Doris Lessing dies aged 94

Doris Lessing with her prize insignia of the 2007 Nobel prize in literature. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

The literary world mourned on hearing that Doris Lessing, the Nobel-prize winning author of The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing, among more than 50 novels covering subjects from politics to science fiction, had died peacefully at her London home aged 94.
Her younger son, Peter, whom she cared for through years of illness, died three weeks ago.
The biographer Michael Holroyd, her friend and executor, said her contribution to literature was "outstandingly rich and innovative". He called her themes "universal and international … They ranged from the problems of post-colonial Africa to the politics of nuclear power, the emergence of a new woman's voice and the spiritual dimensions of 20th-century civilisation. Few writers have as broad a range of subject and sympathy.
"She is one of those rare writers whose work crosses frontiers, and her impressively large output constitutes a chronicle of our time. She has enlarged the territory both of the novel and of our consciousness."
The American author Joyce Carol Oates said: "It might be said of Doris Lessing, as Walt Whitman boasted of himself: I am vast, I contain multitudes. For many, Lessing was a revolutionary feminist voice in 20th-century literature – though she resisted such categorisation, quite vehemently. For many others, Lessing was a 'space fiction' prophet, using the devices and idioms of the fantastic to address human issues of evolution and the environment.
"And for other readers, Lessing was a writer willing to explore 'interior worlds', the mysterious life of the spiritual self. Though it is perhaps a predictable choice, my favourite of her many novels is The Golden Notebook. And my favourite of her many wonderful stories is her most famous – To Room Nineteen."
Nick Pearson, her editor at HarperCollins/4th Estate, said: "I adored her."
Born in Iran, brought up in the African bush in Zimbabwe – where her 1950 first novel, The Grass is Singing, was set – Lessing had lived in London for more than 50 years. In 2007 she came back to West Hampstead, north London, carrying heavy bags of shopping, to find her doorstep besieged by reporters and camera crews. "Oh, Christ," she said, on learning that at 88 she had just become the oldest author and the 11th woman to win the Nobel prize in literature. Pausing rather crossly on her front path, she said: "One can get more excited", and went on to observe that since she had already won all the other prizes in Europe, this was "a royal flush".
Later she remarked: "I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off."
The citation from the Swedish Academy called her "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
Pearson, her editor at the time, recalled the doorstep moment vividly: "That was what she was like. That was vintage Doris.
"When I took over looking after her books, she had a fairly formidable reputation, and the first time I went to meet her I was terrified, but she was always completely charming to me. She was always more interested in talking about the other writers on our list, what the young writers were working on – and reading – than in talking about her own books."
Lessing's last novel, although several earlier books have since been re-released as e-books, was Albert and Emily, published in 2008. Pearson said: "That was a very interesting book for her, revisiting the early life of her mother and her father and how they had been touched by the first world war.
"At the time she said to me 'this is my last book', and we accepted that. She was already at a great age, and I could see she was tired."
The publisher's UK chief executive, Charlie Redmayne, added: "Doris Lessing was one of the great writers of our age. She was a compelling storyteller with a fierce intellect and a warm heart who was not afraid to fight for what she believed in. It was an honour for HarperCollins to publish her."

Doris Lessing dies aged 94

Doris Lessing with her prize insignia of the 2007 Nobel prize in literature. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

The literary world mourned on hearing that Doris Lessing, the Nobel-prize winning author of The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing, among more than 50 novels covering subjects from politics to science fiction, had died peacefully at her London home aged 94.
Her younger son, Peter, whom she cared for through years of illness, died three weeks ago.
The biographer Michael Holroyd, her friend and executor, said her contribution to literature was "outstandingly rich and innovative". He called her themes "universal and international … They ranged from the problems of post-colonial Africa to the politics of nuclear power, the emergence of a new woman's voice and the spiritual dimensions of 20th-century civilisation. Few writers have as broad a range of subject and sympathy.
"She is one of those rare writers whose work crosses frontiers, and her impressively large output constitutes a chronicle of our time. She has enlarged the territory both of the novel and of our consciousness."
The American author Joyce Carol Oates said: "It might be said of Doris Lessing, as Walt Whitman boasted of himself: I am vast, I contain multitudes. For many, Lessing was a revolutionary feminist voice in 20th-century literature – though she resisted such categorisation, quite vehemently. For many others, Lessing was a 'space fiction' prophet, using the devices and idioms of the fantastic to address human issues of evolution and the environment.
"And for other readers, Lessing was a writer willing to explore 'interior worlds', the mysterious life of the spiritual self. Though it is perhaps a predictable choice, my favourite of her many novels is The Golden Notebook. And my favourite of her many wonderful stories is her most famous – To Room Nineteen."
Nick Pearson, her editor at HarperCollins/4th Estate, said: "I adored her."
Born in Iran, brought up in the African bush in Zimbabwe – where her 1950 first novel, The Grass is Singing, was set – Lessing had lived in London for more than 50 years. In 2007 she came back to West Hampstead, north London, carrying heavy bags of shopping, to find her doorstep besieged by reporters and camera crews. "Oh, Christ," she said, on learning that at 88 she had just become the oldest author and the 11th woman to win the Nobel prize in literature. Pausing rather crossly on her front path, she said: "One can get more excited", and went on to observe that since she had already won all the other prizes in Europe, this was "a royal flush".
Later she remarked: "I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off."
The citation from the Swedish Academy called her "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
Pearson, her editor at the time, recalled the doorstep moment vividly: "That was what she was like. That was vintage Doris.
"When I took over looking after her books, she had a fairly formidable reputation, and the first time I went to meet her I was terrified, but she was always completely charming to me. She was always more interested in talking about the other writers on our list, what the young writers were working on – and reading – than in talking about her own books."
Lessing's last novel, although several earlier books have since been re-released as e-books, was Albert and Emily, published in 2008. Pearson said: "That was a very interesting book for her, revisiting the early life of her mother and her father and how they had been touched by the first world war.
"At the time she said to me 'this is my last book', and we accepted that. She was already at a great age, and I could see she was tired."
The publisher's UK chief executive, Charlie Redmayne, added: "Doris Lessing was one of the great writers of our age. She was a compelling storyteller with a fierce intellect and a warm heart who was not afraid to fight for what she believed in. It was an honour for HarperCollins to publish her."

Midwest tornadoes: death toll rises as huge storm system wreaks havoc

Washington, Illinois, firefighters stand in the middle of Devonshire Street. Photograph: Steve Smedley/AP

Ferocious weather pounded the midwest on Sunday with tornadoes, intense thunderstorms and giant hail threatening 53 million people across 10 states and leaving tens of thousands without power.
A county coroner said two people were killed when a tornado hit their home in rural southern Illinois. Washington County coroner Mark Styninger said the elderly man and his sister died on Sunday afternoon in their farmhouse in the town of New Minden, about 50 miles southeast of St Louis. Another person was reported killed in the town of Washington. Emergency officials also said that two more people were killed in Massac County, Illinois, on the Kentucky border where a twister devastated several neighborhoods. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency confirmed one other death, Associated Press reported.
With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people had been killed or hurt by the unusually strong late-season tornadoes.
According to the National Weather Service's website, 65 tornadoes struck, most of them in Illinois. But meteorologist Matt Friedlein said the total might fall because emergency workers, tornado spotters and others often report the same tornado.
The National Weather Center said the storm had created tornadoes in Bone Gap and Miller City, Illinois, in Mount Carmel, Noblesville and Vincennes in Indiana, and in Paducah, Kentucky. By mid-afternoon there were reports of 59 tornadoes, 128 reports of damaging winds and 36 reports of large hail. The storm paths threatened major cities including Chicago, Cinncinatti, Detroit and Louisville, Kentucky.
Storms caused extensive damage in several central Illinois communities. Washington, a community of more than 15,000 people, appeared to have been particularly hard hit. State official said emergency crews were racing to the area amid reports of people trapped in buildings.
In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Washington resident Michael Perdun said: "I stepped outside and I heard it coming. My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone. The whole neighborhood's gone, [and] the wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house."
"Literally, neighborhoods are completely wiped out," a local Republican congressman, Aaron Schock, told Fox News. "I'm looking at subdivisions of twenty to thirty homes and there's not a home there."
"The entire town of Washington is devastated," he added.
"We have reports of homes being flattened, roofs being torn off," Sara Sparkman, a spokeswoman for the health department of Tazewell County, Illinois, where Washington is located, said in a telephone interview with Reuters. "We have actual whole neighborhoods being demolished by the storm.
Sparkman said the storm had caused damage in Washington and Pekin, south of Peoria.
A National Football League game between the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago was suspended amid high winds and heavy rain. Winds of over 70mph lashed the city.
The Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, said that as of 1.15pmm central time both facilities were at a ground stop, meaning flights were neither arriving nor departing.
National Weather Service officials said several tornadoes has touched down in Illinois and Indiana. One hit near East Peoria in central Illinois where the Peoria Star Journal reported that 37 people were being treated for tornado-related injuries at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. Tens of thousands of residents have been left without electricity.
The weather service confirmed at least four tornadoes in Indiana. The storms have left at least 13,000 people across Indiana without power, according to Duke Energy.
Strong winds and atmospheric instability were expected to sweep across the central plains before pushing into the mid-Atlantic states and north-east by evening. Many of the storms were expected to become supercells, with the potential to produce tornadoes, large hail and destructive winds.
A Washington homeowner moves debris next to a set of stairs that once lead to the second floor of his home. Photograph: Steve Smedley/AP "People can fall into complacency because they don't see severe weather and tornadoes, but we do stress that they should keep a vigilant eye on the weather and have a means to hear a tornado warning because things can change very quickly," said Matt Friedlein, a weather service meteorologist.
Friedlein said that such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually is not enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms. But he said temperatures Sunday are expected to reach into the 60s and 70s, which he said is warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this time of year than in the summer.
"You don't need temperatures in the 80s and 90s to produce severe weather [because] the strong winds compensate for the lack of heating," he said. "That sets the stage for what we call wind shear, which may produce tornadoes."
He also said that the tornadoes this time a year happen more often than people might realise, pointing to a twister that hit the Rockford, Illinois, area in November 2010.

