Polarised Bunge endorses bills on natural resources

Dodoma. Parliament yesterday passed two mineral resources bills after a highly partisan debate that affected the quality of new inputs to the proposed laws.

The Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, told the House that the Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Re-negotiation of Unconscionable Terms) Bill, 2017 and the Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Bill, 2017 sought to bring sweeping changes regarding the management of Tanzania’s natural resources.

Quoting one of the speeches of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Prof Kabudi termed the laws “redemption” for Tanzania.

“The revolution we are seeking is for all of us…it is not for a few people. When they bullied us, we were all bullied…when they exploited us, we were all exploited and when they ignored us, we were all ignored. It was our weakness that made it easy for us to be bullied, exploited and ignored. The revolution that we seek must be for all of us so that a Tanzanian should no longer be weak for people to use that weakness to exploit and ignore him or her,” said Prof Kabudi, borrowing from one of Mwalimu’s speeches.

That set the tone for heated debate in the House that saw MPs from the ruling CCM endorse the bills unconditionally, while the Opposition said that much as it supported efforts to protect Tanzania’s natural resources, it was concerned that the proposed laws had been rushed through Parliament.

Addressing journalists shortly after the morning session, the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament, Mr Freeman Mbowe, said they too wanted Tanzania’s natural resources to be protected, but added that the newly endorsed proposed laws would discourage prospective investors.

“We don’t oppose any decision that seeks to protect our natural resources...far from it. What we are against is the time it has taken Parliament to pass the two bills,” he said, adding that what the Opposition expected was for the process to be more inclusive.

Mr Mbowe said the Opposition feared the decision to ram the bills through Parliament would send the wrong signals to investors.

“As a result, we may not even get what we had planned to get,” he said.

Mr James Mbatia (Vunjo-NCCR-Mageuzi) aired similar sentiments, recalling the year 2002 when President Benjamin Mkapa formed a fact-finding team that travelled to Zimbabwe to learn how the southern African country was handling its reform agenda.

“I was part of the delegation led by veteran politician Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru, and what we learnt in Zimbabwe is quite similar to what is happening in Tanzania now,” he said.

Mr Mbatia said MPs from Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, were then endorsing laws purely on a partisan basis, with the opposition being dismissed as stooges of whites.

“Now Zimbabwe doesn’t even have its own currency and the economy is in a shambles,” he said.

Earlier in Parliament, four opposition MPs – Ms Cecilia Paresso (Special Seats-Chadema), Mr John Heche (Tarime Rural-Chadema), Mr John Mnyika (Kibamba-Chadema) and Ms Riziki Mngwali (Special Seats-CUF) – voiced their concern about the speed with which the two bills were being passed.

But CCM lawmakers – including Mr Japhet Hasunga (Vwawa), Mr Adamson Mwakasaka (Tabora Urban), Mr Joseph Kasheku (Geita), Mr Deo Sanga (Makambako), Mr Peter Serukamba (Kigoma North) and Mr Sharrif Mansour (Kwimba) – said the opposition’s fears were baseless.

“It makes little sense for the Opposition to claim that they oppose the bills because they were tabled under a certificate of urgency and yet during the run-up to the 2015 General Election they (the Opposition) picked their presidential candidate (Mr Edward Lowassa) under a similar arrangement,” Mr Kasheku said amid laughter.

Mr Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma Urban-ACT-Wazalendo) said the quality of debate did not match the seriousness of the bills they were about to endorse.

“We were supposed to have these laws as soon as we attained independence…these are revolutionary laws that for the first time state that our natural resources will be owned by Tanzanians,” he said.

Mr Kabwe added, however, that the bills, like current laws, were still silent on extraction and harvesting of natural resources.

“In my view, we need a system in which the investor will be a mere contractor...we should own the natural resources and contract the investor to harvest them on our behalf. Having done that, the investor will be free to deduct his operational costs from the proceeds so that we can share the profits accordingly,” he said.

Among other issues, the bills state that all natural resources belong to Tanzania and will be utilised only for the country’s benefit.

They also seek to make it illegal for an investor to send any complaints regarding investment in Tanzania to any court outside the country and that all grievances will be handled by the country’s legal system.