Call for a joint concerted efforts needed for youngsters

The Acting Director of Youth Education through Sports Tanzania (YES Tanzania), Kenneth Luvanda has advised governments in sub Saharan Africa to provide adolescents and the youth with comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and outreach. He attributed lack of the services to the increased number of unwanted pregnancies among adolescents not only in the region, but in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.  “We need civil societies and international organizations to ensure adolescents and young people access to SRHR right information, commodities and services,” he said. YES Tanzania’s survey has revealed that sustainability of the campaign is possible only when the target groups take ownership and control over Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).  He said through continuous support, coordination and conducting regular needs assessments, his organisation would tailor its support and training of the target groups.  He said his organization was committed to realization of sustainable development through enticing the target groups into acknowledgment of their rights towards job creation, environmental protection, peace and security, justice and freedom. YES Tanzania is a youth oriented nongovernmental organization focused on the provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services which include contraceptives, safe abortion and post-abortion care counseling and treatment for all young people. It also seeks to impart young people with skills as an instrument to participate in decision making, take responsible and formal roles in the society through nurturing their confidence and experience. “Young people have much to offer given the opportunity to get involved in governance,” Luvanda said. The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) says SRHR plays a major role in the lives of young people by enabling them to decide freely and responsibly of all aspects of their sexuality. It says SRHR is also important to socio-economic development of communities, societies and nations at large. It is estimated that adolescents and young people in sub-Saharan Africa constitute 19.6 per cent of the population. Addressing young people’s SRHR in Africa is also vital, given the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS, the high rates of unintended pregnancies that may lead to unsafe abortions, given restrictive laws and inaccessibility of safe services. However, SRHR still remains non-priority issue on the development agenda of many sub-Saharan Africa countries due to limited political leadership and commitment to realization of SRHR and inadequate resource allocation. The language of rights in SRH is still controversial in African countries which continue to undermine SRHR policy and programmes.

NACTE to adopt online admission system

The National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) announced recently that it will embark on a new online system for admitting students into colleges and universities starting 2016/2017 academic year. The online application system is called Central Admission System (CAS). The new system will be used to admit students into Certificate, Diploma and Bachelor degree programs. The Council’s Acting Executive Secretary for Institutional Guidance and Support, Dr Adolf Rutayuga said in 2015/2016 academic year, they started using online CAS system to enroll students in health and education for certificate and diploma programs. Dr Rutayuga noted that the council has been working in collaboration with Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) in coordinating enrolment of students in different universities for first degree programs through CAS. He said the online system showed significant success and it helped to reduce the number of applicants with fake certificates as well as costs to students and institutions when applying for different institutions. The other advantage of the new system includes is that eliminates the possibility of one applicant to be enrolled in more than one institution. This enables the government to have correct data on the students who have applied and enrolled to join different higher learning institutions, he said. However, he noted that by recognizing the success, registrations through CAS, the government through Ministry of Education, science, Technology and Vocational Training has decided that all applications for the said program must be filled by using online CAS system. Dr Rutayuga said that anyone interested in applying for studies for the 2016/2017 academic year, applications must be strictly done by using the online CAS system which is supervised by NACTE and TCU.

Do you know the most expensive hotel in Tanzania

At $10,000 a night (around 22 million/-) and with a minimum stay of one week, a new island hotel opening in Mafia next month is likely to have the most expensive accommodation rooms in Tanzania. The hotel is situated on Thanda Island (pictured), which is said to be privately-owned, with no boat allowed to approach within a radius of one kilometer without express permission. In order to get a booking, visitors would have to pay a minimum of $70,000 (over 150m/-).  While it is envisaged that the hotel will transform the sleepy Mafia islands area into a high-end tourism centre, only about 1 per cent of the entire Tanzanian population is likely to be able to afford such rates. The rest would be financially excluded from enjoying the hospitality of the hotel or the natural beauty of the island. Forbes magazine, which featured Thanda Island in a recent report, described the hotel as an "Indian Ocean paradise" about a 40-minute helicopter flight south-east of Dar es Salaam.  "At low tide it measures about twenty acres of forest and beach, and further insulates its guests in a cocoon of privacy by being in an aquatic Tanzanian game reserve," the magazine reported. The Thanda Island company, whose principals are Swedish entrepreneur Dan Olofsson and managing director Pierre Delvaux, are known for having also developed the Thanda Private Game Reserve in South Africa. Regarding the new project in Tanzania, Delvaux said: “It’s absolutely private. You (customer) have the exclusive use of the property. Until I saw it from a plane window and we began this process of developing it ten years back, the place was uninhabited.”  “We have a long-term lease on the island, and one of the things we were able to negotiate was that for a kilometer around, no other boats but yours are allowed in those waters."

