Museveni bemoans corruption

Tanzania: Museveni bemoans corruption
Author: Elias Mhegera, Dar es Salaam Date Written: 12 May 2009
Primary Category: Eastern Region Document Origin: The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
Secondary Category: Africa General Source URL: http://thecitizen.co.tz/
Key Words: Tanzania, corruption, leaders, development, natural resources, African Charter Article #21: All peoples shall freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources for their exclusive interest, eliminating all forms of foreign economic exploitation. (Click for full text...)

African Charter Article #21

1. All peoples shall freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources. This right shall be exercised in the exclusive interest of the people. In no case shall a people be deprived of it.

2. In case of spoliation the dispossessed people shall have the right to the lawful recovery of its property as well as to an adequate compensation.

3. The free disposal of wealth and natural resources shall be exercised without prejudice to the obligation of promoting international economic cooperation based on mutual respect, equitable exchange and the principles of international law.

4. States parties to the present Charter shall individually and collectively exercise the right to free disposal of their wealth and natural resources with a view to strengthening African unity and solidarity.

5. States parties to the present Charter shall undertake to eliminate all forms of foreign economic exploitation particularly that practiced by international monopolies so as to enable their peoples to fully benefit from the advantages derived from their national resources.



Summary & Comment: President Museveni berates Africa’s leaders for not doing more to tackle corruption in Africa. In his address to the University of Dar es Salaam, Museveni told his audience that African leaders could have done more to avoid conflict in places like Rwanda. Foreign mining interests in Tanzania were also targetted as exploiting African people. DH

Museveni bemoans corruption

http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=12494

The lack of transparency and mismanagement of resources by African leaders is to blame for the continent's troubles, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said.
Speaking at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) yesterday, the Ugandan leader criticised the African leadership for being corrupt and incompetent. "They have neglected their duties, and are embracing what they are not supposed to. They do not have a direction," Mr Museveni said while launching the university's College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS). He urged his peers to protect their resources, and not to leave foreign investors exploit Africa's natural resources. Despite being the richest continent in the world, in terms of mineral and natural resources, Africa is still regarded as the poorest and most disenfranchised place on earth. While the West has largely been blamed for capitalising on corrupt and inept African leaders, China is also widely seen as a new frontier in the exploitation of Africa's natural resources.

However, its engagement in Africa is still dwarfed by the US and European countries, and often smaller than that of other Asian countries. Mr Museveni, who is one of the longest serving presidents in the continent, said African leaders "are weak and disorganised." He said it was because of their incompetence and weakness that they had allowed "colonialists to penetrate and rule Africa, taking away its resources freely." "You cannot negotiate from a point of weakness, true negotiation is possible only if there is balanced power. That is why the Chinese can negotiate with Americans, but Africans cannot," he said.

In Tanzania, the Government has of late come under fire for dubiously opening up to foreign mining investors who are also accused of evading taxes and looting resources with impunity. Most of the major mines in the country have been privatised to foreign investors, and the Government has apparently ignored proposals by several mining committees to review its mining policy. Mr Museveni warned his fellow leaders against taking the "begging syndrome" too far saying it was weakening the continent?s bargaining power in global affairs. He said there was need for African leaders to "rethink and regain" their vision for the continent and assume control of their nations instead of living at the mercy of Western donors.

The Ugandan leader also challenged his peers to be proactive in addressing problems affecting the continent. He cited the 1994 Rwanda genocide saying African leaders had a chance to stop the massacre had they intervened in time.
"They were aware of what was going on in Rwanda all this time but chose to be silent and watched from a distance," said the Ugandan president. He said the same neglect spurred conflict in Burundi until a few leaders like Tanzania's founding president, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, decided to intervene. Mr Museveni also criticised his colleagues for ignoring Uganda while the former Ugandan dictator Iddi Amin "killed his own people until he was stopped by Nyerere."

His remarks echo what Nigerian renowned scholar Prof Wole Soyinka said last month at the university that African leaders had a tendency to ignore the excesses of their colleagues. Prof Soyinka who was speaking during the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week cited the chaos in Kenya last year, and the situation in Zimbabwe, which had been ignored for over a decade. "It is high time African leaders change their attitude and act whenever there is a problem in other countries," Mr Museveni said. The Ugandan leader and President Jakaya Kikwete are UDSM alumni. The two are former students in the university's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, which has been revamped into a college.

Meanwhile, UDSM students took advantage of the launch ceremony to send the message that their bitterness over the Government's refusal to scrap cost-sharing in student loans was far from over. The students booed off the minister for Education and Vocational Training, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, when he was called to invite President Museveni to officially open the college. In contrast, they cheered when Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Membe was introduced. So tense was the situation that the organisers had to change protocol and instead asked UDSM vice chancellor Prof Rwekaza Mukandala to invite President Museveni.

Apparently, students blame Prof Maghembe for the Government's position not to give them 100 per cent loan. They often accuse the minister of being insensitive to their plight. Last year, the loans conflict caused a series of class boycotts and strikes that forced the closure of six public universities and colleges.

END