Threat from NSA leaks may have been overstated by UK, says Lord Falconer

Former lord chancellor Lord Falconer said he was sceptical that the Edward Snowden leaks had done as much damage as intelligence chiefs claimed. Photograph: David Levene

Britain's intelligence chiefs may have exaggerated the threat posed to national security by the leaking of the NSA files, according to a former lord chancellor who has questioned whether the legal oversight of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ is "fit for purpose".
Lord Falconer of Thoroton said he was sceptical of the claim by the heads of GCHQ, MI6 and MI5 that the leaks represent the most serious blow to their work in a generation, and warned that the NSA files highlighted "bulk surveillance" by the state.
Falconer, who also said he deprecated attempts to portray the Guardian as an "enemy of the state", pointed out that 850,000 people had access to the files leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Falconer, a close ally of Tony Blair who served as lord chancellor from 2003-07, told the Guardian: "I am aware that the three heads of the agencies said what has been published has set back the fight against terrorism for years. Sir John Sawers [the chief of MI6] said al-Qaida would be rubbing their hands with glee. This is in the context of maybe 850,000 people literally having access to this material."
Falconer, who is in charge of Ed Miliband's preparations for government, added: "It seems to me to be inconceivable that the intelligence agencies in the US and the UK were not aware that it would not be possible to keep secret these sorts of broad issues for any length of time. If the position was that the USA and the UK were intending to keep the general points I have been talking about secret then that seemed to me to be a very unrealistic position.
"Although I take very seriously what they say [about the importance of secrecy] I am sceptical that the revelations about the broad picture have necessarily done the damage that is being asserted."
In his Guardian interview Falconer, who described himself as a strong supporter of the intelligence agencies from his time working with them during his decade in government:
• Warned of "very, very serious questions" about whether the law has kept up with the rapid pace of technological change which has permitted what he describes as "bulk surveillance".
• Hit out at the former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox, who has written to the new director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, to ask her to assess whether the Guardian has breached counter-terrorism laws by publishing details from the leaked files.
Falconer said: "I think it is thoroughly wrong that, in the light of the disclosures that have been made, the Guardian is being treated in a similar way to an enemy of the state. Far from being an enemy of the state an organ like the Guardian, or indeed the New York Times, is part of the functioning of our democracy that makes the state as strong as it is."
• Praised the Guardian and the New York Times, which have formed a partnership to report on the leaked files, for working in a responsible way by alerting the agencies before publication. "From all that I can see the Guardian and the New York Times have taken immense trouble to avoid any individual operative or operation being endangered." The Guardian has spoken to the NSA and GCHQ before publishing details from the leaked files.
Falconer is one of the most senior figures to question the account given by the intelligence chiefs this month to parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC). Sawers told the committee that the Snowden leaks had put operations at risk, adding that Britain's adversaries were "rubbing their hands with glee".
The Sunday Times quoted a Tory MP describing the joint appearance by Sawers, the GCHQ director, Sir Iain Lobban, and the MI5 director general, Andrew Parker, as a "total pantomime" after it emerged that they were told of questions in advance as part of a secret deal with the committee.
Lobban told the committee that his agents collect, though do not intercept, "innocent communications from innocent people" when they gather what he called the "haystack" of metadata.
Falconer said: "The material which has been revealed through the Snowden revelations about the NSA raises very, very serious questions about whether or not the United Kingdom's legal framework for oversight of the intelligence services' work in relation to the interception of communications and the obtaining of communications data from mobile telephone and other providers is fit for purpose."
Falconer, who spoke out in August against the detention of David Miranda, the partner of the then Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, under anti-terror laws, said he was struck by the intervention during the ISC hearing by the former cabinet secretary Lord Butler of Brockwell. Butler asked whether the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) of 2000 is still "fit for purpose" given that technology has moved on so rapidly in the last 13 years.
Falconer said: "If you look at the codes of practice and the Ripa 2000 act, they both proceed on the basis that the warrant issued by the secretary of state for interception – ie listening in or looking at emails, their content – will be based upon individual cases. The agencies' right to get metadata about communications is also, I think, to be done on an individual basis even though no warrant is required.
"What the NSA data reveals is in effect bulk – and I use this word advisedly – surveillance. What the agency chiefs were saying to the ISC appeared to be in relation to that communications data: it is the way that we create the haystack within which we look for the needle.
"It may well be that the way that that is policed is adequate. But the current arrangements involve there being no decider other than the agencies as to what communications data shall be sought from servers and mobile telephone providers. In particular there is no warrant required from a secretary of state and there is no judicial permission given, albeit that the judge responsible for looking at the intelligence services generally will look at it on an annual basis."
Falconer said that three changes should be considered:
• The publication of goals from the agencies to allow applications for communications data or interception warrants to be judged against the goals.
• A new body – a judge or a minister – to give "consent to massive communications data exchange". Falconer said Britain should consider replicating the foreign intelligence court (Fisa) which oversees surveillance in the US.
• Handing powers to approve interception – as opposed to communications data – to the interception commissioner. This would strip the home secretary and foreign secretary of these powers.
Falconer said he was alarmed by attempts to portray the Guardian as an enemy of the state after Miranda's detention and by calls for prosecutions and attacks on the Guardian for endangering operations. He said: "I completely understand why the agency chiefs are keen that there should be appropriate confidentiality. I completely support them in relation to that. But I really deprecate the way the Guardian is being treated as the enemy of the state. That is not the right way to look at it.
"A reputable media outlet like the Guardian should be regarded as part of the landscape within which the agencies operate.
"And to abuse it publicly and to use the powers to be used against terrorists against it I think weakens the ability of our state to deal with change."
Asked about Fox's call for the CPS to investigate the Guardian, Falconer said: "We need to trust the media more. If the response of the state is immediately to go into criminal investigation mode then you chill badly investigations like this.
"I don't want to encourage people to break their obligation to the state – ie those who are employed by the state. But I think you have got to recognise that where there is an issue such as this where there has been a fundamental change in technology leading to the question of whether or not the balance is right between the ability to intrude and the need to protect the state – that is plainly a legitimate area for journalistic endeavour."
Falconer stressed that he strongly supports the work of the intelligence agencies. "I am a supporter of the intelligence services. I understand their importance and centrality to fighting terrorism.
"When I dealt with them as a minister I was always impressed by them." He said politicians and the media should support them in two senses – accept their importance in fighting terrorism and properly protect their operations.

