Yearbook 2009
Tanzania. According to countryaah, authorities apparently made half-hearted attempts to curb the wave of murders of people with pigment deficiencies, albinos, which have been going on since 2007 and claimed at least 40 people’s lives. In January, the government revoked the licenses for traditional healers, who were suspected of using the decoctions on albinos’ body parts which, according to popular belief, are in luck. But the business continued to about the same extent without reckoning. In the city of Shinyanga in northwestern Tanzania, trials were carried out during the year against seven people charged with the murder of albinos. All seven were found guilty and sentenced to death. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation TZ which stands for the nation of Tanzania.
Public confidence in the judiciary also became a thorn when eight policemen, accused of shooting four innocent people, were acquitted in the absence of evidence. Police said the four had robbed a bank and were killed in a fire. But an investigation had found that they had not participated in the robbery and that no fighting had ever occurred.
In local elections throughout the country in October, the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party, CCM) prevailed. The party’s candidates for village leaders and municipal representatives received a total of 93.7 percent of the vote.
1991 Multiparty system
In the early 1990s, Julius Nyerere abandoned the opposition to a multi-party system. According to the former president, the absence of a political opposition had meant that the CCM government had removed itself from its program and social responsibility to develop into a political caste isolated from the people. Under the leadership of Abdullah Fundikira, in February 91, a commission was set up to plan the change of Tanzania’s political system.
In its 1991 report, Amnesty International pointed to the presence of 120 prisoners on the island of Zanzibar, of which at least 40 were political. The Mwinyi government denied political arrests and invited the human rights organization to investigate the case on the spot.
In March of that year, the Organization of Tanzanian Workers (JUWATA) terminated its organic affiliation with CCM. In December, opposition leader Oscar Kambona announced his plans to return to Tanzania after 23 years of exile in England, with the aim of leading the fight for a multi-party system. He also informed about the formation of the Tanzanian Democratic Alliance Party. But the April 93 election once again emphasized the ruling CCM’s leading role in political life, as it gained 89% of the votes cast against the other parties’ 11%.
Yet, the country’s serious socio-economic situation led to increasing resistance. The country’s foreign debt stood at $ 6.5 billion in 91, or 26% of its export revenue. In 1993-94 it received a total of DKK 1.2 billion in aid. dollars from the western countries, but the fundamental problem remained unchanged – the rising current account deficit. The IMF and the World Bank had forced the country to open up for rising imports, reaching 93 billion in 1993. exports fell to $ 370 million. – especially due to falling world market prices for cotton.
The government entered into a new agreement with the IMF on the implementation of an even tighter structural adjustment program, which would result in the firing of 20,000 public servants and the reduction of the budget deficit. To implement this, the cost of tuition was further cut. By 1960, these expenditures had made up 30% of public spending. In 94 they reached 5%. At the same time, electricity prices were increased by 68% and various local taxes were increased by 233%.
In March, the World Bank praised Tanzania’s economic policies and characterized the country as its second-best student in Africa – after Ghana. However, the country’s serious social situation was further exacerbated by the massive influx of refugees from neighboring Rwanda following the massacre of over half a million people.
The year 95 was marked by the parliamentary and presidential elections in October, which CCM once again won – thanks to the support of Nyerere. Benjamin Mkapa was elected new president and he appointed Frederick Sumaye as prime minister.