Tanzania Foreign Investment News (Page 24)

Rais wa Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan amefanya uteuzi wa viongozi mbalimbali, huku akiigusa ofisi yake kwa kuteua watendaji wanne katika nafasi mbalimbali za uongozi.Continue Reading

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has reiterated its longstanding order to Tanzania to revoke the death penalty in line with the continental charter on the right to life.

Delivering judgment on two separate cases, the court sitting in Arusha emphasised again that mandatory capital punishment was a violation of the African Charter and gave the country six months to remove it from its legal statutes.

Nzigiyimana Zabron, a Burundi national, and Tanzanian Dominick Damian are convicted murderers who have been languishing on death row at Mwanza’s Butimba Central Prison for the last 12 years awaiting execution.

While the continental court has issued several similar orders for Tanzania to scrap the death penalty in recent years, the punishment has remained enshrined in the country’s Penal Code despite growing opposition against it as a colonial era legacy.

Read: African court criticises states for ignoring verdicts

This puts it among several African countries that continue to retain it despite a 1999 resolution by the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights calling on African Union member states to observe a moratorium on capital punishment.

Only eight countries have abolished it in law and practice in the past 10 years, since 2014. Others are eyeing formal abolition while continuing to mete out the sentence for major offences.

Many, including Tanzania and Kenya, have not carried out any executions for years. Tanzania’s last execution was in 1995 and Kenya, which also still sentences people to death, in 1987.

In a July 2023 report, a Tanzanian government commission overseeing judicial reforms proposed that death sentences should be commuted to life imprisonment as a more “humane” option.

The commission, which was chaired by the former chief justice Mohamed Chande Othman, said public opinion in the country was sharply divided on the merits and demerits of capital punishment as the best way to deal with serious crimes.

Two offences carry the death penalty in Tanzania — murder and treason.

The report recommended that the Penal Code be amended to allow alternative punishments for murder in line with the circumstances behind each case and the sentence be converted to life imprisonment in cases where execution is delayed for at least three years.

Read: Tanzania rules to keep death penalty

Official statistics show that by May 2023, there were 691 prisoners in Tanzanian prisons awaiting execution of their death sentences meted out by domestic courts.

In the cases of Zabron and Damian, the African court rejected their appeals for their convictions to be quashed outright, saying their guilt had been established beyond reasonable doubt in the respective trial proceedings with no evidence of “miscarriage of justice.”

But it ruled that their sentences to die by hanging should be revoked immediately and resentencing hearings be held within a year “through a procedure that does not allow the mandatory imposition of the death sentence and upholds the discretion of the judicial officer (judge).”

It said the imposition of the mandatory death sentence under Section 197 of Tanzania’s Penal Code “constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life” and breached Article 4 of the African Charter by depriving the judicial officer of the “discretion to hand out any other penalty once the offence of murder is established.”

The court also deplored hanging as a method of implementing the death penalty, stating that it was “a form of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment which is in violation of Article 5 of the Charter.”

It said the violations against the right to life established by both applicants “extended beyond their cases” and required the respondent State to publish the two judgments on the websites of its judiciary and legal affairs ministry within three months and then continuously for one full year.

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Tanzania Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Dr. Doto Biteko, has called upon stakeholders in Africa’s fisheries sector to intensify their efforts in protecting fisheries resources in a bid to improve the sector’s contribution to the economy.

Daily News recently published an in-depth detailing how the sector was threatening fishermen and business people into bankruptcy.

Addressing the First Africa Small-Scale Fishers Meeting in Dar es Salaam that coincided with the 10th anniversary celebration of achievements in the fisheries sector, Dr. Biteko urged stakeholders to prioritize small-scale fishers to boost the sector. In Tanzania, he said the group accounts to approximately 95 percent for all fishing activities.

Official figures show Tanzania produces an average of 475,579 tons of fish that includes about 429,168 tons of fish coming from natural waters, contributing about 3.4 tril/-. This is nearly 1.9 percent of the annual contribution of the sector to the gross domestic product – GDP.

READ: PM demands report on illegal fishing activities

“Despite efforts in Tanzania and across Africa, the fisheries sector faces several challenges, including the impacts of climate change, limited stakeholder involvement in fisheries management, particularly women and youth, and post-harvest losses,” he said.

Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Abdallah Ulega, expressed honor in Tanzania hosting the first Africa Small-Scale Fisheries Conference, originating from the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) celebrated in Rome, Italy, in March 2023.

“The aim of this conference is to give small-scale fishers a platform to voice their needs and improve the sector, ensuring their involvement in policy-making, legal frameworks, and strategic planning,” added Minister Ulega.

The conference themed, “A Decade of Progress: Envisioning the Future of Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries,” celebrates ten years of implementing the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries.

The conference is expected to review the implementation of these guidelines and related policy and strategic frameworks for fisheries and aquaculture development in Africa.

Source: allafrica.com

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Tanzanian authorities have urged maize farmers to seek markets in neighbouring countries for their surplus.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the country expects a bumper harvest, and the surplus will exceed the preliminary demand assessment of maize, more than 1,2 million tonnes estimated for export markets in neighbouring countries.

The National Food Reserve Agency is set to purchase cereals from farmers earlier in July due to expected bumper maize harvests from key growing areas in the southern region.

National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) executive director Dr Andrew Komba said the agency was set to start buying maize, rice and other food crops from farmers for storage and selling to local and foreign food markets beginning July.

NFRA strategy was to manage food reserves to ensure sustainable supply that would meet both domestic and export needs, the food agency officials said.

The agency had opened 14 crop purchasing centres in leading maize producing areas in the southern highlands. Ministry of Agriculture had allocated Tsh300 billion (US$115 million) for buying some 300 000 tonnes of food crops during the harvesting season between June and July.

Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe said Tanzania expects to produce 31,5 million tonnes of food crops compared with 20.4 million tonnes harvested last year. He zsaid the country expects to harvest over 10 million tonnes of maize during the 2024 season that runs between mid-June and July. –

Source: allafrica.com

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