Addicts smoking 300 cigarettes per day; cases of RAINY clouds!

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In a story placed on Page 3 of the tabloid associated with this columnist, entitled, ‘Inside Tanzania’s Sh4.7trn clean cooking oil,’ the scribbler writes: “Data produced in 2022 by the Energy Ministry shows that a person who is exposed to FIREWOOD smoke FOR AN HOUR has similar health risks as a person who SMOKES BETWEEN 200 and 300 CIGARETTES.”

Hello! The scribbler—according to the figures he has provided—is talking about a person who smokes between 10 packets and 15 packets of cigarettes PER HOUR—the same period someone spends in the kitchen cooking a meal using firewood!

Smoking 10-15 cigarettes per hour is might be possible—stupid and deadly as it’d be—but 200-300? Okay, maybe that’s what statistical analysis would show, but one-hour exposure to firewood smoke daily is common among our women and girls, some of whom live to be 80-plus, like my Aunt Safina Sultani, who’s 84 now—and counting!

And then, on Page 4 there’s this story, ‘Media stakeholders call for government to align law with EACJ ruling’ and there-in the scribbler purports to quote someone as saying: “…one cannot practise unless accredited, and Section 20 requires journalists TO BE ISSUED a press card…”

You’re issued a press card? No; you’re issued WITH a press card…

And then, the Friday, May 10 edition of Bongo’s huge and colourful broad ran a feature article whose headline read: ‘Drowning: A preventable tragedy that CLAIMS NUMEROUS annually.’

This headline begs the question: numerous what? Even before reading the text, our correct guess was that the headline writer meant to say “…claims numerous LIVES…”

In Para 4, our scribbling colleague writes: “Laki Ally Rajab, a resident of Uzimbanini Village…and three others cheated death after a locally made canoe THEY WERE TRAVELLING WITH hit a stone and capsized.”

There’re two matters here: One, grammatical and two, verbosity. Now when you’re using a vessel to undertake a journey, you’re travelling ON that vessel—like you travel on a boat, on a canoe or a ship. You don’t travel “with” it!

And in order to eradicate verbosity, don’t tell us about “vessel on which they were travelling;” simply say THEIR vessel.

And, finally, some goodies from Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet of Saturday, May 11, whose Page 1 carries a headline that declares, ‘Samia wins MPs accolades.’

There’s a punctuation issue that renders the headline grammatically faulty. From what obtains in the story, President Samia has (in simple English), been praised by MPs—i.e. Members of Parliament. The praises came from the mouths of MPs—many. Which is to say, the praises were MPs’—they were theirs (possessive). The apostrophe (‘) after the “s” is therefore not an option—it must be there! If only a single MP gave accolades to Dr Samia, then the headline would read, ‘Samia wins an MP’s accolades.’

In Para 2 of the big story, the scribbler writes: “During yesterday’s debate on the 2024/25 budget for the Ministry of Water, the law makers praised the successful implementation of various WAR blues across the across the country.”

Yes; that what went to press on Friday night—war blues, instead WATER blues! Those of us charged with cleaning up copies before the paper “goes to bed” need everybody’s prayers, wallah!

Page 5 of the broadsheet is carrying a picture spread and for one of the photos, the caption reads: “Phlebotomist from the National Blood Transfusion Service….’takes’ A BLOOD from Dar es Salaam resident Mr R S…”

A blood? Nope! We say, “blood,” because this fluid is not countable! And a medic DRAWS (not takes) blood from a donor/patient.

On Page 10, there’s a headline that reads: ‘This is how frogs detect a RAINY cloud from a distant location in the sky.’ A rainy cloud? Nope! We say: a RAIN cloud.

Ah, this treacherous language called English!Continue Reading

The bottomless money pit that is ATCL

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If a song was ever to be written and sung as a prelude to the annual presentation of reports by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), the name, Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL), would, undoubtedly, be the main feature of the chorus. How could it not be, given its notoriety for huge losses? On March 28, 2024, The Citizen reported, “Air Tanzania leads loss-making parastatals despite government investment.”

ATCL is not bashful; it also leads as a recipient of government handouts. In the last eight years, ATCL has gobbled down government subsidies amounting to at least Sh3.63 trillion (about $1.4 billion), with no signs that its thirst for more taxpayers’ money has been quenched. It has been like pouring water on the hot Sahara Desert sand.

It is important to note that the billions of shillings of subsidies being poured into ATCL benefit mostly the affluent and people of better means, and not the poor. The poor can hardly afford bus fares, let alone airfares.

The trend of ATCL’s losses is shocking, to say the least – Sh23.6 billion, Sh35.24 billion, and Sh56.64 billion in financial years 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23, respectively. As astounding as these numbers might be, they do not actually reveal the full magnitude of losses.

This is because there are some hidden costs to taxpayers that cannot be discovered even by the most thorough investigation and auditing by the CAG.

For example, during President Magufuli’s reign, government employees (and CCM officials) were required, not officially, but the message was clear, to use Air Tanzania for all domestic business trips.

That meant Air Tanzania had monopoly power with respect to trips by government employees. Most likely airfares for those employees were higher than what they would have paid to travel with private airlines. That is an example of an additional cost to tax payers that is too subtle to be captured by CAG’s investigations.

In the last few years, the government of Tanzania has been on a shopping spree for new aircraft, supposedly, to expand services and reverse the trend of ATCL’s losses. Yet, the end to these losses is nowhere in sight. A standard response from ATCL about losses is that investments (in new aircraft) will produce profits in the long-run. A typical response from the government about the losses is usually to fire the head of ATCL and make some tough statements about oversight.

A famous quote by John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists, is that, “in the long-run we are all dead.” Air Tanzania may have a different notion of what long-run means, but it has never made a profit since it was established in 1977. It failed to do so even when it had a pure monopoly in domestic flights, in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Instead, its monopoly power made it notoriously inefficient. At that time, ATCL was nick-named, “air labda” (air maybe). The flight schedules meant absolutely nothing.

The standard response when you asked about a delay, when you could find someone to ask, was, “hatujui ndege itakuja saa ngapi” (we don’t know what time the plane will get here). More than 45 years later, we are still waiting for those profits that were to be generated in the long run. Don’t hold your breath!

Frequent firing of ATCL’s leaders by the government is like putting “a bandage on a bullet wound.” Essentially, it is scapegoating a few individuals to give the public an impression that something is being done to address the problem. But this is not the case. ATCL is not run as a for profit company and these losses should not be treated as a surprise. They are not one person’s fault.

To make ATCL a profit-making company, it needs to be privatised. It may sound radical, but it is the only way this company can be run efficiently.

A joint venture solution was tried in the 1990s with South African Airways, but it proved to be a disaster.

Of course, the privatisation process cannot be rushed and it must be transparent. The contract should be drawn carefully to make sure that privatization promotes competition, instead of stifling it, in the airline industry.

If ATCL is kept as a government parastatal (or parasite, considering its losses) as a matter of national pride, then there is no need to complain about losses.

Instead, losses should be considered the price that the nation is willing to pay for its pride. However, taxpayers should be clear that ATCL is a bottomless money pit.

Richard Mshomba is Professor Emeritus of Economics at La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. mshomba@lasalle.eduContinue Reading