Since the election, President Magufuli has made some very interesting
changes to government and the way things work in Tanzania. Today is Independence Day, December 9th,
and usually Tanzanians celebrate at the National Stadium but that has been
cancelled and people were encouraged to clean up the streets on their day off.
Magufuli himself even joined people in the streets in doing so. One reason he declared there would be no
celebrations is that a Cholera outbreak has already left 150 people dead and
infected 10,000 and to spend money on other things would be “shameful”.
He also banned the practice of sending out Christmas and New Years
cards.
Among his austerity cuts he says that public officials will not fly
to other countries to conduct meetings, he is suggesting using Skype or have
business done by ambassadors and high commissioners already abroad. Yet, he is
encouraging officials to go to the rural areas to understand better the issues
they face there.
He wants workshops to be held in empty Ministry boardrooms instead
of expensive hotels and paired down his own inauguration party from $100,000 to
just $7,000 and sent the extra money to the hospital.
Since he has been in office, a mere month or so, officials have been
jailed for lateness and the head of the tax authority has been suspended.
So far, I would say he has impressed many people, even people who
did not vote for him, and he is currently “walking the talk”. We will see how it goes when free education
up to secondary school in January 2016 begins.
Someone has already coined a new verb “to magufulify” described on a
website below as “to render or declare action faster and cheaper; to deprive
(public officials) of their capacity to enjoy life on taxpayers’ money; to
terrorize lazy and corrupt individuals in the society.”
References
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