Small-scale businesspeople erect stalls outside Machinga Complex Mall in
Dar es Salaam. An increase in the rate of unemployment has forced many
young people to employ themselves and earn a living for getting a job is
nowadays extremely difficult in the country. PHOTO | FILE
By Mwassa Jingi
In Summary
Arusha. The National Employment
Policy of 2008, which basically is a revision of the same policy of
1997, defines unemployment as: “a situation of total lack of work of an
individual. It can be .viewed as an enforced idleness of potential wage
earners or self-employed persons that are able and willing to work, but
cannot find work.
In Tanzania, where a significant amount of the
people can earn a living only by working for others, being unable to
find job is a serious problem. Lack of work makes a person feel deprived
and rejected by society. The unemployment rate is thus the percentage
of the unemployed relative to the total labour force”.
From the above definition of the word
‘unemployment’, it is undisputable that as society with high
unemployment and, in particular, among the youth, we are living in
dangerous situation, borrowing the words of Edward Lowassa, we can say,
high unemployment is a ‘time bomb’. We should know that the peace and
stability of our nation is at risk under high unemployment.
However, many people were excited to see that both
the draft and proposed Constitutions had expanded human rights to the
extent of including the right to work, thinking that the current
Constitution, 1977 does not contain such rights.
This isn’t true. The current Constitution, 1977,
implicitly recognises the right to work in several provisions. We have
the right to work in our Constitution since 1984, when it underwent
massive amendments, which partially included the Bill of Rights
(Articles 11-24). Constitutional provisions pertaining to the right to
work are in Articles 11, 22, 23, and 24 of the current Constitution.
Nevertheless, the disbanded Constitutional Review
Commission (CRC) amply improved the Bill of Rights by creating an
independent Chapter (Chapter Three) and added many more other rights,
which were also augmented by the Constituent Assembly (CA) in Chapter
Four of the proposed Constitution. Now, since work is a right of every
able-bodied member of society, unemployment as defined by the State
above is a violation of one of the basic human rights, a right, which
courts of law have the mandate to award relief to the aggrieved party
or parties.
The right to work is now enshrined in Article 44
of the proposed Constitution, which, among other things, gives every
adult person the right to employment or self-employment. Unfortunately,
neither the current Constitution nor the proposed Constitution obliges
the government to ensure this right is available to every citizen and
not to remain as a ‘white elephant’ in the law book.
Thus, whether we go for the new Constitution after
April 30, 2015 or remain with the current Constitution of 1977, still
the right to work will remain the constitutional right of every
unemployed Tanzanian and the government has the responsibility to ensure
both policies and relevant laws on employment realise their intended
objectives and goals for the betterment of today’s and next generations.
However, the right to work is so complicated and
not easy for anybody to go to court to get relief. Impliedly, the state
has to ensure the labour force is absolved in employment, whenever it
emerges.
It can do so by creating employment opportunities
from within and outside it by creating enabling environment that can
enhance other stakeholders to create employment. Currently, the state
tells us that the unemployment rate in Tanzania ranges between 7.5 per
cent and 31.5 per cent.
This range is determined by both area and age
group. Rural areas suffer unemployment at the rate of 7.5 per cent,
while urban areas (excluding Dar es Salaam) are at the rate of 16.5 per
cent. Dar es Salaam is the most affected urban area as it stands at 31.5
per cent. This rate of unemployment in all areas and age groups is too
high for a fledgling economy and nation like Tanzania.
Such a situation may in the short or long term
period trigger chaos from young people as we recently witnessed a signal
from the youth, who called themselves ‘panya road’. Our country is
endowed with abundant natural resources of every kind and if well taped
can for sure help contain unemployment. This is possible under
intelligent, determined, caring and responsible political leadership.
Despite the fact that the right to work has been enshrined in
our Constitution since 1984, followed by the policy of 1997, and then
the parliamentary legislation – the National Employment Promotion
Services Act, 1999, the problem of unemployment is worsening. The aim of
having this law was to establish institutions, which would be
responsible for the promotion and coordination of the labour force in
general.
However, these legal and policy mechanisms have so
far not yet contained high unemployment although the economy is growing
at a reasonable rate (6 -7 per cent).
As Human Development reports of 1993, 1996 and
2013 comment, a country cannot rely on growth only: “The link between
growth and human development is not automatic. It needs to be forged
through pro-poor policies by concurrently investing in health, and
education, expanding decent jobs, preventing the depletion and
overexploitation of natural resources, ensuring gender balance and
equitable income distribution”.
The government has not done enough to manage and
supervise well the privatisation policy, which left most of the
industries owned by the government under a parastatal system unutilised
or improved by the buyers so as to create more employment than before.
Most of the privatised parastatal organisations, which before
privatisation offered employment to thousands of people were converted
into different uses contrary to the policy of privatisation and thus
deny many people employment opportunities.
Since it is well known that having millions of the
unemployed youth is like having a time bomb, the government of the day
has the legal obligation to create employment by using abundant
resources at our disposal and also enabling other stakeholders to create
employment through investing in the industrial sector.
But the most crucial issue is for the government
and its agencies to organise the educated and learned youth so that they
can employ themselves by using their knowledge and skills.
The obvious persisting problem is lack of
visionary leadership capable of helping the youth to know and change
their mind-set and know for sure that the resources are theirs. The
youth must be helped to understand themselves that they can employ
themselves rather than just sit idle waiting for advertised jobs through
media outlets.
Thus, it is the responsibility of the government
to create a friendly and enabling environment for the youth to opt for
self-employment when formal employment seems too far to reach.
Failure to engage this big number of the
unemployed youth in decent jobs will definitely cost the country dearly
in terms of violence and terroristic activities in the future.
We must remember that idle hands are the workshop
of the devil. If today’s leaders and parents won’t be responsible for
the youth, then the youth will one day turn against their leaders and
parents to claim their right to employment and decent life.
Giving children and the youth education of
whatever discipline is not enough, more must be done. Hence, let’s
employ the youth or otherwise the devil will employ them.
The author is a lawyer/journalist. He can be reached at mwassajingi@yahoo.com
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