Government on the dock

My spies tell me that the government has been placed on the dock and asked to explain the obvious collusion between the waheshimiwa and the country’s grand corruption I hear some 50 non-governmental organizations, under the umbrella of the Feminists Activists Coalition (FemAct), have met to deliberate on recent corruption outrages committed with the tacit nod of the government, they claim. Later they released a hard hitting statement which my spooks on-passed to me.

They were openly outraged; “Stories of syndicated grand corruption in the country are horrifying, and force us to draw the conclusion that the Tanzanian state has been hijacked!” The NGOs claim that the state has been bought wholesale and is dancing to the tunes of a few powerful moguls working as one in a powerful corruption network and syndicate to the detriment of the majority of Tanzanians.

“FemAct recognizes syndicated and grand corruption as all private gain-motivated abuse of public office, plunder of public property and lying in the name of ‘nationalisation’, corruption in the electoral processing, lack of transparency in public contraction processes, (meaning public procurement, public investment, privatization), budget execution without consideration of national priorities, discriminatory enforcement of laws and regulations and disobedience of public leadership ethics.” the hard hitting statement said.

FemAct demanded that government immediately and without excuse to prosecute all persons suspected all persons suspected of grand corruption cases and dismantle their corruption networks.

The held the government responsible to implement wholly the Parliamentary resolution on Richmond and provide credible a public restatement on all grand corruption scandals currently in public debate.

FemAct also demanded that the government disclose all existing investment contracts for public access and scrutiny and ensure state function enforcement organs especially the cops, The Directorate public prosecution, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the National Security (intelligent services) conduct their respective business in an accountable manner under strict adherence to professional ethics and expected competences.

The NGOs sounded genuinely angry. But will the government listen to such demands? Few believe it will. So far it has displayed a thick skin and pooh poohed the countrywide protests.

Most analysts expressed strong doubts if the government will listen this time.. “These guys are amazing. They are busy fiddling while Rome is burning. Either that is being tough or foolhardy.” One analyst sighed resignedly in the city recently.