Tanzania: A Wolf An ASheep

TANZANIA

A Wolf and a Sheep

East African leaders have been making headlines as of late – but not the good kind.

In Uganda, lawmakers are at odds over a bill that could place President Yoweri Museveni in power for life.

Meanwhile, neighboring Kenya is seriously stumbling with a democratic transition after a botched election gave way to a chaotic and disputed rerun.

But in Tanzania, which has never seen a military dictatorship or civil war since its independence in 1962, President John Magufuli’s all-out assault against corruption has been gaining some traction.

Magufuli, nicknamed “the bulldozer” for his work to build roads in his previous post as cabinet minister, was elected president in 2015 on a pledge to tackle the corruption that has plagued Tanzania and East Africa at large for decades, Al Jazeera reported.

Since taking office, he’s cracked down on officials’ lavish trips abroad, axed 10,000 civil servants deemed unqualified for their posts and a drain on government funds, increased taxes on businesses, and made moves to oust high-profile politicians accused of corruption.

In his latest surprise move, the president went up against the country’s miners, one of the resource-rich nation’s largest sources of foreign investment, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Miners once flocked to Tanzania for its low taxes and investment-friendly regulations. Now, Magufuli is demanding mining companies list their stakes in local stock exchanges and pay higher taxes and royalties to the government – or else face losing their contracts all together.

“I will not hesitate to close down all the mines if companies don’t pay what they owe us,” Magufuli told crowds in the nation’s mining region in July. “I have launched an economic war.”

The war’s first casualty: Toronto-based mining firm Barrick Gold, which the government has billed $190 billion in revised taxes, interests and fines, Quartz reports.

Observers see the move as a correction of a business environment that disenfranchised Tanzanians.

“Tanzanians have not benefited from these minerals, foreign companies have been paying little taxes and repatriating almost all the proceeds,” Rugemeleza Nshala, executive director of Dar es Salaam-based nonprofit Lawyers Environmental Action Team, told the Wall Street Journal.

“Now that the laws have been tightened, government will no longer be helpless.”

Critics say it’s ludicrous. The bill is roughly four times the country’s GDP, they note, also pointing out other instances in which government “corrections” are driving foreign business to look elsewhere.

Meanwhile, beware of the bully behind the crusader’s cape. While many applaud Magufuli’s anti-corruption drive, they note that since he took office two years ago, civil liberties have nose-dived.

Magufuli’s government has sought to stifle free speech in Tanzania during his tenure by shuttering the nation’s newspapers. The fourth was shut down for allegedly publishing “false information” in late October, AllAfrica.com reported.

Magufuli has detained opposition leaders – one was recently attacked – while also shutting down HIV/AIDS clinics and detaining human rights lawyers suspected of aiding homosexuals, the Guardian reported.

It is a lesson, says the Economist, warning of ruin for the country if it continues on this path: “When the presidency is strong and other institutions are weak, a single bad leader can set a country back many years.”