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FemAct speaks up on corruption, `muafaka` talks
2008-04-16 09:51:25
By Guardian Reporter
Feminist organizations have called on the government to give due weight to incidents of gross embezzlement of public funds. They have also appealed that the CCM/CUF political accord on Zanzibar should be adhered to.
The pact was arrived at between ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi and the opposition Civic United Front.
The Feminist Activists Coalition, FemAct, expressed the concern in a statement issued yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
Usu Mallya, the FemAct Coordinator, said in a statement that was channeled through the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme that the power-sharing agreement between the two political parties ought to be respected, and that it was incorrect for one party to unilaterally impose a solution on the other, contrary to basic democratic principles of negotiation.
FemAct added:``Legislators need to sit back and declare that this is a political issue, and not the business of Parliament or the overall government.``
``We are also alarmed by the government`s apparent ambivalence about taking swift action to stop the continued robbing of national and public resources by individuals in government,`` read the statement.
The individuals, according to the activists, include elected officials, civil servants and private companies involved in corruption scandals.
FemAct urged the government to take appropriate action against the suspects.
It said the authorities should stop paying people involved in fishy transactions for non-existing services.
They questioned the justification of consumers of electricity being forced to pay higher tariffs so as to keep the payments going, a situation which had spiraled into higher prices for consumer goods and rising inflation.
The statement urged leaders during this month of Mwalimu Nyerere`s birth, to reflect on Nyerere’s philosophy of selfless leadership and contrast it with the behaviour of today``s leaders.
``The public expects and demands our leaders to be different – honest, transparent, democratic, ethical and accountable to the people, in practice as well as in word. As Mwalimu continually argued, you are the servants of the people, and not their rulers,`` it read.
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