News World news Qatar Series: Modern-day slavery in focus Previous | Next | Index modern day slavery new small badge Qatar 2022 World Cup workers 'treated like cattle', Amnesty report finds

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, said Qatar was in the process of amending its labour laws. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

A damning Amnesty report has raised fresh fears about the exploitation of the migrant workers building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, amid a rising toll of death, disease and misery.
The report – published a week after Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, met the country's emir and declared Qatar was "on the right track" in dealing with workers' rights – claims that some migrant workers are victims of forced labour, a modern form of slavery, and treated appallingly by subcontractors employed by leading construction companies in a sector rife with abuse.
The report, based on two recent investigations in Qatar and scores of interviews, found workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation exposed to sewage and sometimes without running water. It found that many workers, faced with mounting debts and unable to return home, have suffered "severe psychological distress", with some driven to the brink of suicide. Discrimination is common, according to the report, which says that one manager referred to workers as "the animals".
It describes one case in which the employees of a company delivering supplies to a construction project associated with the planned Fifa headquarters during the 2022 World Cup were subjected to serious labour abuses. Nepalese workers employed by the supplier said they were treated like cattle. Employees were working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, during the summer months when temperatures regularly reach 45C.
Qatar's labour laws stipulate a maximum working day of 10 hours and say no one should work between 11.30am and 3pm during the summer months.
Last month Fifa was forced to address the issue of workers' rights after a Guardian investigation showed that dozens of Nepalese workers had died in recent months, prompting warnings from trade union organisations that 4,000 could be killed before the start of the football tournament.

Link to video: Qatar: the migrant workers forced to work for no pay in World Cup host country Blatter promised to travel to Doha to meet the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and said he would raise the issue of workers' rights. But after the meeting and a presentation from the 2022 World Cup supreme committee, which includes many senior government representatives, Blatter said he was reassured by the progress that had been made on the issue.
That will not pacify human rights organisations, which have called for improvements to living and working conditions and for urgent action to reform the kafala sponsorship system that ties migrant workers to their employers. Amnesty said the sponsorship system "permits abuse and traps workers".
In November 2011, the Fifa general secretary, Jérôme Valcke, met Qatari officials to address the issue of workers' rights and the Qatari authorities promised to take the issue seriously.
But Amnesty's report, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar's Construction Sector Ahead of the World Cup, is based on inspection visits in October 2012 and March 2013 and suggests change is nowhere near fast enough, despite a new charter introduced by the supreme committee, which applies only to the World Cup stadiums and not to infrastructure.
Amnesty said many workers had reported poor health and safety standards at work, including some who said they had not been issued with helmets on sites.
It quoted a representative of Doha's main hospital saying that more than 1,000 people were admitted to the trauma unit in 2012 after falling from height at work. Some 10% were disabled as a result and the mortality rate was significant.
Researchers also found migrant workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation with no air conditioning, exposed to overflowing sewage or uncovered septic tanks. One large group was found to be living without running water.
The organisation has also documented cases where workers were effectively blackmailed by their employers to get out of the country and others where they were not allowed to leave.
Researchers witnessed 11 men signing papers to get their passports back to leave Qatar in front of government officials, falsely confirming that they had been paid.
The company for which the men worked, ITC, had cashflow problems and 85 workers from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka were left in accommodation with no electricity or running water, with sewage leaking from the ground and piles of rubbish accumulating. Their salaries went unpaid for up to a year and they were forced to sign away any claim to the money before being allowed to leave.
"It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive," said Amnesty's general secretary, Salil Shetty.
"Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation in the construction sector in Qatar. Fifa has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate human rights abuses on construction projects related to the World Cup."
Amnesty, which carried out interviews with 210 workers and held 14 meetings with Qatari authorities, said that multinational construction firms profiting from the $220bn (£137bn) construction boom in the tiny gas-rich state could not ignore the actions of the web of subcontractors employed to do the work.
"Construction companies and the Qatari authorities alike are failing migrant workers. Employers in Qatar have displayed an appalling disregard for the basic human rights of migrant workers. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers," said Shetty.
Amnesty found that some of the workers who had suffered abuses were working for subcontractors employed by global companies, including Qatar Petroleum, Hyundai E&C and OHL Construction.
"Companies should be proactive and not just take action when abuses are drawn to their attention. Turning a blind eye to any form of exploitation is unforgivable, particularly when it is destroying people's lives and livelihoods," added Shetty.
Following his meeting, Blatter said Fifa could look forward to "an amazing World Cup" in Qatar. "What was presented to us shows that they are going forward not only today but have already started months ago with the problems with labour and workers. The labour laws will be amended and are already in the process of being amended."
The Qatari authorities insist they are being proactive and say the World Cup can be a catalyst for change

Monetary union achieves legal clearance

Arusha. The draft East African Monetary Union (Eamu) has been cleared for approval and signing by regional leaders yesterday during the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit slated for Kampala on November 30.

• The EAC Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs during its meeting on Friday adopted and cleared the legal content of the draft Protocol the Secretariat said in a statement. It recommended that the Summit approve and sign the document.

The Attorneys General, Solicitors General as well as ministers responsible for judicial and constitutional affairs directed the Arusha-based Secretariat to use the draft document to draft the legal instrument establishing the institutions to support the envisaged Monetay Union.

The Sectoral Council noted that whereas Article 2(2) of the Treaty provides that the Customs Union and Common market are transitional and integral parts of the Community, the EAC Treaty also requires the Partner States to establish a Monetary Union pursuant to Article 151 of the Treaty.

The Sectorial Council further noted that the Monetary Union will commence upon ratification and coming into force of the Protocol for all five Partner States.

However, the realisation of the Monetary Union shall be progressive. At least three Partner States can commence a single currency in accordance with the relevant provisions of the protocol.

Addressing the Sectoral Council, the EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera, reiterated the critical role of the Sectoral Council in ensuring that policy matters, including all programmes and projects of the Community, were pursued “in strict conformity with the Treaty and relevant legislation”.

The draft of the EA Monetary Union Protocol was adopted by the EAC Council of Ministers, the policy organ of the Community, in the middle of July this year.

The passing of a leading activist

Dar es Salaam. Ndigwako Bertha Akim King’ori (affectionately referred to as Bertha), Tanzanian educator, scholar and women development advocate, has passed away. She died in Kenya on November 4, this year as a result of various ailments, including stroke and diabetes.

She was one of the leading women in her country of birth, scoring firsts as student, teacher and leader – member of the pre-independence legislator (Legico), Umoja wa Wanawake wa Tanzania (UWT) executive secretary, and member of the East African University Council.

Born on November 19, 1930 in Tukuyu, Rungwe District, Mbeya, to the late Subila Kabonga and the late Akim Mwakosya, Bertha was everything a woman would want to be. Defying the stigma of sending a girl child to school, Bertha notched up to become a renowned scholar, educator and advocate for women’s involvement in the community in East Africa.

She was one of a few girls from Tukuyu to go to school, progressing to Tabora Girls’ School in Tanzania; and on to Uganda where she attended Gayaza High School and King’s College Budo, before entering as the first Tanganyika woman the prestigious Makerere College in 1954. At Makerere she was awarded a Diploma in Education (Mathematics).

After posting to Loleza Girls’ School in Mbeya, Bertha won the Van Leer and Atlanta Fellowship in 1956, which allowed her to attend any college in United States for further professional development for one academic year. Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, was on her sight. Keen on child studies and the development of African children, she graduated in child psychology and sociology.

On returning to Tanzania, Bertha taught at Mpwapwa and Butimba Teacher Training colleges; and was later appointed Headmistress of Bwiru Girls’ Secondary School in Mwanza.

Meanwhile, in the last days of independence struggle, Bertha could not escape the attention of the outgoing colonial government, as well as that of the successor Uhuru government under Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu).

She was the first African woman nominated as member of the Legislative Council of Tanganyika (Legico) in 1957.

Later, Mwalimu Nyerere appointed her Umoja wa Wanawake wa Tanzania (UWT) executive secretary in 1967. Bertha was also appointed member of the East African University Council in 1965.

Above all these responsibilities, Bertha was a loving mother and spouse. She married her college sweetheart, the late Peter Gathura King’ori on November 29, 1958 in Tukuyu.

Bertha and Peter distinguished themselves teaching in schools and colleges in Tanzania and Kenya. They were blessed with five children, two of whom have sadly passed on.

Having moved to Kenya with her family, Bertha and Peter carried on with their teaching career; Bertha has taught at Machakos High School, Kenyatta College and Coast High School. A devout Christian, Bertha also served on the National Christian Council of Kenya (NCCK) and became the first African woman representative in the Anglican Consultative Council in 1973.

Council rejects Africa bid on Kenya ICC trial

The UN Security Council down to work at a past session. The Security Council on Friday rejected a resolution to defer the International Criminal Court cases involving President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. PHOTO | FILE

 New York, Saturday. The UN Security Council Friday rejected a resolution to defer the International Criminal Court cases involving President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

The vote in the 15-member council was seven countries in favour, none opposed and eight abstaining, including US, Britain and France.

In a sharp reaction to the outcome of the vote, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs ministry accused the “important members” of the Security Council of “reckless abdication of global leadership” that it said, had “humiliated the continent and its leadership”.

Exemplary leadership

The statement accused the US and UK of “contempt for the African position” and “showing clear cowardice in the face of a critical African matter, and a lack of appreciation of peace and security issues they purport to advocate” by abstaining from voting.

At the same time, Kenya thanked China and Azerbaijan (in the chair) and Rwanda, Togo and Morocco — the three African members on the Security Council — “for their exemplary leadership”.

Rejection of the deferrals resolution means that the fate of President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto now lies with the Assembly of State parties to the Rome statutes, which form the ICC, to change the law to give immunity from prosecution to heads of state and government.

African nations will be pushing for the changes when the group meets in the Hague from November 28.

If successful, serving presidents, deputy or vice-presidents and prime ministers and their deputies will be immune from prosecution by the ICC.

If this fails, the AU has threatened to call an emergency session of its top decision making organ, the heads of state summit, to ask its 34 members to quit the ICC.

It is thought that would force judges, prosecutors, investigators and other staff from Africa working for the ICC to be withdrawn.

It would also mean that ICC staff currently enjoying diplomatic and other VIP status in those African nations would have to leave.

Let’s look back to get perspective on the future

A young man airs his views before the Constitutional Review Commission. PHOTO | FILE

London.Issues of re-writing our Constitution and of the future of the Union with Zanzibar have been so dominant in our national life recently and so wrapped up in self-serving emotional sentiments to a point where one can easily get lost as to what is really the issue.

In this process serious matters vital to the livelihood of the masses, who form more than 85 per cent of our population, like land control are being overshadowed by questions that largely serve the interests of politicians.

If we are to get a proper perspective on where we want to take the country, we need to have a hard look at where we have come from. It is also imperative to be honest with ourselves. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher from the 5th century advised: “Study the past, if you would divine the future.” This is an approach our leaders would be well advised to adopt.

What future for the Union?

In order to get a clear perspective on the future of the Union issue, which is dominant at present, we need to go back to the early 1960s when both Tanganyika and Zanzibar were still under the yoke of colonialism. Tanganyika gained independence in December 1961 followed by Zanzibar in December 1963.

But Zanzibar’s independence did not change the exploitative, colonial situation on the ground in the Islands, which is why there was the popular Revolution of January 12, 1964.

However, reliable intelligence confirmed that the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government was under the clear and present danger of a counter-coup from the deposed Arabs, who under Sayyid Sir Jamshid bin Abdullah Al Said, dominated the Islands’ politics and the economy.

To forestall that threat the Zanzibar Government, under the late Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, approached the Tanganyika Government under Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere with the idea of Union.

The Union was, therefore, not Tanganyika’s idea, although judging by current sentiments coming from Zanzibar, one can be excused for thinking that Tanganyika invaded Zanzibar to impose this Union.

History is witness to the fact that this was clearly not the case.

The same forces that made the formation of this Union imperative in the first place attempted to dissolve it using a technicality in 1984 which resulted in the dramatic resignation of the then Zanzibar President and the Vice President of Tanzania, Sheikh Aboud Jumbe.

Is it too far-fetched to suggest that a hidden hand could now be at work, under the camouflage of the constitutional review exercise, to try to achieve the dissolution of the Union which they failed to do in 1964 and 1984? The masses from Zanzibar and the Mainland stand to lose greatly through a break-up of our Union and are advised to be vigilant, if not sceptical, in this matter.

Where TZ doctors go for greener pastures

20.7 Percentage of Tanzanian doctors in North America20.7 Percentage of Tanzanian doctors in Uganda39.6 Percentage of Tanzanians medical doctors not practicing clinical medicine

Dar es Salaam.  With the cost of training one doctor pegged at $60,000 (Sh99 million), Tanzania has lost $11.22 million (Sh18.5 billion) as 184 of its graduate doctors left for abroad to search for greener pastures by mid this year.

The majority of the country’s “missing” doctors work in Uganda, Kenya and North America, as health situation in Tanzania continues to worsen because of inadequate number of medical personnel.

 This figure doesn’t include those who are still in Tanzania but not practicing medicine, a new report reveals.

Dubbed Practice Status of Medical Graduates-Tracking Study of Medical Doctors, a report launched yesterday shows that 8.2 per cent of Tanzanian doctors are residing outside the country.

The report is the product of a survey jointly conducted by Sikika, an NGO dealing with health matters and the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT).

Almost half of all tracked doctors outside Tanzania are working within Africa with Uganda holding the largest share of about 20.7 per cent (38 doctors) while North America has at least 38.

Kenya is the third largest destination with 16 Tanzanian doctors followed by South Africa (12 doctors), Botswana (9 doctors) and Namibia (6 doctors). East Africa accounts for 30.5 per cent of all doctors that leave Tanzania for greener pastures.

Europe accounts for 14.7 per cent (27 doctors) while at least 8 doctors from Tanzania are working in the Far East (Japan, China, Korea and Singapore). And then, 35.4 per cent of the tracked Tanzanian doctors who work abroad are in Europe and North America.

While the government spends between $40,000 (Sh66 million) and $60,000 (Sh99 million) to train a single medical doctor, four out of every ten who 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.

“The government needs to attract and retain an adequate and qualified health workforce in the country’s hospitals.  There is a need for new systems, rules and regulations to influence doctors in other jobs/careers to devote some time to clinical healthcare delivery in order to reduce the workload of those working full time in hospitals,” Irenei Kiria, executive director of Sikika said at the launch.

According to WHO and MoHSW, Tanzania has a 1:30,000 doctor-to-population ratio. This ratio has not significantly improved in the past five years due to the fast growing population. The WHO recommended ratio is 1:1,000.

Nelson Mandela unable to speak

Mandela, 95, is under the care of 22 medical doctors who work around the clock to ensure that the former South African president’s health improves

Johannesburg. Nelson Mandela’s conditions is still critical and the anti-apartheid icon is unable speak, using facial expressions to communicate as he receives intensive medical care at his home, in Johannesburg.

Mandela, 95, is under the care of 22 medical doctors who work around the clock to ensure that the former South African president’s health improves.

Speaking in Johannesburg after visiting her former husband, Winnie Madikizela Mandela said, “He remains “quite ill” and is unable to speak, using facial expressions to communicate.”

Ms Winnie said the 95-year-old was not on life support but was no longer talking “because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear (fluid from) the lungs”.

“He can’t actually articulate anything” as a result, she told South Africa’s Sunday Independent newspaper. “He communicates with the face, you see. But the doctors have told us they hope to recover his voice.”

Mandela was discharged on September 1 to his home in Johannesburg’s upmarket Houghton suburb after nearly three months in hospital for a lung infection.

“I have heard this nonsense that he is on life support. He is not,” Madikizela-Mandela said.

According to Winnie, her ex-husband is under the care of 22 doctors, and while his pneumonia has cleared, his lungs remain sensitive, she said.

“It is difficult for him,” said Winnie adding, “He remains very sensitive to any germs, so he has to be kept literally sterile. The bedroom there (in Houghton) is like an ICU ward.”

“He remains quite ill, but thank God the doctors were able to pull him through from that (last) infection,” she said.

Mandela, who spent 27 years in apartheid jail before becoming South Africa’s first black leader, has faced several health scares.

His most recent hospital stay was his longest since he walked free in 1990. Mandela was in “an atmosphere he recognises,” Madikizela-Mandela said.

Stars, Zambia renew rivalry in Cecafa Cup

Kilimanjaro Stars head coach Kim Poulsen demonstrates a tactic during a recent training session. The Dane has a tough task of replicating what his predecessor Jan Poulsen achieved. PHOTO | FILE

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania mainland’s 2013 Cecafa Cup Group B draw will see them face the same group stage opponents from their 2010 outing.

The Mainland team, Kilimanjaro Stars, has been drawn against Zambia, Burundi and Somalia, the exact draw they were handed under ex-coach Jan Poulsen when the tournament was held in Dar es Salaam.

Will they win it as they did three years ago? That is a million dollar question considering that the current coach, Kim Poulsen, has overhauled the squad, which now comprises a lot of young players.

