Among the most surprising news which transpired in the just ended Parliamentary debating session last week is the resignation of four ministers. This came into being amid pressure by lawmakers on some violation of human rights and abuse of power by executives while carrying out a national anti-poaching campaign known as ‘Tokomeza’. Apart from this incident, there are some crucial matters which were discussed by Members of Parliament that focused the implications of the current national economic stand in a bid to ensure the ‘Big Results Now’. The following is a summary of what had transpired during a three week session. In this feature article, the writer has focused some of the most important matters which the Parliament discussed and proposed as directives for which the government has to adopt for the next development plans for the 2014/15 fiscal year. During the meeting, the MPs took time to ask a total of 170 basic questions and 458 supplementary questions which are normally carried out in early opening session, and all of these were answered by the government correctly. In addition to that, 17 basic questions and other 15 supplementary questions were instantly answered by the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda carried out on every Tuesday and Thursday of a week long running session. Together with all these questions, the parliament also had accomplished successfully four major works it had to content with in line of its implementation program it had set for its 14th meeting. During the sessions, the Parliament discussed and approved the following, firstly the Referendum Bill 2013, secondly the MPs discussed nine standing parliamentary committees which stands for sector developments in the country. The Parliament also honored the late Nelson Mandela in a special session, it also had discussed and later accepted to review an emergency bill on the Excise Management and Tariff amendment Bill of the 2013. Members of Parliament also observed a one minute silence in honor of the departed South African first black President Nelson Mandela who passed away during the time when the parliament was in middle conducting its 14th session. Such interruption could not be avoided by the Speaker of the National Assembly Anne Makinda who allowed a debate and passed a resolution to hail Mandela’s life as a global leader. On the nine standing committees, these were the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC), Local Authority Accounts Committee (LAAC), budgetary committee, Constitution, justice and good governance committee and the committee on Local government and Regional administration. Other committees were Community services, development committee, defense and security, Foreign Affairs and International relations, Economy, industry and trade as well as the committee which stand for the HIV/AIDS issues in the country. Other committees were infrastructure, energy and minerals, agriculture, livestock and water as well as land, natural resources and environment. The MPs discussion on the latter committee led to the resignation of the four ministers following a special investigative report which was carried out by the committee to investigate an ill fated operation of anti-poaching campaign instituted by the government, known as ‘Tokomeza’ to which their ministries were directly implicated. The report revealed systematic violations of human rights which occurred while implementing the exercise a result of which had caused public outcry of some of the misconduct during its operation. The findings of the report were tabled in Parliament by its committee chairman James Lembeli an MP for Kahama (CCM). After having read the report in the house last week in Friday, it had touched the hearts of lawmakers and observers alike who shared horrid tales of how the operation was conducted to systematically break down, torture and murder of innocent civilians mentioned in the report. The report revealed horrible incidents of human rights violations, including raping, sodomy, seizure of property, false cases in court and other abuses resulting into deaths and trauma especially among pastoralists.
There was no means President Jakaya Kikwete
could do top minimize the high pressure by lawmakers who jointly demanded for
the resignation of the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, but after a long debate
over the issue he came with a decision to sack from the office his four cabinet
ministers. It is true that the President was sure to discipline his ministers for
failing to effectively manage the infamous operation which was suspended
indefinitely due to widespread claims by the people from where it went through.
The ministers and their ministries in brackets are Khamis Kagasheki (Natural
Resources and Tourism), David Mathayo (Livestock and Fisheries), Emmanuel
Nchimbi (Home Affairs) and Shamsi Vuai Nahodha (Defense and National Service). Coming
to other fascinating matters, the house had passed a referendum bill of 2013
which was tabled by the State Minister in the Prime Ministers’ Office (policy,
coordination and parliamentary affairs) William Lukuvi. The bill which has now
been enacted into a law will govern the referendum to be undertaken as part of
a process to enable Tanzanians to write a new constitution which currently is
in process of review. In reality, the referendum process empowers people to
make democratic decision for the sake of improving good governance. Under the
proposed law, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and Zanzibar Electoral
Commission (ZEC) will be mandated to manage the referendum on the new
constitution following directives from the President of the United Republic of
Tanzania in consultation with Zanzibar President. Minister Lukuvi pointed out
that, the intended law will also provide for conditions in managing the
referendum, and on voting process he said all Tanzanians aged 18 years and
above and who have fulfilled conditions to be registered as voters will be
eligible to be registered by NEC and ZEC and participate in the referendum. Another
thing which transpired in parliament is the amendment of the Excise Management
and Tariff amendment Bill 2013 of the Finance Act 2, which has eliminated the
Tsh1000 charged on simcards per month and instead raising airtime taxation from
14.5 per cent to 17 per cent, after Deputy Finance Minister Saada Mkuya
presented the two amendment proposals. The change follow sustained discussions
between regulatory authorities and major communication firms after complaints
were raised on taxing simcard use, instead of a graduated airtime use charge. Ms
Mkuya said that the change would make users of electronic communications
services to pay such tax according to amount of airtime use, starting early
next month. Amendments had to be made to
take account of needs of the poor especially rural dwellers, thus removing the
uniform rate of payment for users, to focus entirely on capacity of use. “Whoever uses more services will pay more,
and those who limit their use will also pay less,” the deputy minister said,
without providing details on how the rates of payment would be manifested in
the transactions. Another phenomenon is where the Parliamentary standing committee on
Economy, industries and Commerce asked the government to put in place strategies
which would help to reduce the alarming rates of tax exemptions which have been
denying the government the much needed revenue.
The report by the committee as it was
tabled by its committee chairman Mahmoud Mgimwa (Mufindi North CCM) noted that,
Tanzania leads in tax exemptions in East Africa region.
He said tax exemptions in the country has
reached 3.1 percent of the national income (GDP), exemptions in Kenya accounts
for 1 percent of DGP and Uganda exemptions stands at 0.4 percent of GDP.
The standing committee on parliamentary
budget managed to show its value and its importance despite being new, its Chairman
Andrew Chenge Bariadi west (CCM) noted when tabling the report on the
implementation of activities that in its short span the committee has been able
to persuade the government to increase budgetary allocations in some ministries
during the coming 2014/15 fiscal year.
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