Up-Country Travels: Local Government Mechanisms

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
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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
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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
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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