Tanzania

We, members of the Feminist Activist Coalition, comprising of over 40 civil society organisations promoting gender equity, social justice, human rights and the transformative feminist movement are outraged over the arrest of 16 activists on 9 February 2012 in Dar es Salaam and their subsequent indictment, purportedly for holding an unlawful assembly.

Tanzanian doctors have suspended a nationwide strike after the country's president met union representatives to defuse a row with government, the doctors association said. The more than 1,000-strong Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) is demanding better pay and conditions and the sacking of Health Minister Hadji Mponda and his deputy, whom they accuse of being 'enemies of doctors and the health sector as a whole'.

Tanzanian ports may soon become idle if plans to build new and competitive facilities are not implemented now.This comes in the wake of plans by Kenya to construct a 23 billion US dollar transshipment port at Lamu. Experts say that in today's business every port in the world keeps pace with fewer but much larger shipping lines and concentration of cargo into bigger vessels able to utilise just a few key hub ports.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has warned medical doctors in public hospitals to refrain from a nationwide strike saying the government could react with very drastic measures against them. 'At present, we see no reason to apply the force of law. We are trying to do what is humanly possible with a patriotic sense in order to avert a disaster that could affect poor patients whose lives are in the hands of medical staff,' Pinda said at a press conference he called to address the issue.

The government will soon table a Contract Farming Bill in parliament, seeking to enact a law to protect smallholder farmers and rural communities against exploitation by private investors. Principal Legal Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Audax Rutabanzibwa said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that among other things, the law will clearly state the kind of crops to cultivate and nature of relationship between private investors and rural farmers.

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