"You see all these mega-yachts around, but unless it’s yours and you want to drive right up to the island, nobody’s allowed to do that. And if you want to dive, well, there’s nothing like the wildlife there, the whole place is surrounded by a reef. The sand is white. It squeaks when you walk on it.” But a local hospitality industry critic noted that before hopping onto a chopper to Thanda Island, tourist guests would have to endure poor services and facilities at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dares Salaam, which is listed as one of the worst airports in Africa based on overall airport experience. "Picture the poor guy who spent that kind of money ($70,000 for a week's stay at the hotel) arriving in Tanzania through JNIA. He would have to stand in line for 2 hours at immigration to get a visa," said the critic who preferred to remain anonymous. He continued: "Sweating buckets from the heat with broken air-conditioning and stinking airport toilets at JNIA, surrounded by grouchy immigration officials, they then get their visa and head to their next gruesome experience called the Dar es Salaam traffic to go catch the chopper." "When its time to go home, they have to go through that ordeal again. By the time they reach home, all they will remember and say is - that was a bipolar experience, would I do it again at that cost? Not very likely.”

 SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

I will never retard my passion over the war against graft – JPM

President John Magufuli has vowed once again that he would not relent in his war against high-level corruption in the country, saying he had decided to sacrifice himself for the sake of seeing Tanzanians as a people live a better life. Nonetheless, the president admitted that his government was having a hard time in identifying and dealing with all elements of institutionalized grand corruption, although it will continue to persevere in the crusade. “It has not been that easy…there are people who have on a number of occasions tried to pull us (government) back, but we will not give in,” Magufuli asserted during the tape-cutting ceremony for the construction of the new Arusha-Holili/Taveta-Voi road linking Tanzania with Kenya the occasion took place two weeks ago. The president sounded quite bitter about the sheer number of corruption scams he had already come across since taking power in November last year. He said there was no point in being referred to as the president if he was not working for the welfare of Tanzanians as a whole.  “It makes no sense being called the president when a few individuals are illegally amassing wealth while too many Tanzanians are languishing in poverty,” he said. According to Magufuli, the country would stay in a mess if the few powerful individuals remained untouched as they continue to reap what they have not planted. He attributed Tanzania’s failure to get into the regional harmonized roaming system to the 400bn/- corruption scandal that recently hit the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA). “We failed to enter the system because we weren’t clean,” he noted. According to Magufuli, the country was still reeling from the 400bn/- loss. 

President John Pombe Maghufuli cutting a tape to officially open a highway from Arusha to Holili then to Taveta-Voi  in Kenya

Without mincing words, he reiterated his pledge that all public officials implicated in such scams would not only be sacked from their respective posts, but would also face justice for their actions. “All corrupt officials deserve to be in jail to pay for making Tanzanians suffer all this while,” he said. In a move that drew much applause from the watching crowd at the function in Arusha’s Tengeru area, Magufuli called the minister for works, transport and communications Prof Makame Mbarawa to the dais and ordered him to ensure the Arusha dual carriageway and bypass at Tengeru area be completed on time, or fire the construction firm M/S Hanil-Jiangsu Joint Venture of China. Speaking at the occasion, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta encouraged Tanzanians to freely engage in trade with Kenyans, urging fellow leaders in the East African Community (EAC) bloc to remove unnecessary conditions that had otherwise hindered inter-country business in the region. Kenyatta called on EAC residents to discourage unending importation of various goods and services and instead focus on developing local industries and raw materials for the sake of regional economic progress. “Let us ignore the imaginary borders and other unnecessary hurdles so that our people can freely trade and inter-marry…our ultimate goal is to end poverty among our people,” said the Kenyan leader. The launch of the construction of the 42.3-kilometre, $65 million road marked the end of the EAC Heads of State summit which took place in Arusha on Wednesday. Once the project is completed, it will be Arusha’s first four-lane road.

Tanzania fair commission fights counterfeit mobile phones worth 40m/-

FAIR Competition Commission (FCC) of Tanzania has seized 592 counterfeit mobile phones in Dar es Salaam worth about 44 m/- According to the FCC’s Communications and Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mdimi, the inspection to find out such fake gadgets was conducted by the commission in collaboration with Kenyan-based firm -- Anti- Illicit Trade Agency. “The inspection was carried out to flush out fake phones from the market,” he said, adding that the exercise was ongoing. He called upon the general public to refrain from purchasing fake products, insisting that side effects of such substandard goods touch both the consumers and the government. “Most counterfeits are said to enter the market through illegal routes, it is therefore the public’s role to tip off relevant authorities and ensure they are removed”, he commented. Mr Mdimi noted that FCC was regularly carrying out inspections in cooperation with the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and the Bureau of Standards (TBS) to make the country free from substandard items.