I will not be stopped, says Makonda

Dar es Salaam. Tonnes of criticism will not stop him from fulfilling his responsibility of bringing Dar es Salaam residents development, regional commissioner Paul Makonda has declared.

He was speaking yesterday at an event to mark his one year in office.

“I’m very proud of my achievements in the past one year as Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner. No criticism will divert me from fulfilling my duties. I was appointed to deal with the challenges facing residents of Dar es Salaam. This is what I’ll always focus on. It doesn’t matter how many people hate me, I’ll remain focused,” he said at a well-attended event held at the Police Officers’ Mess at Oyster Bay in the city.

Mr Makonda enumerated his achievements as including initiating city cleanness and tree planting campaigns; starting the construction of the National Muslim Council of Tanzania (Bakwata) headquarters; solving land disputes; mobilising the making of school desks; running a blood donation initiative and driving the anti-drugs war.

According to him, the anti-drugs war is a CCM agenda as stipulated in party 2015 election manifesto, expounding that in order for the Tanzanian society to win the war, there must be a strong commitment from the government, stakeholders and the public.

Giving data, he claimed there were at least 11,854 drug addicts in the city who have shown their readiness to stop abusing drugs, all thanks to his campaign.

He added, “We need political will, that’s why we started with police officers who were suspected of frustrating drug-related cases.”

Mr Makonda defended his strategy of publicly naming suspects in the drug business, saying this was the only way to tackle corruption in the dealings and handling of the matter.

He vowed to use the experience of one year as the regional boss to deliver accordingly in the second year of his leadership.

The young leader wooed public support towards ensuring that government projects were successful.

“In my second year, I’ll focus on monitoring the performance of civil servants in the city, removing people living in hazardous environments like river valleys, check on operations of bureaus de change, and push for the use of credit cards at points of sales.

“I’ll also deal with underperforming contractors winning various tenders, establish a modern centre for drug addicts, and earmark locations for vehicle showrooms so that the city get more organised.”

“Every civil servant must improve their pace of delivering services. We cannot deal with chronic problems under the business as usual mode. There will be no free money, just as we are always reminded by President John Magufuli,” he warned.

Earlier, Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander Simon Sirro urged parents and guardians to lead well their children so that they would avoid the trap of drugs and other inappropriate conduct.

He challenged religious leaders to play a leading role in inculcating moral principles in the people.