Energy woes: The dangers of calm and silent waters
Energy Minister January Makamba responds in Parliament in Dodoma on Tuesday to MPs’ views on the electricity supply situation in the country. PHOTO | EDWIN MJWAHUZI
What you need to know:
- The debates at various times during crises at the energy ministry were particularly tailored to those who were in charge of the ministry at the material time.
The recently concluded parliamentary session in Dodoma brought to surface the seemingly never ending issue of energy woes. After months of abrupt power cuts, with little or unsatisfactory explanations to no explanations offered, it was no surprise that the matter was one of those which preoccupied some Members of Parliament.
The debates on the issue in Parliament were heated and at times took unfortunate turns which highlighted the areas of gulfs and doubts on the part of some of the MPs regarding the government’s response to their queries. Between these exchanges, there were some unsaid parts but nonetheless implied given how the issues were framed.
In part, the debates mirrored the bewildered conversations taking place in the streets and villages around the country. They also continued to hint at the underlying political tensions of this political phase. To some of the MPs who aired their views on the matter in Parliament, the government’s response through the minister of Energy came across as arrogant and condescending. To others what they heard beggared belief on the probability of things turning for the worse in a short period of time while from where they are standing things had been going relatively well for some time.
Context is important to understand where some of these MPs were coming from with their doubts to the point of demanding a parliamentary select committee to investigate the whole matter to Tanesco’s maintenance schedules of the last five years be brought to Parliament to be scrutinised and see whether they could support the government’s claims.
Some of the major corruption or impropriety scandals of the previous nearly three decades were linked to or involved the then Ministry of Energy and Minerals. Each time the country went through crises of availability of reliable electricity, the solutions which were provided for relief proved to be disastrous for the country and did not solve the country’s energy crises. Instead consumers ended up carrying the burden of paying the ballooning debts and operational costs of the country’s electricity supplier.
The past ‘five or six years’ appeared to provide relief with scandals of yesteryear no longer a matter of concern. So, a new round of energy crises and the yet to be finalised plans for solutions promised by the government would bring to mind the dreaded chapter of the past where headlines about the unreliable power supply went hand in hand with the scandals.
In short, founded or unfounded, there are trust issues. Some of the MPs feel that they are not getting the whole story or are being misled.
“It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man”; this African proverb explains another element to this debate which has similarities to the past. Some of January Makamba’s recent predecessors in the ministry were brought down with what many of them claimed were allegations of improprieties which had nothing to do with them but were inherited from the past.
The debates at various times during crises at the energy ministry were particularly tailored to those who were in charge of the ministry at the material time. There was one who was considered to have conflict of interests; another one was seen as being too aloof and not paying enough courtesy to some parliamentarians.
In Mr Makamba’s case it is political ambitions. He once sought the presidency through CCM and made it into top five. Since then, rightly or wrongly, rumours have continued to circulate that he still harbours political ambitions for the top job. At the time he took charge of the ministry, it was not beset by any major scandal; nonetheless he went on a ‘cleaning’ exercise, to ‘reform’ TANESCO and declared it was not an easy task.
Those with a perceptive mind will draw different conclusions.
In his case, as he was frustrated by some of his critics in parliament, he saw the proverbial daggers drawn for him to the point of roping in the president’s name and alluding to some of them having ‘problem with him being a minister’. This response was ill-advised and confined in the moment, but the potential dangers in the days to come are there.
He has pleaded for time to get the technical and budget issues in place. For many reasons, critics and skeptics will not buy that argument. Regardless of who is believable or not, reliable electricity remains a distant reality.
