US embassy cable - 05DARESSALAAM217

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAR ES SALAAM 000217 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: 2/01/15 
TAGS: PGOV, ECON, TZ 
SUBJECT: Up-Country Travels:  Local Government Mechanisms 
 
Classified by Pol-Econ Chief Judy Buelow for reason 
1.5(b) 
 
REF: A)04 Dar es Salaam  2600, B)04 Dar es Salaam 1707 
 
1. (U) Summary:  From January 7-23, Embassy Dar es Salaam 
was fortunate to have the use of a chartered Twin Otter 
airplane from Prescott Aviation.  Mission personnel had an 
unparalleled opportunity to view a cross section of the 
diverse regions of the vast Tanzanian mainland.   During 
their travels, Embassy delegations inaugurated Self Help 
and DOD Humanitarian Assistance projects and met with 
regional and district government officials in Mwanza, 
Shinyanga, Mtwara, Mbeya and Ruvuma.  A separate, 
complementary report will explore the unique economic and 
social situation of each of these regions.  This report 
will outline several common themes that emerged when the 
travelers compared notes.  Much of our reporting typically 
focuses on the national government, on politicking in the 
rarified zones of Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, and on the 
unique case of semi-autonomous Zanzibar.  This report 
describes the conditions and major concerns in areas of 
Tanzania's vast hinterland that are often overlooked.  The 
majority of Tanzania's 35 million people live in the 
mainland's rural villages and provincial cities; their 
experience of local government and economic development is 
shaped by the conditions outlined below. 
 
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The CCM Machine Rules 
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2. (U) A Tanzanian "region" is an administrative division 
that is only very roughly equivalent to an American state. 
The most crucial difference is that a region lacks an 
autonomous government.  Only a few government officials 
administer each of the 26 regions, and the officials who 
count are all appointed by the central government. 
Presumably, all are members in good standing of the ruling 
CCM party.  The Regional Commissioner is an appointed 
official, as are the District Commissioners who head up the 
next lowest division of local government.  Regional and 
District Commissioners are assisted by a small staff of 
administrators and school superintendents.  Jobs in local 
government tend to go to people who are rising in the ranks 
of the CCM party, but these positions rarely go to local 
people.  In fact, these civil servants rarely have close 
ties to the regions or districts where they serve.  In a 
policy that dates to Mwalimu Nyerere's efforts to build 
national unity, most officials in local governments were 
born someplace else, and have been transferred to local 
government positions all over the country.  While this 
policy attenuates regional or tribal tendencies, it also 
ensures that government officials are more beholden to the 
CCM government that appointed them than to the grassroots 
of any given region. 
 
3. (U) Only at the very lowest level of government, the 
urban "street" or rural "village," does an elected council 
have an advisory role.  Even in these electoral offices, 
the CCM dominates:  in the last local elections, conducted 
in November 2004, CCM candidates won 96 percent of the 
council seats. 
 
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Local Leaders Bring Home the Bacon 
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4. (U) Regional and district officials seek to raise their 
visibility by attracting new investment or funding for 
development projects.  While the central government 
provides some resources, especially for basic 
infrastructure, local governments must also look elsewhere 
for resources.  Every local official has a project proposal 
in search of a donor.  Everybody has a plan for launching a 
major new industry, or reviving a moribund parastatal, if 
only an investor can be found.  Local government officials 
spend much of their time conducting welcoming ceremonies 
for visiting foreign dignitaries.  Potential investors are 
also welcomed graciously.  In the hinterland, which is 
dotted with shuttered parastatal enterprises, there is 
little nostalgia for the era of African socialism, and no 
expectation that the central government will again try to 
provide the wherewithal to run the region's industries. 
Most local governments are eager to attract private sector 
investment to rejuvenate local agricultural processing 
industries that have been moribund for decades. 
 
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National Leaders Remember Home 
------------------------------ 
 
5. (C) In the scramble for donor funding, or for public and 
private investment, the region that is home to a top 
government leader has the edge.  It is certainly no 
accident that President Mkapa's village in Masasi District 
is now accessible by a good dirt road.  It is probably no 
accident that the entire Mtwara Region, in which Masasi is 
located, is now emerging from its longstanding isolation, 
thanks to the construction of the Mkapa Bridge.  At the 
other end of the country, Shinyanga Region also seeks the 
infrastructure that will enable it to overcome its 
isolation and attract investors.  Shinyanga region is home 
to Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye, one of the contenders 
for the CCM's Presidential nomination in the 2005 
elections.  Despite the policies implemented to quell 
regionalism, those local government officials whose 
fortunes are tied to Shinyanga Region presumably have a 
motive to support Sumaye's presidential aspirations.  A 
future President Sumaye could provide Shinyanga with the 
resources, and the infrastructure projects to make 
ambitious regional officials shine. 
 
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Popularity Still Counts 
----------------------- 
 
6.(U) Although most Regional and District officials look to 
the CCM party for their appointments, and to outside 
investors and donors to fund their major projects, they 
also cultivate their grassroots.  Local government 
officials improve the CCM's standing, and their own, if 
they demonstrate they are responsive to the people.  One 
District Commissioner reports he constantly rides circuit 
so that he can consult with the leaders of each village in 
his district.  Local governments also must mobilize the 
grassroots to provide resources, in cash and in labor, for 
routine social services.  If villagers need a primary 
school, they will typically make the bricks and build the 
walls themselves.  Often, local people will repair the 
potholes in village roads. 
 
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The National Government is Far Away 
----------------------------------- 
 
7. (C) The Ministries in Dar es Salaam make policies and 
the Parliament in Dodoma passes legislation, but this does 
not always affect the standard operating procedures of 
local governments.  In one notable example, the Masasi 
District Commissioner reported that only half of his 
operating budget comes from the central government, and 
said that the district raises the rest through taxes on 
agricultural products, and a head tax paid by individuals. 
The DC did not comment on the fact that these taxes 
strongly resemble the "nuisance taxes" that Finance 
Minister Mramba supposedly abolished, with great fanfare, 
in 2003.  In this case, the district's continuing need for 
revenue seems to have trumped central government policy. 
Regional and District governments must govern with very 
minimal personnel: police, border patrols, and public works 
are all little in evidence.  Local governments' 
overwhelming need to deal with practical considerations may 
explain why so many Tanzanian laws and policies that are 
officially on the books are not effectively implemented on 
the ground. 
 
8. (C) Comment:  The average Tanzanian, living somewhere 
up-country on the mainland, will have a different 
experience of the 2005 elections than will his counterpart 
in Dar or in highly politicized and polarized Zanzibar. 
For many, voting will be a civic exercise and a 
manifestation of citizenship, but their ballot will give 
them little real power to change their government or join 
the debate over local development priorities.  Most 
decisions about the allocation of resources and of 
political power will still result from the give and take 
among a relatively restricted circle of individuals who 
occupy the top echelons of both the CCM party and the 
national government.  It would be extremely difficult for 
an opposition political party to establish a presence in 
the Tanzanian interior; it's surprising that in a very few 
districts, some opposition parties have done so.  End 
Comment. 
 
OWEN