In the 2010 event, Kili Stars started on a low note after losing 1-0 to Zambia, but bounced back to win all matches. They beat Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 in the final.

The tournament, which will kick off on November 27 in Nairobi, Mombasa and Machakos will see another Tanzanian team, Zanzibar Heroes, pooled in group A alongside host Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

In group C, the defending champions, Uganda Cranes, will have to outdo Rwanda, Sudan and Eritrea if they are to stand a chance to win the title again.

The opening matches according to secretary general of the Council for East and central African Football Associations (Cecafa), Nicholas Musonye, will pit the host nation against Ethiopia’s Walias.

This will be the first time Kenya, losing finalists to Uganda in Kampala last year, will be hosting the tournament since 2009, with the opening matches being played in the capital Nairobi and the eastern town of Machakos.

Meanwhile, Musonye has urged member states to improve their football standards.

The Cecafa tournament is not recognised by the world football governing body Fifa, but Musonye believes the teams can use the tournament to prepare well and play better in Fifa-recognised matches.

“There has been a lot of talk that even with Cecafa being an annual event, its members continue to lag behind in Africa and be lowly ranked,” Musonye said.

Platform

Dar cyclists ready for Tour du Rwanda race glory

Dar es Salaam. The national cycling team was expected to arrive in Kigali yesterday for this year’s Tour du Rwanda cycling race, which starts today.

A total of 15 teams will battle it out for the top prize in the eight-day championship. Tanzania will field five riders in the event.

Laizer Richard, Tanzania’s sole professional rider, is among the cyclists making up the team for the championship, which has attracted the crème of riders from eight countries.

The other cyclists in the team include national champion Hamisi Mkoma and Gerald Konda, who returned home earlier this week from South Africa where they had camped.

This is the second time for local riders to compete in Tour du Rwanda, and team manager Nicola Morganti said yesterday that he was optimistic they will make a mark in the event.

The other countries expected to field cyclists in the event include Eritrea, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Gabon and the hosts Rwanda. (The Citizen Reporter)

Ramaiya makes flying start in Dar Cup

Dar es Salaam. Dhyanesh Ramaiya of Khalsa A made a flying start in the men’s singles of Guru Nanak badminton tournament as he beat Shishikunj’s Harsheed Chohan 21-10, 21-9 at Khalsa Sports Club court last night.

Organised by Khalsa Sports Club, the six-day championship has attracted eight Dar es Salaam-based teams. The teams have been put in two groups of four each.

The teams are competing in men’s singles and mixed doubles in the tournament which will reach its climax next weekend.

Besides Khalsa A, the other teams battling it out for the title are Badminton Institute, Khalsa B, Anadil Bhuruan, Kalamandalam, Ramgharia, Lohana and Shishukunj.

Ramaiya, one of the best badminton players in the country at the moment, had little mercy on his opponent in the exciting match.

He has magnificent defence, quick reflexes in the game and deftness of touch that usually put his opponents at bay. After a bright start, Ramaiya faced some anxious moments later as trailed behind at one point before asserting his supremacy to silence his opponent and launch his campaign with a bang. “Chohan is a great player, he played some attacking shots,” said Ramaiya shortly after the game.

“I made a few mistakes here and there, but in the end it was a good win,” he added.

Earlier, Jagroop Singh and Hassanali Haji of Khalsa A defeated Umang Somaini and Dipen Patei of Shishikunj 21-15,21-14 in the men’s doubles.

In yesterday’s other men’s doubles, Khalsa A’s Girish Kumar and Chetan Moddessa beat Mukesh Shah and Harsheed Chohan of Shishikunj 21-93, 21-10.

Tricky dates for Simba, Yanga sides

Dar es Salaam. After days of preparations, the stage is now set for this year’s Uhai Cup U-20 championship, which kicks off today with six matches on the menu at different venues.

The championship designed to identify and nurture budding soccer talent from the grassroots, features youth teams from all 14 Mainland Premier League clubs. It was launched in 2008.

Young Africans launch their campaign against Mbeya City in a Group A at Karume Memorial Stadium. The match starts at 2pm.

It will be followed by another interest-generating encounter between Simba and JKT Oljoro, which starts at 4pm at the same venue.

Kagera Sugar’s U-20 side is at Azam Complex on the outskirts of the city for a Group B match against Mtibwa Sugar. The match kicks off at 2pm.

The day will also see defending champions Azam FC and Coastal Union go head-to-head in a Group A clash at the same venue, while Ruvu Shooting take on Ashanti United in a Group B match at Karume Memorial Stadium.

The match between Azam and Coastal Union starts at 4 pm while the Ruvu Shooting versus Ashanti United showdown is expected to kick off at 10 am.

Rhino Rangers and Tanzania Prisons FC lock horns at Azam complex in a group C.

All matches are expected to be tough but exciting if the youth teams’ performance in curtain-raisers of the first round of this season’s Vodacom Premier League matches is anything to go by.

Three top teams in Group A and B as well as two others from Group C will qualify for the quarter-finals scheduled for November 24 and 25. The semifinals will be held on November 26 and 27.

A number of players featuring for Premier League teams are a product of the tournament organised by Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and sponsored by Bakhresa Group Company.

The players and teams they feature for in bracket include Christopher Alex, Saleh Malande, Ramadhani Singano, Edward Christopher (Simba), Simon Msuva, Hussein Javu (Young Africans) and Himid Mao (Azam FC).

Powers invested in SA provincial legislature stated

104. Legislative authority of provinces.-(1) The legislative authority of a province is vested in its provincial legislature, and confers on the provincial legislature the power-

(a) to pass a constitution for its province or to amend any constitution passed by it in terms of sections 142 and 143;

(b) to pass legislation for its province with regard to-

(i) any matter within a functional area listed in Schedule 4;

(ii) any matter within a functional area listed in Schedule 5;

(iii) any matter outside those functional areas, and that is expressly assigned to the province by national legislation; and

(iv) any matter for which a provision of the Constitution envisages the enactment of provincial legislation; and

(c) to assign any of its legislative powers to a municipal council in that province.

(2) The legislature of a province, by a resolution adopted with a supporting vote of at least two thirds of its members, may request Parliament to change the name of that province.

(3) A provincial legislature is bound only by the Constitution and, if it has passed a constitution for its province, also by that constitution, and must act in accordance with, and within the limits of, the Constitution and that provincial constitution.

(4) Provincial legislation with regard to a matter that is reasonably necessary for, or incidental to, the effective exercise of a power concerning any matter listed in Schedule 4, is for all purposes legislation with regard to a matter listed in Schedule 4.

Misuse of law affects refugees

5:7 There is no doubt whatsoever that the influx of 500,000 odd refugees in Kagera and Kigoma regions has brought forth a mischief of a completely new horizon than could ever have been predicted.

This new mischief of the indigenous having to suffer losses of life and property and to be rendered a “worse off” than a refugee in their our country, leaves the Law Reform Commission to wonder as to how best to control such a people among us.

5:8 The Commission concedes the misuse of the Refugees Control Act, 1966 (No 2 of 1966) may have been put to, but is of the view that the same can be curbed by the administrative law machinery.

5:9 The Law Reform Commission, as already seen, has appreciated the anxiety of the Nyalali Commission. The main issue at our hands is how to control the people, who have come to our country to live in unpredictable circumstances and be able to say at the end of the day that we have done a duty to protect the refugees and above all our country. It is in this premise that we agree that the law needs to be amended so that it suits the occasions discussed.

6:0 Recommendations:

6:1 The Law Reform Commission recommends:

(1) The law be retained.

(2) The penalties provided for in sections, 13 and 15 be enhanced to not less than Sh10,000.

(3) There be provision to:

(i) prohibit refugees to do business outside their settlement camps/areas;

(ii) involve Local and Village authorities empowering them to endorse permits to be issued to refugees.

Union structure debate lingers on

Opposition Chief Whip Tundu Lissu speaks at a meeting. Right is Chadema secretary-general Willibrod Slaa. The opposition party is for a three-tier government structure. PHOTO | FILE

Dar es Salaam. Contentious issues in the structure of the Union still bite on the on-going writing of new Constitution, as the Constituent Assembly meetings approach.

Worries among stakeholders are piling up on whether the new Constitution will make any sense without first addressing the issues concerning the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Although the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC)’s schedule indicates that the new supreme law will be ready next year, some experts say the problems facing the Union may not occasion a good Constitution.

The structure of the Union and the composition of the Constituent Assembly were some of the issues debated in Dar es Salaam recently at a forum organised by the East Africa Business and Media Training Institute and the forum was televised live by some local TV and radio stations.

