Farmers appeal to JK against new co-op bill

 
Moshi Kakoso
BY FELIX ANDREW

The Tanzania Tobacco Cooperatives Apex (TTCA) has spoken strongly against the government’s decision to dissolve its association saying if President Kikwete will assent to the new Cooperative Societies bill their bodies would be killed and chaos stirred among the farmers.

Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, Chairman of the association Moshi Kakoso said more changes are needed before the bill is signed into law.

“We ask President Jakaya Kikwete not to sign the bill for embracing the apex body as passed by the Parliament during its session which ended last week in Dodoma,” he said.
He said the body was formed to collect, process and sell all products which belong to cooperatives union and members.

The body was also tasked to import and distribute farm inputs and represent farmers in tobacco price fixing meeting at international level.

Kakoso who is also the lawmaker for Mpanda Rural constituency, said the decision taken by Parliament was against Section 20(1) of the Constitution.

He said the apex body and Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives are members of some international organisations which give them independence to conduct their activities without interference.

Tanzania is a member of United Nations and member of World’s Cooperatives Association (ICA) whose clauses demand freedom of members when conducting their duties.

He cautioned that if solution is not reached, Tanzania would lose its membership in ICA thus resulting in pulling back farmers’ development.

Kakoso noted that all allegations leveled against their association were not true because they have been running the body according to the law.

For his part, Executive Secretary of Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives Willigis Mbogoro urged the government to improve management in various departments in order to minimise the challenges facing them.

“We have been hearing about mismanagement of various government resources, this is due to poor management systems which need to be done away with,” he said.

Mbogoro urged the government to register more tobacco buying companies in order to increase competition and improve livelihood of the farmers.

“At the moment we have only three companies, whereas some countries in the southern African region have up to 18 buyers; this is not healthy for our development,” he said.

Further, he said the federation was formed to meet various goals and objects as spelt in the Co-operative Societies Act No. 20 of 2003 Section 20 Subsection (1)-(2)(a-f) and explained in the Federation’s bylaws, section 1, Subsection 5.

Some of them include promoting prosperity of societies affiliated to and in accordance with so-operative principles, to collect, analyse and disseminate information and statistics relating to or of particular relevance to cooperative societies operations.

Others are to conduct research and consultancy for member cooperatives in the areas of decision making, business development and financing.

Debating the Cooperative Societies Bill last week in Dodoma some lawmakers faulted several sections of the document and called for improvement on it before it is enacted into law.

They were mostly critical of the Bill over embracing the apex body, a level of federation of cooperative unions, saying the body was contributing to underdevelopment of the farmers.

Currently, there is only one apex body in Tabora which represents tobacco farmers’ cooperative unions following the collapse of others in various parts of the country.

Some legislators also faulted the Bill for proposing the formation of a commission to register, control and de-registering cooperative unions, saying the move would put the associations under government ownership rather than being part of the private sector.

In response, the minister for Agriculture, Eng Christopher Chiza, said the government has accepted suggestions on the removal of apex body in the new Cooperative Unions law.

However, he defended the formation of a commission, saying the organ would help contain unlawful conduct in running cooperative unions.

The ministry also agreed with lawmakers that the law should have stern punishment for leaders who would be found guilty of embezzling funds from unions.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN