Firms in deal over nickel exploration

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By The Citizen Reporter and Agencies

African Eagle Resources has signed a letter of intent for an option agreement and a joint venture with Czech Republic mining company Safina over the Ngasamo licence area in Mwanza.

A statement has noted that Safina has entered the deal through its subsidiary, Tanzania Precious Metals Refinery Limited (TPMRL).

The Ngasamo licence area in Magu district lies adjacent to African Eagle Resources' Dutwa nickel laterite project in Shinyaga's Bariadi district. "Under the agreement, African Eagle can earn an interest of up to 75 per cent in Ngasamo by carrying out exploration and evaluation work, leading up to a feasibility study.

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Operators face off over bus timetable

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Ambrose Wantaigwa, Tarime

A bad timetable of departure times for buses at the Tarime main bus stand has been cited as one of the causes of clashes between bus operators resulting from a scramble for passengers.

Owners of commuter buses plying the Sirari-Mwanza route do not follow a proper system. They have therefore been scouting for passengers haphazardly, and sometimes this ends up in a physical confrontation between them.

In some instances passengers have been caught in the middle of the fights, and in the process lose their belongings and sustain injuries.

Such an incident occurred yesterday at around 10a.m. when activities at the main stand had to halt for about 30 minutes.

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Tax payment is an obligation of civilization

From ThisDay, Dar es Salaam
By The Editor

NO businessperson, at least in Tanzania, has ever admitted having an increased appetite for paying tax. Some even find comfort in tax evasion until they are discredited.

Tax collectors, however, crave for better performance every year but they rarely surpass their target. Going by the rules of their job every person in gainful employment, unless exempted by the law, owes them money. The tax authorities’ interest is in collecting as much taxation as the law prescribes.

As Mwanza Acting Regional Commissioner Getrude Kulindwa remarked at a seminar for taxpayers in the Lake Zone last week, time is an important factor in the tax business. The government depends on the amount of taxes raised to provide timely services to the people and pay salaries for all public employees.

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Bodies of fishermen recovered

From IPPMedia, Dar es Salaam
By Renatus Masuguliko, Sengerema

Bodies of five fishermen out of six who drowned in Lake Victoria at the weekend have been recovered.

According to information obtained from the scene and confirmed by Mwanza Regional Police Commander Jamal Rwambow, four of the bodies had been identified.

He said police were still searching for the remaining body.

Rwambow said the six fishermen drowned after a canoe they were travelling in was hit by a storm before it capsized.

He named the dead as Hodari Mugaja, Emmanuel Daudi, Masalu Soda, Musa Jamesmkazi and Mwanaitenga Mihayo.

Full story.

Lake Victoria fish exports fall by 70 pct

From IPPMedia, Dar es Salaam
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, recently in Mwanza

The global economic crisis has devastated the fishing industry in Tanzania's portion of the Lake Victoria zone, with exports having fallen by 71 per cent on average, The Guardian has established.

Fish sellers and dealers in one of the world’s most expansive fresh water lakes said in separate interviews over the last week that export cuts had dropped by a whopping 92 and 50 per cent among local dealers and large-scale processing factories, respectively.

Sellers of diverse fish products at the Mwaloni International Fish Market, talked of an alarming decrease in exports over the last three to four months. Most blamed the situation on problems in accessing credit facilities.

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Bank supports cotton growers

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Paulina David, Mwanza

The CRDB Bank has so far lent Sh63 billion to its clientele, mainly cotton growers, in Mwanza Region.

Regional bank manager Mugwagi Steven said lending to agriculture accounted for 47.8 per cent of the money loaned. Sh1.9 billion was loaned to individuals.

He said personal loans were difficult to get because many people lacked collateral.

He advised those intending to borrow funds to do so through savings and credit cooperative societies, which borrowed Sh3 billion from the bank.

He said Sh24.8 billion of the total loans had been provided for short-term projects and Sh37.6 billion for long-term undertakings.

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Fishermen, govt differ on Lake Victoria`s fish stock

From IPPMedia, Dar es Salaam
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Mwanza

Lake Victoria fishermen and dealers have warned that despite the tough government measures, the resource is rapidly diminishing from illegal fishing.

Fish dealers were emphatic during separate interviews with 'The Guardian' in Mwanza over the week; that the widespread unsustainable fishing will cost the nation and its people dearly.

Mwanza South-based Vic Fish processing factory director Murtaza Alloo estimates that the supply side of Lake Victoria fish resources have decreased by about 40 per cent over the last three years.

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Tanzania's education system unfit for disabled - says report

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Irene Mchomvu

The education system in the country is still unfavourable to people with disabilities, a report has established.

A recent research by HakiElimu that was made available to the media yesterday indicates that teachers handling classes containing both the disabled and normal students had insufficient knowledge.

The research titled 'Do children with disabilities have equal access to education' was conducted late last year in seven districts.

