Religious leaders speak out on port development deal

Dar es Salaam. Religious leaders said yesterday they have understood the government’s standpoint in the ongoing port discussion, noting however that the government needs to comprehensively explain the matter for the public to understand.

The statement by the Interfaith Standing Committee comes amidst a heated debate emanating from the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Tanzania and Dubai on port operations in the country.

The agreement that aims to enhance economic and social cooperation between the two countries to expand and improve Tanzania ports, has been greeted with a heated debate among members of the public, who demanded more explanations from the government on the terms and conditions.

And, when they met in Dar es Salaam yesterday, members of the Interfaith Standing Committee said they though they still have some reservations, they have however understood the IGA after receiving explanations from government officials who were led by the Minister for Works and Transport, Prof Makame Mbarawa.

The religious leaders got enough clarification yesterday during an eight-hour meeting between them and government technocrats who included lawyers who took part in the drafting of the IGA.

"We have agreed that as they have clarified for us item by item, then they should also be able to do the same for Tanzanians to understand before another step is taken," said Fr Charles Kitima, Secretary General of Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC).

"Clarifications are necessary. We will also continue to monitor it and give advice on behalf of the public because we already have some disappointing history of conflicts on some of the contracts that were entered into by the government," he added.

According to Fr Kitima, they suggested that some of the controversial aspects of the language should be corrected, while he commended the government for responding to the call to clarify before they can discuss it with thousands of their followers.

"They have told us that the IGA – which has been endorsed by the Parliament - can be amended, so we believe that the controversial aspects have a room for correction (amendment) before entering into the official contracts for the projects," he said.

Mr Nuhu Mruma, who is the general secretary of the National Muslims Council of Tanzania – commonly known in its Kiswahili acronym as Bakwata - said that like other citizens, they had many questions that prompted them to want to know more about the agreement that created a buzz in the country.

He explained that according to their conversation, they believed that the government will listen to the people more and continue to provide education to those who are worried so that the nation remains united.

"We are very grateful because we have all understood and the government has promised to work on our recommendations. We will also go to explain to our people according to the way the matter has been clarified to us," he said.

Earlier, explaining the elements of the agreement, Mr Hamza Johari, the chairman of the committee that led to the signing of the agreement, emphasized the attention they had in every aspect of the agreement and asked Tanzanians to be calm.

"Tanzania is a sovereign state and we were very careful in every step of the agreement and so the big incentive was to find a better way to make the port an end to end business than to remain in the work loading and offloading cargo," said Mr Johari.

Prof Mbarawa assured religious leaders that their views and those of other stakeholders would be accommodated as he explained the benefits the country will have from the agreement.

He outlined some of the benefits, such as increasing ship arrivals from 1,569 in 2021/22 to 2,950 in 2032/33 and reducing container handling time from 4.5 days to 24 hours.

The agreement on economic and social cooperation to expand and improve Tanzania ports also gives the UAE-based DP World an exclusive right to discuss with the government of Tanzania about operating and developing some port projects.

Some aspects that have been complained about include the validity of agreements and implementations to mention a specific execution time frame for projects for the broad interests.

The public also demanded partners to evaluate the implementation of investment projects and terminate the agreement amidst failure to honour the agreement.