John Magufuli(The Bulldozer) Enemy of Kenyatta & true man of his people

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Stopping misuse & theft of public funds
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian President John Magufuli has revealed he earns a salary of 9 million Tanzanian shillings ($4,000) per month, making him one of the lowest paid African leaders as he pursues a much-criticized policy of deep public spending cuts. “They can leave if they don’t want it,” he said. He said abuse of public funds was “rampant” at state firms and that he had rejected requests from some local officials to more than double their allowances, saying he could not do so while many citizens lack access to water, health care and electricity. Magufuli has not brought continuity, but dramatic change. He began to impress just days after his inauguration. He made a snap unannounced visit to the Ministry of Finance on his first day as president. Then he pulled funds intended for Independence Day celebrations and redirected them to anti-cholera operations. He began a shake-up of the Tanzania Port Authority, and extended it to the Tanzania Revenue Authority as he launched a tax collection drive. An audit of the public payroll led to a purge of “ghost workers”. Quickly, it became apparent that he was genuinely waging war on corruption in the Tanzanian state.

Five suspended senior executives of Tanzania’s national oil company were on Friday charged with corruption offences over alleged irregularities in the award of a survey contract to a U.S. firm.

State-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation’s (TPDC) managing director James Mataragio and four other executives were charged with abuse of public office.

They awarded a $3.24 million airborne mining survey contract to U.S firm Bell Geospace without authorisation of the TPDC board, according to the charge sheet filed by prosecutors and handed out in court.

All five denied the charge at the hearing in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Mataragio worked for Bell Geospace in the U.S. as a geo-scientist for 10 years before being appointed TPDC’s managing director in 2014.

He and his four colleagues were suspended in Aug 2016 after audit queries raised red flags over the award of the survey deal to the U.S. firm in a series of payments between 2014 and 2016.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli last year fired his mining and energy minister and split the ministry into two separate portfolios to help stem corruption – one of the main reasons investors cite for the high cost of doing business in Tanzania – boost efficiency and attract funding.

The country has estimated recoverable reserves of over 57 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, most discovered off its southern coast.

Worked towards stopping resource theft
The third and most recent theme in Magufuli’s presidency has been a confrontation with multinational mining companies.The controversy was kick-started this is the alleged discovery that Acacia Mining has been under-reporting of mineral exports earlier this year. Magufuli has argued that multinational mining companies have been stealing Tanzania’s resources for years. Based on these claims, the government charged Acacia Mining with fines and back-dated taxes amounting to USD190 billion. Magufuli even threatened to nationalise the mines. His strategy of brinkmanship worked. On October 19th, Acacia’s parent company Barrick Gold announced that it had reached an agreement with the Tanzanian government. It promised to find ways to further process copper-gold ores in Tanzania, instead of exporting them for smelting, and it made a number of pecuniary concessions.

Banned Shisha
Tanzania banned the smoking of shishas or water pipes over concerns that they were linked with drugs or alcohol abuse. Prime minister Kassim Majaliwa reportedly said shisha was killing future generations. Tanzania was arguably the first African country to impose the shisha ban. In March 2017, alcohol sold in plastic sachets were also banned.

Getting rid of illegal workers in Tanzania job market
The Regional Immigration Office in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam has embarked on a crackdown on foreigners without residence or work permits.

The department will also take measures against officials who issue foreigners with fake documents.

Regional Immigration Officer (RIO) John Msumule, made the revelation Tuesday while briefing the Press on last week’s operation which, among other things, seized and detained 25 Indian nationals.

The 25, working with Quality Group, were allegedly living and engaging in employment in Tanzania without permits.

Another detainee, a Uganda national named Aisha Talib, was caught with 15 passports belonging to Madagascar and Burundi nationals. Others seized in the crackdown were: six Taiwanese, two Indonesians and a Chinese from the Luck and Spin Company.

They were accused of being in Tanzania without residence or temporary business permits, while they had signed for permanent employment at the company.

Leave the country

Mr Msumule said two of those arrested and detained paid fines and seven had been given five days to leave the country.

He said their operation, which targeted companies, had discovered employers who recruited foreign nationals but failed to process for them the requisite documents to legalise their stay and employment in Tanzania.

The Immigration Office also uncovered a local security company, Alfa Romeo, employing a Malawian national illegally.

Unmask them

Mr Msumule said that at the Quality Centre Group, which runs over 20 separate companies, the Immigration Office identified 128 foreign nationals, 25 of who had neither working nor residence permits.

“Because of that, we have issued a warrant that the owner of the group, Mr Yusuf Manji, who we were told is currently hospitalised, to report in our offices the day he is released so that explains,” he said.

The Dar es Salaam Immigration boss also revealed that they had discovered a number of crooked public servants who were involved in producing fake documents, noting that investigations were underway to unmask them.

“We want to ensure that every person in our region lives according to what the law says; we will continue with these operations until the city is clean,” he added.

Bullying Kenyatta

About 47 foreign delegations including 23 heads of State or their deputies joined thousands of Kenyans to witness the swearing-in of President Uhuru Kenyatta for his second term in office.

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, however, skipped the event, despite earlier indications that he would attend. State House had earlier confirmed his attendance.

Instead, Tanzania sent vice president Samia Suluhu to represent President Magufuli at the ceremony.

East African Community presidents, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda) led other eight heads of states and government in witnessing the swearing-in.

Others who attended the ceremony were South Sudan President Salva Kiir who was the first to arrive in Kenya on Sunday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Mohammed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed (Somalia). Ismail Omar Gulleh (Djibouti), Ian Khama (Botswana), Ali Bongo Ondimba (Gabon), Hage Geingob (Namibia) and Edgar Lungu (Zambia).

 

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More importantly, he took drastic measures to boost government coffers, which pleased the masses but upset the establishment. He slashed the budget for the usually opulent opening of parliament by almost 90% and demanded that the money saved be spent on purchasing hospital beds and on roadwork. He didn’t attend the ceremony by plane as it was customarily done by his predecessors, he drove all the way (a little less than eight hours drive from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma). He reduced the size of the presidential convoy, as well as the size of the presidential delegation that travels with him.

A month after taking office, he finally announced his cabinet made up of 19 ministries. It had 11 fewer ministries than the previous government; some were merged to save money. He publicly warned those selected as ministers and other government officials that he would not tolerate corruption, laziness or excessive bureaucracy. He told them they should expect nothing more than to work tirelessly to serve the people of the country alongside him. A government post no longer means a life of ease, privilege and the opportunity to make money. It means hard work, motivated by nothing more than a fierce desire to serve the public which is what politicians routinely promised but do not deliver on.

He put a stop to the public procurement of goods and services at inflated costs. He declared that anyone found procuring public goods or services on inflated prices will be fired. He ordered an immediate ban on foreign travels by public servants on his third day in office and put a stop to the purchase of first-class tickets. He stated that all tasks that necessitated government officials to travel abroad will now be done by the country’s high commissioners and ambassadors abroad. As an example, he once trimmed down a delegation of 50 set to tour Commonwealth countries to just four. And The ban on foreign travel helped the government save at least $429.5 million between November 2015 and November 2016.

He decreed that henceforth, government meetings would be held in state buildings rather than in expensive hotels. He called on all public institutions to significantly cut expenditure on refreshments during meetings. Dr. Magufuli decried “unnecessary heavy refreshments” being offered at meetings and directed that lunch be served only “in very rare and exceptional circumstances” where a meeting that starts in the morning is expected to continue into the evening. He also issued a directive for unnecessary physical meetings to be stopped and for public servants to conduct conference calls instead. This is to cut unnecessary costs that the government incurred from meetings and conferences.


Imagine if he tried this shit in Somalia he would be wacked,

 

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NAIROBI, KENYA: Tanzanian President Dr John Pombe Magufuli has supported his administration’s auctioning of over 1000 cattle belonging to Kenyan pastoralists which had trespassed into his country. In a no-regrets tone, Magufuli said his administration would not spare foreign livestock finding its way into Tanzania. Magufuli spoke when he unveiled a Sh1.5 billion airport in Kagera, Tanzania, on Monday.

He said his country had for long been made a grazing field by neighbouring pastoral communities who have encroached on some parts of Tanzania’s parks denying his nation tourism revenues. He said though Tanzania had vast grasslands, it could not be used as a grazing ground. Magufuli said his administration was responsible for protection of the country’s parks and environment to attract tourists and would do so at all costs.

“And in that line, those who sneak with their livestock into this country will not be spared. We will confiscate them and do to them according to what our laws instruct,” said Magufuli. He added that he will also not interfere if pastoralists from his country trespass into other countries. “Even them (the other country) can deal with the livestock as per their laws,” he said. Magufuli’s statement which was part of the Kagera speech rubbed salt on Kenya’s injury following the misfortunes that have befallen farmers and businessmen.

Last month, a court in Tanzania ordered the auction of about 1,300 cows belonging to the Maasai community in Kenya. This is after the herders failed to pay a fine of about Tsh500 million which is about Sh23 million. Nairobi is said to have tried to negotiate the matter with Dar but in vain. A week ago Tanzania burnt 6,400 one-day-old chicks from Kenya worth over Sh500, 000 in bird flu fears saying it would be so expensive and catastrophic for their farmers if an outbreak was to happen
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A ban instituted in 2007 restricts Tanzania from importing chicken. Magufuli said his government would be registering all livestock in his country as one of the steps to commercialise the sector. Nairobi and Dar ties have been somewhat frosty. Last year, Tanzania declined to be part of Kenya’s Sh380 billion diesel powered Standard Gauge Railway during its inception as other East African countries agreed to the round table meeting.

Later it unveiled plans to build its own electric powered rail just after Kenya had launched hers in June. Tanzania has also declined to invest in the regional, Kenya-driven LAPSSET railway and pipeline project.

 

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Expels Ugandans in mass stops Bantu expansion.

As part of operations to expel foreign nationals with illegal work permits, Tanzania has sacked hundreds of Ugandan teachers from its country, local media, The Observer reports. The move has caused many to raise doubts about Tanzania’s commitment to the East African Community.

In previous years, many people from neighbouring countries including Kenya and Uganda flocked into Tanzania to secure jobs with scores of them not having work permits. But when former president Jakaya Kikwete took over, the situation changed and it got worse in 2016 when the current president, John Magufuli announced an operation to expel foreigners who are working without legal documents.

Magufuli explained that the move was to put an end to the indiscriminate issuance of work permits and to ensure that foreigners did not engage in jobs locals can do.

A Ugandan national, Isaac, who was formerly working in Tanzania as a secondary school teacher told The Observer that since Magufuli took over power, many of his colleagues have been sacked.

“Immigration officers would come to the school and sometimes we would be alerted by administration and we would disappear. They usually came with our full names and details, which we believe were given to them by Tanzanian colleagues,” he said.

He said, for now, it is “practically impossible” for a foreigner to get a work permit in Tanzania as many who have filed for permit renewal have been denied and have since returned to Uganda.

In 2009, the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi) signed the Common Market Protocol to give countries freedom of movement of goods, labour, services and capital but a majority of these East African countries are yet to fully implement the protocols. A Ugandan representative to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Fred Mukasa Mbidde told The Observer there are two issues: labour movement and residence.

“We are not yet a country as East Africa. What Tanzania is doing obviously is not in the spirit of cooperation but it is within the current framework. Labour is only permissible to the extent that one has a work permit,” he said.