Monday 31 March 2008

Crime On Lake Victoria Up

From East African Business Week, Kampala, Uganda
By Daniel Said in Mwanza

Fuel smuggling, crime and theft of other commodities including machinery and spares has been reported in Tanzania's mining areas around Lake Victoria Zone

A source from one of the major gold mining companies told East African Business Week last week that smuggling is operated by a syndicate of businessmen, police and some politicians.

However, the source said that despite the fact that security organs have the knowledge of the racket no measures have been put in place to curb the situation.

Mr. Stephen Zelothe, the Mwanza regional police commander denied any knowledge of smuggling, increased crime and theft. "We are yet to get information of fuel smuggling or increased crime in mining areas, we can trace from now what's happening," he said last week.

Read more:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803311268.html

WARNING on a DIRTY SPAM ad: Don't click on the 'Congratulations' top/bottom banner on the 'allafrica.com's' website.

Mwanza study confirms cost-effectiveness of STI management in HIV contro

From AFRICA Science News

A study conducted in Mwanza, Tanzania, of syndromic management of STIs - treatment of presenting symptoms according to guidelines - showed that STI treatment was cost-effective in reducing HIV incidence

However, later African trials failed to find a reduction in HIV incidence with such management. Based on the Mwanza study, a report by an international team of researchers in the March 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains a cost-effective strategy for controlling HIV in a number of different scenarios.

Even in mature epidemics with substantial condom use, their study found that more than half of new HIV infections may be attributable to STIs.

Read more:
http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=1


Sunday 30 March 2008

Retirees: We served this country diligently

From IPP Media, Dar es Salaam
By Lucas Lukumbo

John Kizito has just joined a contingent of nearly 20 East African Community retirees who are still waiting for their terminal benefits from their former employer.

From the experience of other retirees he will surely have to brave a year or two before he gets his terminal benefits.

Kizito comes from Mwanza where he retired from the community in the year 1981. He trained as a seaman and was therefore working with MV Victoria vessel in the Lake Victoria which plies between Mwanza, Musoma, Kisumu and Kampala.

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/observer/2008/03/30/111379.html

From Times of Malta, Malta

The Bay Street complex in St George's Bay will be hosting a fundraising event today, in aid of the mission fund project in Tanzania.

This year, mission fund volunteers will be travelling to Mwanza in Tanzania to carry out construction works at a centre for HIV positive children. The centre is run by a Maltese nun, Sr Domenica Giliberti.

Read more:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080330/local/fundraising-for-tanzania

Fundraising for Tanzania

The Bay Street complex in St George's Bay will be hosting a fundraising event today, in aid of the mission fund project in Tanzania.

This year, mission fund volunteers will be travelling to Mwanza in Tanzania to carry out construction works at a centre for HIV positive children. The centre is run by a Maltese nun, Sr Domenica Giliberti.

Saturday 29 March 2008

Grinding poverty plagues 7 regions

From IPP Media, Dar es Salaam
By Felister Peter

Over 40 per cent of the people in each of seven regions in Tanzania live in extreme poverty, according to the National Economic Empowerment Council.

The council says the worst off region is Singida followed, in a descending order of poverty levels, by Lindi, Mwanza, Coast, Mara, Shinyanga and Ruvuma.

Prof Lucian Msambichaka of NEEC revealed this in a presentation on the National Dialogue on Economic Empowerment in the country at a seminar for journalists held in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/03/29/111325.html

Friday 28 March 2008

AngloGold Ashanti Plans to Boost Production at Tanzanian Mine

From Bloomberg Press
By Sarah McGregor

March 28 (Bloomberg) -- AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. , Africa's biggest gold producer, expects output at its Geita Gold Mine in Tanzania to rise 3.7 percent this year and may spend more than $10 million upgrading the project.

Production will increase to 339,000 ounces this year, compared with 326,852 ounces in 2007, Richard Le Sueur, the company's managing director said yesterday in an interview at Geita, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Tanzania's second- largest city, Mwanza. Output has declined from a peak of 618,571 ounces in 2005 due to a series of technical problems.

Read more:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aQEstQz0sgtA&refer=africa

Monday 24 March 2008

Fruits of the soil

From The East African, Nairobi, KENYA
By FRED ORIDO

CONSERVING INDIGENOUS and wild trees is now a viable economic venture in Tanzania.

In Tabora, Uyui and Sikonge districts, women are cashing in on species such as ntonga (Strychnos cocculoides) ntalali (Vitex mombassae) mbula (Parinari curatellifolia) and furu (Vitex doniana), which they have planted on their farms alongside traditional crops.

Other trees popular with the farmers are: mbuguswa (Fracourtia indica), ng’ong’o (Sclerocarya birrea), zambarau (Syzium guineense), mmbuyu or baobab (Adansonia digitata) and ukwaju or tamarind (Tamarindus indica).

The fruit from these trees is processed into jams, juices and wines.

So passionate are the farmers about conservation projects in the area that they have taken to policing the vast woodlands against loggers.

Read more:
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Magazine/mag240320085.htm

Sunday 23 March 2008

Marine accidents loom in Lake Victoria

From IPP Media, Dar es Salaam
By Darius Mukiza, recently in Mwanza

"My God, we are dying. Who will save us? It is very dark. We see nothing. The pilots are quiet," one of the passengers aboard Mv Serengeti from Mwanza to Bukoba shouted almost hysterically. Within no time wailings from all corners filled the ship. It was like a disaster in the coming. Strong winds which sounded like a storm were hitting the ship.

