creek in Dar es Salaam, saying that the raging debate has nothing important to help solve the people's demands. Either they have called on a joint communiqué discussions as a way to solve the problem among the stakeholders of the transport industry rather than speculating the matter through media organs an aspect which according to them is likely to change the matter into a political agenda. The survey carried out in some parts of the city of Dar es Salaam can reveal that, there are different opinions of the people who critically have looked over the matter and have thrown a blame to the government for its consistent habit of increasing charges of service deliveries such as transport fares and other commodities without issuing a notice to consumers of such services.
The recent decision by Minister Maghufuli has formed a speculating debate which is still fresh in the minds of many Dar residents, the issue has dominated small groups gathered in discussions of their social affairs in different parts of various Dar city's suburbs including passengers in commuter buses.

The Minister for Works Hon. John Pombe Maghufuli
The discussions uttered has turned a new twist as some people seem to have upheld the decision of the Minister Maghufuli while the majority are resisting the move, saying that there was no legality for the Minister to raise such a fare to such an exorbitant rate which has astonished users of the pantoon. More worse, investigations by this paper can reveal that, what has angered most people is where the Minister used a scornful remarks while announcing the newly introduced pantoon fares when he said, “residents who could not afford the new fares should swim across the creek” This is an annoying remark says Zuberi Hamza a resident of Temeke. “The decision to raise the fare is not so much painful than the inflammatory statement made by the Works Minister,” says another Joachim Elias a resident of Buguruni. “I am not residing at Kigamboni, but what has inspired me to utter my mind is how our leaders uses their powers in this country to abuse even those who put them in power” he queried. Joachim was disgusted as he remembered way back in mid 1980s when one Minister for Finance made the same inflammatory statement amid the financial budget he had read in parliament, and as some MPs demanded for clarifications, he blasted them as saying that, “everybody shall carry his own burden” However, insisting on the rudeness of some national leaders, he said, “during the process of buying a presidential jet, the Finance Minister Basil Mramba told Tanzanians in a press conference that, they should get ready to eat grasses, but the government must use its money to buy the plane whose transactions was found to be controversy with the British based BAE Systems company.
Residents of Kigamboni suburb on board MV KIgamboni pontoon.

Some interviewed other residents said that, they had been in support of what the Works Minister has decided saying that, the old fare of Tsh. 100 had been used since 1997 about 14 years ago when the fare was last reviewed for the charges of a pontoon for a single trip journey. Despite of Kigamboni residents' outcry of the government to have placed a large financial burden on them, they have requested to change the fare back to Tsh 100 per person because the project is owned by the government and not by the private company. Apart from the increase in fare for the people, charges for the vehicles are also increased whereby small vehicles are now charged between Tshs. 800 and Tshs. 1,500, and pick up is between Tshs. 1,000 and Tshs. 2,000, while those carrying 3 tones and a half onwards are charged between Tshs. 5,000 and Tshs. 7,500. To defend his decision, earlier the Minister for Works Dr. Maghufuli said, in Tanzania there are more than 30 boat ferries in the country and each one is charging differently according to their distance covered and moreover the Kigamboni ferry is the lowest charged fare. He said in Chato district (his home town district), there is a boat ferry which charges Tsh. 300, the Pangani Tanga charges Tsh. 200, Kisolya in Bunda district it charges Tsh. 300, Lugorola Tsh. 500, Nyakarilo Tsh. 300, Kirambo Tsh. 500 and Utete in Rufiji Tsh. 300. According to Minister Maghufuli, fares for Kigamboni which he recently raised by 100 percent from Tsh. 100 to Tsh. 200 would be retained despite calls to review that from different people including some legislators of the Dar es Salaam region. He said the government worked accordingly to laws and regulations of the country and he had observed the ferry Act in changing the fares. However, he stressed that the decision to hike the fare was approved by Tanzania Electrical Mechanical and Service Agency (TEMESA) board members.