‘Panya Road’: Possible economic causes and solutions

On the 2nd of January 2015 a group of youth popularly known as ‘Panya Road’ caused havoc in several streets of Dar es Salaam. It is said that ‘Panya Road’ is a criminal gang that involves itself in armed and other kinds of robbery. Its actions are violent and involve attacking people on the streets as well as robbery in business premises.

There are many ways and schools of thought through which one can interpret what is being done by ‘Panya Road’ and other similar gangs in the Tanzanian context. In this article, the author provides some economic perspectives on the possible causes of and solutions for ‘Panya Road’.

Unemployment

Among the first economic schools of thought and theories that can be used to explain the ‘Panya Road’ phenomenon is unemployment. Unemployment is a situation in which people who are both willing and able to work are unable to get a job. This is caused by many and closely related factors.

Among the core reasons for unemployment is the situation where labour supply is greater than demand for the same. This in turn is caused by a number of factors including labour market supply and labour market demand sides issues. It is also due to inadequate labour market skills including soft skills.

Underemployment

‘Panya Road’ phenomenon can be attributed to underemployment. This is a situation in which one is working only for a portion of the time one is supposed to be working. Unemployment and underemployment are social-economic evils whose results include such things as the ‘Panya Road’ phenomenon. The evil creates room for one to use time and energy on criminal activities partly because an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.

 Unemployment and underemployment can be solved by proper employment interventions. These include interventions that would create jobs for those involved in such gangs as well as interventions that would enable the youth to create their own legally acceptable jobs.

Inequality

The ‘Panya Road’ phenomenon can also be economically explained from the inequality school of thought and theories. Economic inequality is a situation where there are gaps within and between individuals, households and communities as measured by Gini coefficient which is an inequality indicator. From the economic theory, inequality has two main parts. These are income inequality and inequality of opportunities.

Whereas the former explains a situation in which there are gaps between the haves and the have nots – the rich and the poor -, the latter is about giving people the chance to make most out of their human capital as a factor of production of goods and services.

Perceived or actual inequality (high Gini coefficient), can lead to disconts on the part of those on the lower income strata of the society. This is mainly the case if they think that the relatively better off section of the society is the one causing their missery. Actions such as the ones by ‘Panya Road’ – and very wrongly so – are among the ways in which frustrations of economic inequality can be expressed. Income and opportunities inequalities in general and extreme ones in particular therefore do breed violence as partly manifested in the ‘Panya Road’ actions. The logic on solving this is bridging the incomes and most importantly opportunity gaps between the haves and have nots.

 This should not be done by impoverishing the haves in order to enrich the have nots. Instead, it should be done through initiatives that will avail opportunities to the have nots without necessarily reducing the same from the haves as stipulated in the Pareto optimality theory.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship as a school of though behind ‘Panya Road’ is partly touched under the employment and unemployment schools of thought. Given its weight in gold in the context of this article, entrepreneurship deserves and needs more than a footnote.

By and large, what has been done by ‘Panya Road’ is a manifestation of lack of positive entrepreneurial mind and attitude. Inter alia, entrepreneurship is all about seing economic and business opportunities, it is about being innovative and courageous, it is about creating enterprises as well as creating jobs instead of looking for jobs.

Given their youthful ages and the big number of up to over 600, the ‘Panya Road’ gang represents untapped economic potential in the context of positively productive economic groups and organizations. The group is a sleeping giant whose potentials and capabilities can and should be positively directed.

Ways forward

What we have seen in the actions of ‘Panya Road’ is not the kernel of the matter, but symptoms of a larger, more fundamental and deeper-rooted problems.

These have to be identified accordingly and worked on. As partly outlined in this article, there are a lot of economic reasons and solutions behind ‘Panya Road’. Economic problems need economic solutions if the root causes are to be addressed.

Whereas the police and the legal system have to do their work in dealing with ‘Panya Road’, if more fundamental causes including the economic ones outlined here are not adequately addressed, such gangs will be with us forever. Treat the root cause not symptoms or result.