All passengers, including myself, were gripped with fear.

We remembered the MV Bukoba disaster 12 years ago when about a thousand people lost their lives, forget property!

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/observer/2008/03/23/110928.html

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Treatment by Internet

From The East African
By BECKY ANDERSON

Hospitals in rural Tanzania have designed ways to communicate with doctors in referral hospitals using the Internet

The Bugando Referral Hospital in Mwanza has a telemedicine unit that connects Rubya and Kibondo hospitals. The remote hospitals are supplied with a computer, a scanner and a digital camera.

This may not be the full telemedicine suite, where there is real time media streaming, high speed Internet, high resolution cameras and other sophisticated devices at work. But the teams at the hospitals have still made giant strides towards making healthcare more accessible.

Read more:

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Magazine/mag170220087.htm

Experts Warn of Food Crisis

From The East African Standard, Kenya
By Harold Ayodo, Nairobi

Scientists have warned of a food shortage and increased poverty due to continuous environmental degradation.

The experts from East Africa, at a regional seminar in Mwanza, Tanzania, said that massive dilapidation of the environment could increase poverty to more than 65 per cent.

They said degradation of nature had led to the increase of water borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid among riparian communities (living along or near river banks).

Experts who presented research papers at the workshop said massive land erosion is another threat to food security.

Mwanza Regional Commissioner, Dr James Msekela, said illegal human activities are a threat to natural resources.

"People bathe in rivers and use excess fertilisers that flow into Lake Victoria. Resource depletion by illegal logging is increasing poverty and disease," Msekela said.

Read more:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803170006.html

WARNING: Don't click on the 'Congratulations' top banner on the 'allafrica.com's' site.

Monday 10 March 2008

New Vessel for Cargo Transport On Lake Victoria

From The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda
By Dorothy Nakawesi

AT a time when Uganda is grappling with finding alternative and cheaper transport routes for its cargo, the first privately owned water transport cargo services on Lake Victoria has been launched.

The Kamanga Ferry Ltd was officially flagged off on March 7 with its first cargo belonging to coffee processor Ugacof being transported to the port of Mwanza in Tanzania. Speaking at the function at Port Bell, a Kampala suburb, acting Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority Joel Byaruhanga, urged the business community in Uganda to utilise the new transport facility.

WARNING: Don't click on the 'Congratulations' top banner on The Monitor's site.

Read more:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803100815.html

Saturday 8 March 2008

Politicians must listen to the people

From Sunday Nation, Nairobi, Kenya
By Story by NJUGUNA MUTONYA

From the top of the hill housing the mv Bukoba disaster monument in Mwanza, Tanzania, the huge volcanic boulders overlooking the harbour stand in a sagacious pose over Lake Victoria - East Africa’s common denominator.

At the nearby New Mwanza Hotel, East African Community leaders, in a recent well attended retreat, ponder the fate of the region’s infrastructure.

The delegates spice their speeches with the now common mantra,“As recent events in Kenya have shown”, to the discomfiture of those from the country which, a few months ago, were boasting of peace and development.

After the post-election violence in Kenya and the long-drawn negotiations leading to the restoration of peace, the excitement is over and the hard work has begun. It is hoped that the political actors have listened to the people’s message and are acting accordingly.

Read more:
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=118508

Thursday 6 March 2008

`Big firms render 400,000 artisanal gold miners jobless`

From IPP Media, Dar es Salam
By Correspondent Felister Peter

A Total of 400,000 artisanal miners have been thrown out of work due to a multiplicity of multinational gold mining companies since the 1990s, a study has revealed.

The study, carried out by a non-governmental organisation, Reference Group, says this has been possible because the law and policies governing the mining sector allow mining companies to employ an unlimited number of foreigners compared to a minimum of five people in other sectors.

The newly-launched study report called `A Golden Opportunity - How Tanzania is Failing to Benefit from Gold Mining`, shows that at least each of the mining companies has between 6 and 9 per cent of its workers from abroad.

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/03/06/109773.html





Mahundi testifies for Rwanda genocide accused

From IPP Media, Dar es Salaam
By Hirondelle News Agency, Arusha

Former Tanzanian Inspector General of Police Harun Mahundi has described a one-time chief of staff of Rwanda`s Gendarmerie Nationale, Gen Augustin Ndindiliyimana, as a peace-loving person.

"He was a cool-minded and very polite person who loved seeing tranquility flourish in his country," Mahundi told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda here yesterday.

The former IGP was led in his testimony by Ndindiliyimana`s Canadian lead defence counsel, Christopher Black. He said he knew the accused, who is facing charges at the UN court, as a person "not fond of military confrontations."

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/03/06/109775.html



SIDO gets 30bn/- IFAD funding for rural development

From IPP Media, Dar es Salaam
By Beatrice Philemon

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has agreed to give a total of 30bn/- to the Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) for the promotion of rural development in the country during the next seven years.

Mike Laiser, SIDO director general, revealed this recently at the just-ended training on financial management and accounting for accountants and auditors of projects funded by IFAD.

"IFAD has decided to provide the funds after discovering that inadequate knowledge on value chain management including information on marketing opportunities are major impediments that hinder both farmers and small entrepreneurs in rural areas from operating more effectively," he said.

Read more:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/03/06/109769.html