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Head to head: Toppling Idi Amin

From BBC World News, London, UK

The sons of Uganda's former dictator Idi Amin (picture to your right) and Tanzania's ex-President Julius Nyerere have met for the first time, three decades after the two countries fought a war

The BBC's Swahili Service brought the two together to reflect on the five-month conflict, which left half a million people dead and culminated with Tanzania troops ousting Amin from Kampala on 10 April 1979.

The two families - President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and President Idi Amin - ought to have met because they were the two protagonists.

So, after carefully considering BBC's request, I agreed to travel more than 1,000km to Tanzania to meet Madaraka Nyerere in Butiama (his home town in northern Tanzania).

Both of us were young when the war broke out. Madaraka was 16 and I was only 12.
Madaraka Nyerere comes from a family of somebody who's revered as a father of the nation and a great symbol of African socialism.

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Farmers get assurance on cotton

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Patty Magubira, Mwanza

The Government has assured farmers that their cotton would be bought next season regardless of the ongoing global economic downturn that has shaken the world market.

The Government's move follows complaints from the local traders that most of the cotton they bought at between Sh400 and Sh500 per kilo this season could not be exported as a result of dramatic price drop from 80 US cents to about only 40 US cents.

The Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives minister, Mr Steven Wassira, said the Government would ensure the crop is by hooks and crooks bought from the farmers even if the traders failed to do so.

Stakeholders of the industry from across the Western Cotton Growing Areas (WCGA) in Mwanza, Kagera, Shinyanga, Tabora and Mara regions converged here on Monday for a one-day meeting to deliberate on the impact of the global economic downturn on the crop dubbed 'white gold' in the WCGA.

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Astral Adds Etihad to Africa

From Air Cargo World Online, Washington D.C., United States

Etihad Crystal Cargo has launched an A300-600 freighter service linking Abu Dhabi with Nairobi twice a week following an interline deal with Kenya-based Astral Aviation.

The partnership also gives Etihad access to seven additional Astral destinations across Africa: Entebbe, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Juba, Kigali and Bujumbura.

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Healer, 77, in police custody for possession of albino bone

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Patty Magubira, Mwanza

Police here have arrested a 77-year-old traditional healer for allegedly found with a bone believed to be of an albino.

Mwanza regional police commander Jamal Rwambow, said the healer was arrested on Thursday afternoon at Mahina Suburb in possession of the bone, something that appeared like a snake-skin and other magical equipment.

Mr Rwambow said investigations continued and the bone was sent to the lake zone government chemist to ascertain if it were of human.

Cases of albino killings are high in the lake zone. Following the killings, Interpol Police have been helping in identifying the culprits.

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Lake Victoria Mining Company Completes Definitive Agreement

From Marketwire, Toronto, CANADA

Lake Victoria Mining Company (OTCBB: LVCA) is pleased to report that it has completed a definitive agreement with Geo Can Resources Company Limited of Tanzania to establish a producing gold mine at Kinyambwiga Gold Project.

The initial project planning is underway at the Company's 30 square kilometer Kinyambwiga property in northern Tanzania. The property is about 110 kilometers northeast of the city of Mwanza.

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SaskTel sending medical supplies to Tanzania

From The Star Phoenix, Canada
By Adriana Christianson, Leader-Post

Big and small hands were working together on Thursday packing a 40-foot shipping container with donated medical and school supplies bound for Mwanza, Tanzania

SaskTel began the We See You container project in 2006 with the aim of helping people in the poorest regions of Africa. Since then, the Crown corporation has partnered with various schools and organizations across the province to collect donations of items ranging from hospital beds and mosquito nets to clothing, school desks, hygiene products and hand-made teddy bears. This container is the fifth in a set of shipments sent to regions in Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda, as well as Arusha, Tanzania.

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Dentist to the rescue in Tanzania

From Sunderland Echo, Sunderland, UK
By Trevor Hoyland

Extracting teeth from more than 100 people was just part of a single day's work for a small team of volunteer dentists who went to Tanzania.

Martin Anderson was among one of two teams of six volunteer dentists who have just returned from a fortnight in the East African country helping to deal with a deluge of cases of dental decay.

Martin, 54, from the Wessington Way Dental Practice in Sunderland, went out with the charity Bridge2Aid, founded three years ago by a colleague from Sunderland, Ian Wilson, 43, and his wife Andie, whom he met in Tanzania.

He said: "Their base is at Mwanza, the second largest town in Tanzania, which is about the size of Houghton".

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Tanzania gold mine collapses, at least 20 dead

From Reuters, USA
Reporting by George Obulutsa

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed in northwest Tanzania when the walls of a small gold mine collapsed, burying workers inside, local media said Tuesday.

Reports said the accident happened Sunday in Geita, Mwanza region, when the 100 meter (328 foot) deep pit they were working in was flooded by a heavy seasonal downpour. Some local media said more than 30 people might have been killed.

"I know there is no hope of finding anybody alive," Kelega Chacha, one miner who left the site just before the disaster, told the private daily Guardian newspaper. "We will just have to look for the bodies to give them a decent burial."

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