Dr Aley Soud Nassor, an academician from Zanzibar, said the country had reached a stage at which it needed the Constitution for at least 50 years, but unfortunately the problems facing the Union have not been addressed.

Dr Nassor explained that a referendum should have been held to give people the opportunity to determine whether they still needed the Union or not. He, however, said three governments were better for the Union.

Opposition Chief Whip in the Parliament, Mr Tundu Lissu, too said three governments were better for the Union. He explained that it was difficult to maintain the current structure of two governments of the Union in a multiparty democracy.

“The two-tier government structure was possible only under a one party and totalitarian system where people were not allowed to question things,” Mr Lissu noted. Mr Lissu also said without addressing the problems facing the Union, the new Constitution would not mean much. Njelu Kasaka, former CCM MP, also said the referendum should have been held to enable people to accept or reject the Union. He said a three-tier government system would be better for Tanzania.

Mr Kasaka explained that differing views on the Union structure between the ruling party and opposition parties were indicative of politicians’ lack of courage to sit together and discuss Union challenges. Mr Saed Kubenea, a seasoned journalist, urged opponents of the three-tier government to stop scaring people about the possibility of having three governments. He said under current circumstances a two-tier government system would not hold water because of some changes that the people of Zanzibar want.

At the forum, most participants expressed their worries, saying the system to elect members of the Constituent Assembly had not represented the grassroots.

The current system through, which MPs automatically become members of the Constituent Assembly is inadequate and will give more powers to politicians to dominate the constitution making process because 76 per cent of the members (438) are politicians.

Participants suggested that to come up with a good Constitution there was a need to address the composition of the Constituent Assembly issue by adding the number of ordinary citizens and reducing the number of politicians to minimise chances of having the new Constitution reflecting the interests of political parties only.

Journalists stand the test of time

Dar es Salaam. Looking at what journalists are going through in the country – intimidation, assaults, torture and killing – it is evident that press freedom in Tanzania is at risk. To say the least, there are overt and covert efforts to trample on press freedom – to silence journalists.

This is what is happening in repressive regimes all over the world. Repressive regimes have a tendency of turning against journalists, who expose inefficiency, poor performance, misappropriation of public funds and corruption scandals in top government offices.

During Jakaya Kikwete’s early months as President, he travelled to various parts of the country expressing his gratitude to voters for his overwhelming victory and telling Tanzanians what his government would implement to facilitate development and bring about decent life for all. His words are still lingering on in our memory!

In one of his early visits, Kikwete made an impressive speech in which he asked his new ministers and their deputies to work closely with journalists to enable people to know what the government was doing. In response to this, the ministers and their deputies too promised to cooperate with journalists in support of the President in his new responsibility as the Head of State. This was a good start and the work has not been completed. It was the only time, they said they were going to cooperate with journalists. I have never heard anyone expressing similar sentiments as they did at the time! Was it done to please the President?

A recent proposed penalty to amend section 37(1)(b) of the Newspapers Act, 1976 was increased from Sh150,000 to Sh5 million or imprisonment for three years or both should a journalist or a media outlet be found guilty of inciting violence and publishing seditious material, an indication that some politicians are no longer cooperating with journalists as the President had intended.

The Attorney General, Mr Stephen Werema, while defending this severe penalty against journalists said he was doing it in the public interest, yet when the Parliament was debating the Public Procurement Bill, 2011 he was against imposing a severe penalty against government officials, who would be implicated in sham deals or purchasing used machines as brand new ones. Members of Parliament proposed a severe punishment against any government officials implicated in such deals. In his own words against the severe penalty, Werema said “the Bill shouldn’t be debated with emotion or arrogance”. He explained that what was important was not so much about the severity of the penalty, but the purpose it served to help an offender reform.

I was taken aback when I heard the same Attorney General supporting the imposition of a severe penalty against journalists, while in 2011 he was against the imposition of a severe penalty against government officials, who would be found guilty of purchasing used things and brand them as new or put up the price for that matter. But this contradiction in terms is not new among politicians. It is interesting to hear how some ministers, deputy ministers and MPs flatter the President for the things they don’t believe and do the opposite. For instance, I don’t think what the President asked them to do in 2006 about working cooperating with journalists to enable the people to know what the government was doing is no longer important in 2013, where the same people want the media to be restricted and journalists be severely punished should they report something that doesn’t please them. How will they work with journalists in such an overly suspicious relationship? Is this what the President intended when he told them to cooperate with journalists? After all, sometimes they would dodge journalists when the latter want certain information to balance their stories and when that happens they will be the same people to blame the journalists for publishing unbalanced stories!

Then, why is it happening at this time if it is not throttling and silencing journalists so that they become subservient? This reminds me of a story of two ancient philosophers, Diogenes and Aristippus. Diogenes was having lentils for supper as Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king, looked on. “If you learnt to be subservient to the king you would not live on such garbage as lentils,” said Aristippus. “If you had learnt to live on lentils you would not have to flatter the king,” replied Diogenes.

It is hard to say which philosophy Tanzanian politicians would subscribe to. On the other hand, what would happen if journalists everywhere stop reporting for a day, a week, a month or a year? The point I want to stress here is that, journalists could be having weaknesses in their reporting and it is good to be angry about it, but we shouldn’t overdo it. We can impose penalties against those violating their professional ethics and the law, yes, but not to the extent of being so unreasonable. As we are in the process of writing the new Constitution, let the new Constitution protect press freedom, including freedom of expression and opinion. In my opinion, too much restriction, as touted by the AG and supporters, won’t build our nation. It will only create more hypocrites and flatterers. What we want is responsible freedom, which is not brought about by severe penalties, but by enlightened or well-informed journalists. But we cannot have enlightened and well-informed journalists in the society, which does not provide quality education and there is moral decadence. There is no miracle for making journalists angels where society itself has moulded them into what they are today. Disrespect for moral values is a societal problem for what the journalists are doing is just a reflection of what society is. To change this, we need to start with our education - it should help transform school children to become responsible citizens. Above all, public leaders should show a good example to all other members of the public and if there is a need to impose any penalty or restriction, let it be reasonable.

CSOs push for inclusive Katiba

 

By Katare Mbashiru,The Citizen

Dar es Salaam.Every Tanzanian is eagerly waiting for the envisaged new Constitution, even as the process of writing the fundamental law is still surrounded by a cloud of uncertainty.

The big question remains whether the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) led by Judge Joseph Warioba will be allowed to prefect the process until the country gets a new charter in April 2016, as promised by the government. The Constitutional Review Act, 2011 directs the powers of the CRC to cease immediately after unveiling the second Draft Constitution.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have vowed that they will not relent in their fight towards attaining a people-centred Constitution, which will help the country tackle problems affecting the majority of Tanzanians.

A total of 37 CSOs from across the country met at a Dar es Salaam hotel recently to deliberate on how best the country could get a Constitution that would seal all loopholes found in the current charter that has saw democracy and good governance compromised. They came up with various recommendations.

According to Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) executive director Usu Mallya, who spoke on behalf of CSOs, the Constitution Review Act 2011 (Cap 83) should be immediately amended to extend the time of the CRC until the promulgation of the new Constitution.

“The CRC is legitimately bestowed with the powers to ensure the country gets a new Constitution. Therefore, leaving this process half-baked is contrary to the primary goal of the formation of this team.” But asked if the government was contemplating to make requisite amendments to extend the time for the Warioba team, the minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs), William Lukuvi, declined to comment on the matter.

The government has been making a series of meetings with political parties through the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) to deliberate on important issues that need to be amended in the Constitutional Review Amendment Act, 2013 that was signed by President Jakaya Kikwete on October 10.

The CSOs’ stand was that the Warioba Commission should not be dissolved by 2/3 members of the Constituent Assembly, but that they should come from non-politicians. However, the Constitutional Review Amendment Bill, No 2 was passed yesterday without considering the demands of CSOs.

The CSOs are also not happy with the composition of the Constituent Assembly, which according to the legislation, is expected to be dominated by politicians if amendments are not made.

According to Ms Mallya, the Constituent Assembly should comprise two thirds of stakeholders outside politicians, whereby the remaining should combine legislators from both the Mainland and Zanzibar.

The CSOs also want the Constituent Assembly to be construed on a 50/50-representation from the Mainland and Isles and ensure gender equality. If the Act will not be amended, all Mainland MPs and all Zanzibar House of Representatives will be part of the Constituent Assembly. As per articles 62, 63 and 64 of the current Constitution, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania is also automatically part of the Parliament and he may decide to be part of the Constituent Assembly.

