The sugar saga hit me this week when I was almost out of the last supply I purchased the other week. I went to visit someone in Kawe Dares Salaam. There were three shops in the neighbourhood so I thought I should replenish my stock of brown sucrose. The first shopkeeper said, pole, no sugar.But he directed me to another shop tucked in a narrow alley. Before I could leave he asked me why Tanzania was having sugar issues? There is sugar in town, why is your shop out of stock? He said the problem was not of supply but the government telling traders and the public that the prices should be 1,800 shillings.Typical Tanzanian citizen. I don’t know him from Adam and yet here he was, ready to battle me on the pros and cons of controlled sugar pricing. I drew my proverbial sabre, ready to fight him to the finish.
I was convinced had there been no interference from government authorities traders would have used the law of supply and demand to jack the price to 5,000/- since a few years ago. But I told him I did not understand why sugar was cheaper and readily available in Kenya and Uganda which are fellow EAC members.
Even sugar from Malawi is cheaper, he added. So why were we paying more? Because of too many people in the supply chain he said.
The bulk traders buy from factories at production cost. They then sell to large wholesalers who then sell to neighbourhood whole sellers with shops in suburbs.
When he went to buy his stock from Kawe and discovered it was 130,000/- fora 50kg bag, he left without buying because he could not recover his cost even if he charged 2,500/- per kg.
According to him, as long as government keeps its nose out of the sugar business, consumers will willingly pay whatever market price traders ask for. And he can be in the sugar business again. He was waiting for the price cap to be lifted.
I walked to the next shop and found plenty of sugar. Price? Three thousand bob. I told the lady shop keeper I was not ready to part with my money and walked away.
Come back, how much you want? Ah, so I can negotiate? Interesting. I vowed to stop drinking tea henceforth. My drink will from now be beer. I will drink beer to conserve water thereby increasing my contribution to government revenue from the taxes levied on beer.
I suspect when we pay 3,000/- for 1,000 grammes of sugar to a dukawalla, the government only gets taxes from the official price of1,800/-.. Traders at each level take their cut and pass their overheads and profit margins to consumers.
This sugar saga has not eased despite the government importing 70,000 tonnes recently. If local factories are making 300,000 tonnes of sugar, and our total needs are about 400,000 tonnes, where is the shortage coming from?
Government already brought in enough to cover 70% of the expected shortfall. And from media reports, there were a few thousand tonnes at the port and some in warehouses. We need to reassure the public. Because of the perceived shortage, consumers are buying more than they need to ‘avoid running out’. As the sugar saga continues to dominate airwaves, another saga was unfolding at the largest university in East Africa called UDOM.
Apparently, students of a temporary crash course introduced in efforts to cover a national deficit in science teachers had been idle for a whole month, without being taught because their lecturers were on strike.
Nowadays few workers are willing to work unless paid high salaries and allowances. Not even teachers and doctors are exceptions. Having gone through protracted negotiations, and with no end in sight, the ministry of education had few choices.
It chose to halt the course until tutors willing to work at government rates were found. About seven thousand students were sent home.
Parliamentarians got in on the act. We heard claims that female students were using their ‘talents’ to make money. Some of us wondered how male students were making ends meet.
If both male and female students were sent home, did shortage of travel money only affect females? Perhaps the males performed charity walks to support the good old Arusha declaration on socialism and self-reliance.
Activist and pundits also weighed in. Some expressed the opinion that sending the students home was tantamount to abusing their human rights. As usual the debate in parliament became heavily partisan.
Some MPs wanted the suspension of other parliamentary work in favour of discussion on the suspension of the course and the plight of affected students. I am not sure how many courses there are at the Dodoma university.
But if parliament will make it a habit to suspend deliberations on national laws every time UDSM or UDOM students/ teachers go on strike, it may take whole semesters for the financial budget to pass.
When will the business of legislating for ordinary Tanzanians -as opposed to the learned - take place? That arguments for and against suspending budget deliberations to talk about the partial suspension of UDOM became so heated, some MPs were sent off and parliament business was suspended. When it resumed opposition politicians were conspicuously absent, having opted to boycott sessions chaired by the deputy speaker.
Boycotts again? Didn’t we see ten years of walkouts and boycotts by opposition legislators during the presidency of Jakaya Kikwete? Enough already. Voters want the people they voted for representing them inside the floor of parliament, not sitting out in protest.
You know, these are the same legislators who walked out on president Magufuli at his first address to the Tanzanian parliament. In the USA, opposition legislators are the majority in Congress and the Senate.
They and their republican party supporters do not like President Obama much. But when Obama goes to deliver the State of the union address, they treat him with the respect he deserves as POTUS or president of the United States. I have not witnessed congressional democrats walk out on President Bush either even though there was no love lost between them.
The position of president should be treated with dignity and respect even if Ukawa members do not agree with how the president is doing his job.
And our legislators should respect the opinions of each member and work towards the common good of all Tanzanians. Partisan politics will not improve the education of present and future generations of Tanzanians
Belum ada tanggapan untuk "Sugar sabotage and the partisan politics of hatred"
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