Tanzania: It’s time for a lockdown, debt relief and much more urgency
Zanzibar and Tanzania can beat the pandemic and emerge more united, but we don’t have time to spare. Here’s what we need to do.
People gather on a corner in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Credit: Frans Peeters.
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April is shaping up to be a decisive time that will determine the success or failure of Africa’s war against COVID-19. It is imperative that we in Zanzibar and Tanzania – where we have 24 cases at the time of writing, according to the Coronavirus in Africa tracker – intensify our efforts to protect our people and their livelihoods. Our collective future depends on our response. We cannot afford to fail.
Our economy is facing significant stress and strain as a result of the pandemic. There is an immediate need to address this. We cannot afford the current trends of price inflation and protectionism of big businesses to continue. The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and Zanzibar Revenue Board (ZRB) cannot continue their “business-as-usual” approach, which sees no urgency in bringing about tax relief for people whose businesses and livelihoods have been devastated.
Both the Mainland and Zanzibar governments should initiate extraordinary measures to mitigate the economic impacts of the global crisis. The pandemic and its effects will not end tomorrow. The time for burying one’s head in the sand is over. I call upon every leader in the United Republic – political, business, labour and community – to stand up and honour their obligation to protect our vulnerable communities from COVID-19.
Issue a universal stay at home order
I again call upon the governments to implement a universal stay at home order. This should be accompanied by a coming together of leaders of all sectors of society to develop a plan to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of the crisis and to ensure the food security of our people. A sense of urgency must pervade our efforts. We must remember that we are at the brink of incoming monsoon rains, the “Kipupwe” cool season and the Holy Month of Ramadan.
The armed forces deserve our gratitude for their efforts in addressing issues of emergency preparedness, logistics support and in enforcing the current level of community restrictions. However, it is important that they do not abuse their powers under the pretext of fighting the coronavirus. The government has yet to declare an official curfew or restrictions on general movement. Why then are some elements of our armed forces visibly threatening and antagonising law-abiding citizens going about their regular business? This does not bode well for any eventual lockdown as necessary as it may be.
Our armed forces are obligated to act with a reasonable and proportional amount of force, where necessary, and in accordance with the law. This crisis is not the time to use excessive force with impunity. This crisis is the time for our armed forces to show a maximum level of empathy, love and conviction while executing their duties and obligations.
Ask for debt relief
Tanzania and Zanzibar are not prepared for the health challenge that COVID-19 poses. Unfortunately, our national budgets have under-prioritised the health sector for many years. It is therefore inevitable that the pandemic finds us unprepared, underfunded, and with no capacity whatsoever to face it head on.
Economic factors make matters even harder. One-third of Zanzibar’s gross national product comes from the tourism industry, which also comprises 80% of its foreign exchange transactions. The coronavirus has brought the tourism industry in Zanzibar to its knees. Our youth, who make up a significant percentage of the work force, are now without jobs. This is compromising the sustainability of government revenues which could have been used to support our health sector.
The UN World Tourism Organisation suggests that even if the crisis were to end tomorrow, the global tourism industry would have suffered financial losses of up to one third of it standard revenues. This will undoubtedly result in long-term repercussions for our tourism industry. We are in for a long and arduous journey to recovery. It will take months, most probably years, for us to get back to where we were before the pandemic.
As a small island developing state such as Zanzibar, this is too heavy a burden to bear. We will need international financial corporations to support us by suspending our debt servicing for at least one year so the money saved can be used to support the revival of our economies and to save our health systems from total collapse. If the IMF and the World Bank, as well as developed countries, heed our call, we will be able to reduce our current vulnerabilities and build our resilience to get through this crisis.
Tanzania has an external debt of $23 billion, 65% of which comes from international financial corporations and donor countries. If our debt servicing is suspended for one year, Tanzania may save up to TSH 3 trillion ($1.3 billion) which can be used to immediately strengthen our over-burdened health system and alleviate economic shocks. Zanzibar could get its quota of TSH 330 billion ($143 million) which would be critical for the islands to recover from the brink of economic collapse.
We must work together
Collectively, we need to fight this pandemic with greater urgency and resolve. This starts with all our leaders working together to save lives by issuing a stay at home order and ensuring citizens adopt behaviour that avoids increased infection. This should be enabled by patriotic, empathetic and service-oriented armed forces that put citizens, their safety and their rights first. We then need to implement tax relief and make an urgent application for relief from debt servicing for one year.
As the Chairperson of ACT-Wazalendo, I wish to reiterate to the governments of both the Mainland and Zanzibar – we are here to help and do whatever is necessary to win this battle. Working together, we can beat this pandemic and emerge stronger and more united as a country.
Do you really think people of Tanzania can afford and survive to be under a lockdown or you just want to intensify onto the stress of the disease even more,by far people are devastated as it is adding up a lockdown will tarnish them completely,since onto this once more please
Is there any options for Tanzanian stuck in India and there is total lock down
I can only advice the author to withdraw this very embarrassing publication mainly because stay at homes and debt reliefs are not what enabled Tanzania to remain one of the countries which are the least affected with the virus in the world.
ANTIPAS T. S. MASSAWE, are you sure ? seems like you are as ignorant as Trump was…
PLOUF:
Yes I’m.
How the global population could survive n for how long enjoying debt reliefs?!
For example , isn’t that you are calling for our soldiers to runway and hide from the battlefronts where the enemies have deployed some chemical and/or biological weapons instead of calling for the protective gears which would shield them against such weapons as they keep on fighting of the enemy he on?