This, according to Tanzania Constitutional Forum (TCF) chairman Deus Kibamba, is unacceptable and it should not be accepted by Tanzanians and that the Act gives legislators and representatives from Zanzibar the discretion that had never been anywhere before in the country’s laws.

CCM likely to hijack crucial, decisive stage

Dar es Salaam. The noble task of establishing the new Constitution is still in progress with only three crucial stages remaining; preparation and presentation of a final report by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) to the President, formation and convening of the Constituent Assembly and the referendum. These stages are not only crucial, but they are also very important because they are final and decisive factors for the whole process of getting or failing to get the new Constitution.

However, there are signals on both the composition of the Constituent Assembly and its debate thereof that may make the whole institution irrelevant even before it begins its work. In this article I will explain why the exclusion of members of the CRC in the Constituent Assembly will make it irrelevant and undone.

While the CRC has remained with only a month to present its report to the President after the latter has granted the former one more month up to December 15, last week the National Assembly in its ordinary meeting in Dodoma made slight amendments in the Constitutional Review Act, Chapter 83 of the Laws (R.E 2012) and came out with a strong stand that the CRC will not be allowed to be part or even sit around the Constituent Assembly when the latter begins work of debating the Draft Constitution next year.

The decision of the National Assembly to reject the presence of the CRC contrary to what is provided in the Constitutional Review Act, 2011 (R.E 2012) in section 20(4), has finally removed the possibility of the CRC being included in the Constituent Assembly to give clarification which would be required by members of Constituent Assembly during the debate.

This legal act of leaving out the CRC in Constituent Assembly has astonished many stakeholders in constitution making process and the general public with the exception of ruling party-CCM only. From interpretation of section 20(4) of the above mentioned law, no one fore-thought that CRC would be excluded during the debate of Draft constitution in Constituent Assembly, highly taking into account that CRC is one of the major actors in the whole process of making the Constitution and it is the one that made all literary work of the intended Constitution possible.

Section 20(4) provides that: “For the purpose of subsection (3), the chairman and members of the Commission may give clarification which may be required during the debate by the Constituent Assembly”.

Logically, and within the standard interpretation of the law, that above provision justifies the presence of the CRC in the Constituent Assembly in which its chairman and members would be required (if need be) to give clarification during the debate. Nevertheless, the provision does not mean that the presence of the CRC in the Constituent Assembly is not necessary.

The usage of the word “may” is not about whether members of the CRC are to be part of the Constituent Assembly or not, rather it clearly allows the members of the CRC to take part of the Constituent Assembly and also it gives members of the Constituent Assembly freedom to seek clarification from those of the CRC during the debate.

The rationale of this provision is that, during the debate members of the Constituent Assembly may need clarification on any part of the Draft Constitution or the recommendations of the CRC and that the chairman or any member of the CRC would give that clarification and, therefore, make the whole debate smooth and conducive. Thus, amendments of the law to exclude the members of the CRC who we logically assume they know each letter of both the Draft Constitution and its report signals a bad motive of both the government and the ruling party in passing such amendments of the law and that predicts ill-will of CCM and its government in giving Tanzanians a Constitution that can be named as a people -centred Constitution.

To my legal knowledge I do not agree with the amendments of the law that prohibit members of the CRC to take part in the Constituent Assembly as prescribed by section 20(4).

Thus, the amendment of the law itself reveals a motive behind the CCM agenda during the debate in the Constituent Assembly. Now, members of the CRC will not take part in the Constituent Assembly, who will be giving clarifications to the members of the Constituent Assembly in case such need arises? Why is the government and CCM afraid of the presence of members of the CRC in the Constituent Assembly? There must be something fishy here!.

The life of the CRC as per the law was supposed to come to end upon the declaration of the results of the referendum by the National Electoral Commission as per section 37(1) of the law establishing it.

Youth unemployment rate worsens: Survey

Dar es Salaam. By almost any measure, job prospects for young people in Tanzania should be plenty.

Tanzania ranks among the world’s 30 fastest growing economies and spends a higher percentage of its GDP on education than all, but 26 others. In theory, this should correspond to the rapid creation of new jobs and an abundance of well-educated young people to fill them.

But the country is facing a youth unemployment crisis rivalled by few other nations in the world. Last year, Tanzania was home to more unemployed 15 to 24 year-olds per capita than 109 other countries. In a survey by a non-governmental organisation, Restless Development, out of over 1,000 young people across Tanzania, only 14 per cent reported working in a formal, wage-earning job.

“Most of the youth we’re meeting … want to be employed in Dar es Salaam, but the problem is that they don’t have qualifications,” said Nicas Nigumba of Restless Development, which works to help young people find better job opportunities. He said many young women were kept out of school and in the home by tradition, despite their longing for an education and a formal job.

“Often they cannot discuss these things with their parents so they are coming to us,” he explained. The problem is in the numbers: An astonishing 45 per cent of Tanzania’s population is under 15, largely the result of high fertility rates and a decrease in child mortality, according to an April report by the World Bank.

Each year, 900,000 young Tanzanians enter the job market that is generating only 50,000 to 60,000 new jobs. Researchers say the problem originates in the country’s lack of quality education. Last year, 65 per cent of students failed their national examinations required to pass secondary school. What’s more, youth advocates say schools fail to teach requisite skills and intellectual prowess employers are looking for.

“The system of education in Tanzania—teaches people general things, not skills they need for employment,” said Ally Mawanja, the programme coordinator for Restless Development. “We just give them a degree, but it’s hard to use that degree.”

The result is that better-educated young men and women who migrate here from Kenya or other neighbouring countries are filling these skilled jobs.

“There are Kenyans coming to Tanzania and they’re getting jobs that Tanzanians should be getting,” said Nigumba.

Women in Tanzania face a host of additional challenges to finding a job, the foremost of which is their severe under-education in comparison with men. Indeed, Tanzania was placed second to worst out of 68 countries in the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report due to a dramatic discrepancy between boys and girls in educational attainment, among other factors.

The percentage of girls, who attend secondary school is decreasing, down to 45 per cent in 2009 from 48 per cent four years earlier, according to Tanzania’s education ministry.

That the country’s gender divide is as abysmal as its youth unemployment rate is no coincidence: It is largely the result of societal practices that limit girls’ education. Chief among them is the long-standing practice of mandatory pregnancy testing in schools.

Bilal urges TRA to address tax evasion and avoidance

Dar es Salaam. Lack of a friendly tax payment environment in the country is one of the reasons, which makes many traders evade and avoid paying tax, a situation that has negative impacts on widening the tax base.

• Unfriendly relations between Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) officials and taxpayers has seen traders continuously evade paying tax and thus occasioning the government losses of millions of shillings in tax collection.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam recently on the 7th Taxpayers’ Day, the Vice President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, said recent challenges in tax payment needed to be addressed through having adequate public education and creating a friendly environment that encourages voluntary tax payment and compliance.

Tax avoidance and evasion in Tanzania is currently becoming a common phenomenon not only among multinational and local companies, but also among small-scale businesses. The government plans to make amendments on the tax law, but lack of skills and expertise on specialised tax issues remains a big challenge.

“I believe if citizens are well-informed and have a convenient taxpaying environment, without being forced, they will cooperate with TRA officials and pay their tax as required by the law. We have to build a culture of voluntary tax payment among our citizens, and this will also help their businesses grow as well,” said Dr Bilal.

Currently, in Tanzania, it is only people, who are employed in the formal sector, who have been paying tax more than traders because their salaries are easily traceable and they have no way of avoiding or evading tax payment.

“Available statistics show that 44 per cent of the total revenue collected in the country comes from people employed in the formal sector, while all other businesses account only for 56 per cent of which it is only 1.7 million traders,” Dr Bilal pointed out. Taxpayers’ Day in Tanzania was introduced in 2006 and is celebrated every year in which public education on the importance of paying tax to the government is provided and best taxpayers are recognised.

This year, Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC) and Vodacom Tanzania scooped the top three best taxpayers’ awards in the country in the first, second and third place respectively. On the other hand, TRA has been undergoing various reforms and improvements to widen the tax base and improve revenue collection for supporting various development programmes.

According to TRA commissioner general Harry Kitilya, TRA has been undertaking various strategic plans to increase tax collection, whereby since the introduction of the new strategies, tax collection has improved from Sh4,049.1 billion in 2008/2009 to Sh7,739.3 billion in 2012/2013, being an improvement by 91 per cent, which counts for an improvement of 20 per cent every year.

