President John Magufuli hands over more than U.S.$.200,000 to Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, the money was donated by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for relief of earthquake victims in Kagera (file photo) Photo: State House/Daily News
By Athuman Mtulya
Dodoma
— Opposition lawmakers yesterday took a swipe at President John
Magufuli over several of his remarks, arguing that they were disturbing
to members of the public and civil servants.
Debating the
proposed budget for the President's Office yesterday, Ms Severina
Mwijage (Special Seats-CUF), asked the President to retract his
statement to the victims of last September Earthquake in Kagera Region.
Responding to
growing concerns that his government had ...
neglected the victims, the
President said it wasn't him or his leadership that had caused the
disaster and challenged the victims to bring normalcy to their lives on
their own.
"That statement
discouraged us, the people of Kagera. All we want of him is to retract
the statement, even the Prime Minister (Kassim Majaliwa) can stand here
(in Parliament) and retract it," she said.
According to her,
the infrastructure, including two schools that the government promised
to rebuild with all the donations, were yet to be completed.
For her part, Ms
Upendo Peneza (Special Seats-Chadema) said the President started off on
the wrong foot with abolishing indicative seminars for leaders
(ministers and regional commissioners), while he too (the President)
required one.
"The President is
on record saying he tried his luck and got the presidency, he wasn't
sure of himself. So, he needs an indicative seminar as well," she noted.
According to her, this has led to blatant violation of good governance and the rule of law principles in the country.
"President Magufuli
started by criticising his predecessor, but things are hard on him now
as well," she said, prompting the Minister of State in the President's
Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr George
Simbachawene, to tell the House that there was no way President Magufuli
would have criticised Mr Kikwete.
Ms Peneza then
retracted the word 'criticise' and said "Dr Magufuli started by pointing
out the errors of Mr Kikwete's presidency."
For his part, Rev Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban-Chadema) branded the whole government as "bullish", "shouting" and "intimidating".
"When we criticise
the President and his government it is for the greater good of the
country. We (MPs) are like a mirror to you (government), so if you don't
like criticism, why are you even here?" he queried, adding: "We've
intimidating, incompetent and unskilled people appointed leaders to lead
very competent and skilled civil servants, and now the civil service is
paralysed."
According to Rev Msigwa, even CCM lawmakers and ministers are afraid of the President and can't give him sound advice.
The deputy minister
of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Angelina
Mabula, countered the statement, saying no one in the Cabinet was afraid
of the President.
Contributing to the
debate, Ms Angelina Malembeka (Special Seats-CCM) said the President
wasn't obliged to listen to MPs since they "were always insulting him
and his government."
"All his efforts
are nothing to you (opposition). I'm of the opinion that even some MPs
here are in need of indicative seminars as they don't understand why
they are here," she said.
Meanwhile, debating
the budget a number of MPs called for the government to address
challenges experienced in the implementation of free education policy.
Mr Dua Nkurua
(Nanyumbu-CCM) said, while a number of recruitment remarkably improved
in his constituency, still there remained three main challenges: a
shortage of classrooms, of toilets and of teachers houses.
"Last year Nanyumbu
registered one of the worst results in national Standard Seven exams.
There are internal factors that we can sort out at local level, but
other factors like a shortage of 450 teachers is beyond our reach. Our
students are like a football team without a coach. They can't register
good results," he noted.
The problem of
teachers was also raised by Ms Mwijage and Mr Suleiman Mourad
(Mvomero-CCM). The latter said in his constituency there was a shortage
of over 200 teachers.
Ms Juliana Shonza
(Special Seats-CCM) advised the government to pay teachers their dues on
time and ensure a capitation grant was spent as intended.
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