You should called for protective gears and the know-how that would shield them against the virus as they continue performing their living and wealth creation endeavors fueling the survival-ability and advancement of their societies instead.
White people do not wish us well, They want to see Tanzania and the rest of Africa destitute and dependent on them. That is one reason they are trying every method to discredit Magufuli and encouraging other “village fools” who happened to be presidents of other African countries to follow white orders to lockdown and they are complying without realising the consequences of their own people. Magufuli stand firm we are with you. No matter what, we shall win. GOD IS OUR KEY.
COVID-19 has clearly affected people’s lives worldwide. The most disruptions are being caused by factory-closures, total lockdown, border closures, and other strict measures that have resulted in a lack of essential goods and services, raw materials for industries, parts, and components. Customs and port operations have slowed in developed countries and stopped in some of the developing countries. It is evident that the total lockdown strategy in developing countries has done more bad than good in fighting this pandemic. There is already evidence that measures that have been taken by some of the leaders were not well planned and therefore violated human rights, stimulated corruption, created un-accountability, and unnecessary fear to the public as outlined below:-
1. Poor planning
We all know that, there are laid criteria for prioritizing health crisis, these include analyzing the magnitude of the problem, finding out the severity of the problem, need among vulnerable populations, community’s capacity and willingness to act on the issue, ability to have a measurable impact on the issue, availability of hospital and community resources and so on. The measure that has been taken by some of African leaders was mealy `copy and paste due to lack of preparation.
The copy and paste syndrome for some of these leaders has never been for the public interest, especially poor and disadvantaged groups. To my opinion, the total lockdown strategy was viable for some developed countries with strong economic conditions and good infrastructures with a well-planned entry and exit strategy, because lifting lockdown for poor countries with no exit strategy in place will inevitably lead to large rebound effects, as the immunity of the population is estimated to be still very low because of the malnutrition, fear and inactive lifestyle during the lockdown.
Now the developed countries have in place the exit strategy, while some of East African countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda that imposed lockdown will probably end the lockdown without testing all of their people, isolation for at-risk people, and social distancing measures, the act which will lead to a peak in severe cases.
2. Violation of human rights
Police in different countries have used brutal measures and sometimes killed many innocent people in the name of fighting the novel COVID-19 pandemic. In Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Africa alone at least 30 people have been killed since lockdowns began in these countries.
3. Corruption
Experience from outbreak like Ebola, tsetse flies in Kenya, has shown that, in an emergency situation decision which is taken to rescue people’s life are accompanied with violation of procurement procedures, and misuse of power to make the decision that benefit corrupted leaders and their families. There is claim that, Kenya, Rwanda and other countries have requested the fund from local and International organization for their personal interest.
4. Ùn-necessary fear to the public
Most of developing countries have a common and serious problem that needs to be addressed rather than jumping into COVID-19 as the top agenda, we cannot say COVID-19 is not a threat, but it is not worse than the hunger in South Sudan and some parts of Uganda and Kenya, it is not worse than other diseases like Malaria, HIV, and CANCER which kills a big number of our people daily compared to COVID-19.
Let us now see how Tanzania under President John Magufuli is fighting this pandemic and what has been their strength and weakness.
President John Magufuli, unlike most other leaders, has a different approach in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the outcomes are better compared to other countries.
I assume he realized that it is unlikely that a vaccine will be found soon, and we will have to adapt ourselves to living with the virus. The everlasting lockdown for more than 55 million people will bring more death than what COVID-19 can do because it is difficult to manage and sustain, especially in places where the daily hustle of the informal sector or subsistence agriculture are the only means of survival.
The capacities to track, test and isolate for Tanzania is also a big challenge, Tanzania is bordered with eight countries with porous and poorly controlled borders, in most cases, sustained national-level disease control is difficult. The lack of testing capacity makes it hard to know the full extent of transmission since it was announced.
Moreover, it is obvious that Tanzania health infrastructure is less effective compared to China, US, Italy, and the UK in terms of the number of hospital beds and ventilators, doctors and nurses, diagnostics facilities and others all these countries are scrambling to contain the spread of the virus, with the death toll in thousands.
Knowing that the goal of lockdowns in most places is not to eliminate the virus but to accept the economic and social costs as a price worth paying in order to ‘flatten the curve’ of infection and protect healthcare systems from being overwhelmed. The only choice was to create strong public awareness, restriction on movement, curfews, shutting places of entertainment, banning large gatherings, creating effective communication, schools, and college lockdown, social distancing, eradicating fear to public and maintaining stability in the country.
With this approach, the partial lockdown has helped not only Tanzania but also other neighboring countries. Tanzania has been a hub to supply essentials goods through its borders. President Magufuli has ordered his team to make sure Tanzanian have enough food during and after this pandemic and allowed food from Tanzania to flow across borders to the neighboring countries.
President Magufuli has emphasized digitalization by regulatory authorities, this has reduced face-to-face contact between regulatory authorities’ officials and the clients, it has also reduced time and cost for people and corruption. At the same time, the computerization of records helps in the more efficient use of scarce enforcement resources.
On the other hand, he has created critics by some of the opposition leaders for the use of traditional medicine to treat symptoms of COVID 19, using a partial lockdown approach, and allowing essentials goods to flow within Tanzania and across the border.
In the COVID-19 crisis so far, President Magufuli has been widely praised for displaying the decisive leadership so many hoped for when they cast their ballot for him in November 2020
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