“TRA’s vision is to increase revenue of GDP ratio by 20 per cent by 2017/2018 under three themes of improving convenience, compliance and continued improvement that changes with time,” said Mr Kitilya.

He explained that TRA was focusing on effective utilisation of science and technology to increase efficiency and reduce workload TRA officials have when working directly with taxpayers as well as creating a good environment for doing business in the country.

“We anticipate that the present tax collection gap in the country will decline from 3.7 per cent to one per cent by 2017/2018, while the tax collection ratio will decline from 2.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent in the same period,” he noted, stressing that the current TRA target was to collect Sh18.8 trillion in 2017/2018. The commissioner-general admitted that in achieving tax collection targets in the country, it was important to have employees, who adhered to the code of conduct to curb current corruption complaints by taxpayers about corruption among some TRA officials.

Water project short of Sh220bn

Villagers queue for water in Handeni in Tanzania.PHOTO | FILE

Dar es Salaam.The government is short of $135 million (Sh216 billion) needed to supply water by 74 per cent in rural areas by 2015.

Speaking at a water sector development forum yesterday, the minister for Water, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, said the total amount needed to implement all water projects had amounted to $457 million (Sh731.2 billion), out of which the government had committed $322 million(Sh515.2 billion).

“The deficit of $135 million is a challenge to implement the projects in order to attain the set targets by 2015. But development partners have pledged to assist us,” said Prof Maghembe after opening the meeting.

Speaking at the forum, World Bank country director Philippe Dongier, said despite the financing gap there were still a number of challenges facing the water sector, including lack of proper co-ordination with other related sector such as agriculture, environment and natural resources management, financial management and projects sustainability in rural areas.

Mr Dongier said there was a need to ensure the water sector was properly co-ordinated with other sectors to ensure water resources benefit the majority of Tanzanians for domestic, industrial use and supply of energy.

According to the latest report by the Water Sector Development Programme released at the forum to stakeholders, the MDG target for water supply coverage in rural areas was supposed to increase by at least 1.5 per cent annually since the year 2000 (the millennium summit year), which implies that it was supposed to increase from 51 per cent in 2000 to 55.9 per cent in 2003 up to 66.4 per cent in 2010 so as to attain 74 per cent in 2015, but data analysis by the government has shown that coverage had reached 57 per cent in 2012.

“This means that in order to meet the MDG target by 2015 more efforts are needed to cover the remaining 17 per cent of people without access to water services.

Under the 2013/14 water budget the government had earmarked Sh379.4 billion for development expenditure for the sector, and out of which Sh138.26 billion were expected to come from foreign sources and Sh241.17 billion from domestic sources.

Women leaders react to poor gender balance ranking

Chairperson of Women Footprints Initiative Ms Vida Nassari (second left) shows the Vice President’s wife, Aisha Bilali (left), and  Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda’s, wife Tunu Pinda (second right), clothing materials at an exhibition during a workshop on women economic emancipation-Tanzania Women Dialogue in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO | MICHAEL MATEMANGA

Dar es Salaam. A cross section of women leaders have expressed optimism that ongoing government programmes empower women across the country, citing as a challenge, the newly released Gender Gap report which indicates that Tanzania is behind in gender equality.

Two ministers and a top banking executive are among interviewees who told The Citizen on Sunday that Women in Tanzania should not lose hope following the report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that painted a declining performance on the gender performance indicators such as Economic Participation, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment.

According to the Gender Gap 2013, opportunities for Tanzanian women to improve their welfare have dwindled, with the country backpedaling on all the gender growth measurements, including in economic participation that has dropped from position one in 2006 to 70 last year among 113 surveyed countries. That record placed the country as the least in empowering its women in East Africa.

In separate telephone interviews, the women leaders noted the nation could quickly pick up it fall in ranking should ongoing empowerment plans and others in the pipeline be brought to fruition.

Lands and Housing minister Prof Anna Tibaijuka said the result was largely because Tanzania’s economy is in transition. While women are the main producers (farmers), the sector does not compensate their efforts well, she said, leading to unproductive rural-urban migration. “Women don’t get enough opportunities in the cities to engage in formal economic activities,” the minister added. “They don’t get better jobs and chances of landing a soft loan are slim due to collateral demands, in the end, they choose to remain housewives.”

According to Prof Tibaijuka, women are doing well in politics because it is a platform that is still not very competitive. There has been affirmative action to boost their numbers. Deputy minister for Community Development, Gender and Children Ummy Mwalimu, said the government was keen to reverse the trend.

“The government has created a lot of opportunities to make sure that women do participate in economic activities,” she said.

“The proposed draft constitution has, for example, mentioned the right of women to own land and that will open new opportunities.” She notes, though, that more effort should be put into reaching those living in rural areas.

Ms Margreth Chacha, Executive Director of Tanzania Women’s Bank, argues that Tanzania needs to reform fast as more countries are overtaking it in the ranking.

“During the ‘Elimu ya Ujamaa na Kujitegemea’ era of Mwalimu Nyerere, women participated in projects such as ‘Vyama vya Ushirika’ and ‘Harambee’ but changes thereafter did not give them an opportunity for full participation.”

The banker said, though, that there were positive signs that things may change. “A lot of campaigns to empower women are going on,” Ms Chacha said. “I’m sure the index in the coming years will improve, with more women forming groups to get out of the hole.”

Her institution is working with the government to find out how to set aside funds for loans for women at low interest rates. The current rate is 19 per cent. But she warns that if the government continues to recognise traditional laws, women will continue to be undermined even with the new constitution.

Plea for govt to tighten public security

A Catholic priest sprinkles holy water on the coffin bearing the body of Constitutional Review Commission member Sengondo Mvungi during prayers for him at the Karimjee grounds in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO|SALIM SHAO

Dar es Salaam. Political leaders made a solemn appeal to the government yesterday to tighten public security situation in the country, in the wake of the escalation of criminal incidents in which high-profile personalities and ordinary wananchi are killed, maimed and acutely traumatised.

That was one of the highlights of sentiments made at a special mass at the Karimjeefor slain renowned intellectual, human rights activist smd politician ,

Dr Sengondo Mvungi, 61. Dr Mvungi died in South Africa’s Millpark hospital on Tuesday where he was flown for specialized treatment after being critically injured after a group of gangsters raided his residence at Kibamba home on the outskirt of the city.

Besides eulogies in which the intellect, patriotism, and yearning for beneficial constitutional and other reforms that defined the deceased were pronounced, speaker after speaker, expressed concern over the high crime rate, which they asked the government to take firm action to curb, because, in addition to robbing the nation of precious souls, also held wananchi captive to constant suspence, as virtually everyone felt that he or she could be the next target of heartless bandits who had no qualms about killing and maiming fellow human beings.

Dr Mvungi, who had been a journalist during his prime, was lately a member of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bagamoyo (UB), and, as a politician, had taken a shot at the presidency during the 2005 election.

Mourners who had assembled at the Karimjee grounds braved a downpour that started about three minutes before the car that carried the body of the deceased arrived at the venue for the mass and payment of last respects.

Mr James Mbatia, the visibly upset national chairman of NCCR-Mageuzi, of which Dr Mvungi was a prominent member, asked the audience to reflect on the climate of suspense remarked: “The family of Dr Mvungi is wondering why their father had to die that way. We are asking the government to ensure us peace, stability and protection for our lives,” adding: “We know every soul shall taste death but the family of Dr Mvungi is asking why it should be that way,

Mr Mbatia noted that the murder of Dr Mvungi was a continuation of the brutal murder of prominent legal practitioners, citing professor Jwani Mwaikusa and Michael Wambari as examples. “These were also brutally eliminated. Security for our nation and her people should be given first priority; instead of complaining we should fulfil our responsibilities,” he said.

He said there was a need for critical reflection on who was tasked with ensuring public safety, in the light of statistics that showed that nearly 90 per cent of Tanzanians believed that it was the police force, while only 11 per cent felt every citizen had a part to play.

Vice President Dr Mohammed Ghalib Bilal led political and religious leaders, former president Benjamin Mkapa, ministers and MPs to pay last respect to the lawyer who touched the lives of many.

Grief-stricken mourners started arriving at Karimjee grounds as early as 8am and huddled in small groups, recalling Dr Mvungi’s multi-faceted illustrious career.

As the funeral car approached the grounds, yells of anguish rang out from the huge crowd and tears of sorrow flowed freely.