Of ATCL and revival of industries

Dr Magufuli laid accent on industries because he was convinced then, just as he is now, that that was the only way to close the unemployment gap that continues to grow, especially among the youth in Tanzania.

And as rightly and repeatedly pointed out by his former contender for top honours, Edward Lowassa, the burgeoning army of jobless youth was and continues to be a time bomb waiting to explode.

What is however, comforting, is that Dr Magufuli has already started working on his campaign promises, starting with employment creation.

For instance, during his meeting with members of the judiciary, three months after he was sworn in, the president spoke of reviving Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL).

He reminded the judiciary that if they worked diligently in their respective courts, it would be possible to get money, through fines and recovery of both stolen money and property from convicted men and women that could help his government in the purchase of not less than three Air Buses for the struggling ATCL.

Although members of the judiciary may not have liked being reminded of their duties, but by saying what he said, the president was merely laying accent on the saying, once voiced by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, which runs thus: “It can be done; play your part.”

When the president spoke about buying planes for the ATCL, it was the third time he had spoken on the issue.
Reviving the ATCL is not different from talking about reviving an industry, call it a factory, if you like.

The first time the president spoke about the ailing airline, he said he wanted to get planes for the ATCL so that tourists from abroad could fly direct into the country and into tourist destinations that are second to none in the world.

To understand why ATCL is not different from an industry or factory, one can recall what happened early last year, during President Jakaya Kikwete’s tenure, when misunderstandings cropped up between Tanzania and Kenya over collection of tourists by Tanzania tour operators from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

The emerging crisis would lead to Dar reducing Kenya Airways flights to Julius Nyerere International Airport from over 40 per week to seven.

Interestingly, it was that particular ‘tit for tat action’ that saw one local English paper in Tanzania (not the Guardian) writing, ‘Dar hits Kenya where it hurts most,’ that would force Nairobi to come to the negotiating table with Dar but away from the region in South Africa where Presidents Kikwete and Uhuru Kenyatta were but on a different mission.
Much as the problem between Dar and Nairobi may for now be said to be over.

The only way Tanzania can increase the number of tourists to its rich massive tourist destinations lie in the strengthening of the ATCL both in terms of the number of its planes and destinations.

It’s foolhardy for Tanzania to depend on KQ which is owned by a country that has more or less similar tourist destinations for ferrying its tourists from abroad.

Increased number of planes for the ATCL would enable the airline to increase its flights, locally and internationally.
And it’s through the opening up of international flights, especially to countries which send more tourists to Tanzania that would make the strengthening of the ATCL relevant.

The strengthening of ATCL would however, only be meaningful if the country’s tourist destinations are well organized and maintained.

The tourist destinations that need to be well organized and maintained include the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Ruaha National Park, Tarangire, Mikumi National Park, the Selous Game Reserve, Udzungwa National Park, Mt Kilimanjaro etc.

Maintaining the foregoing tourist destinations mean ensuring that what brings tourists in the first place, the teeming flora and fauna, are maintained not only for tourists and Tanzanians, but also for the posterity.
Reviving or establishing industries for absorbing jobless youth is not easy.

It involves balancing resources for establishing such industries while simultaneously taking care of other important things in the quest for the country’s socio-economic development that includes, among others, education, health care etc.

The Selous Game Reserve

And because of the foregoing competing demands, the best way of reviving or establishing new industries would be to start with industries which the country had in the past, but had not been well run just as what the president is presently doing with ATCL.

It’s important to note that when Mwalimu stepped down from the Union presidency in 1985, he left behind over 400 companies that had included industries most of which would either be run down or privatized in a manner that would later lead to their disappearance.

After the collapse of the East African Community on February 5th 1977 (which had coincided with the date which Tanu and Isles’ Afro Shirazi Party merged to form CCM), it left Tanzania with the biggest number (457) of aircraft engineers, technicians and pilots who had worked for the then East African Airways (EAA).

The Tanzania crew of aircraft engineers, technicians and pilots also included one, Mr Lyatuu, who had served as deputy chief engineer in the EAA.

It’s important for Tanzanians to know this because the EAA chief engineer at the time was a Briton and an expatriate.
In short, between the three East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania the latter should have today had a better airline than others in the continent because of the headstart it had had when it established Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC).

These are some of the things that some Tanzanians who were around during the time today understand why the president is so serious about reviving ATCL.

However, having started so well, mismanagement coupled with free rides civil servants would later reduce the ATC to the level it is today under its new name of ATCL, an airline with less than two planes!

During its hey days in 1980s, ATC had nine aircrafts which included two, brand new Boeing 737 which were then a vogue, four Fokkers and three Twin Otters.

The two Boeing planes were christened Serengeti and Kilimanjaro, flying around names of the country epic tourist destinations.

In order to complement the revival of the airline, the government now needs to also focus on its tourist destinations some of which were until recently reduced to poaching paradise, hence threatening their existence.A case in point is that of the Selous Game Reserve, a picturesque tourist destination which with 110,000 elephants in 1976 was the biggest elephant herd in the world.

However, by 2014 the number of elephants had been decimated by poachers to 15,000.It is an open secret that the government has taken a number of very good measures aimed at, among others, stopping poaching.

It however, needs to look critically on whether the Selous Game Reserve is being run in the manner that would ensure the improvement of its elephant herds and other flora and fauna.

Running the Selous Game Reserve in accordance with accepted international ecosystem standards, mean ridding the Selous of any activities that may ultimately threaten the continued existence of flora and fauna in the Reserve.

Indeed, it would be meaningless and a waste of time and resources, if the government re-establishes the airline, but later allows, by commission or omission, the running down of its national parks and game reserves.

The point is, after two decades of ‘business as usual attitude’ in handling national parks and game reserves.
There is lately a government that has demonstrated its commitment in saving national parks and game reserves through taking, head on, on poachers.

Some of the commitments can be seen in the form of appointment of a senior army officer as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.

And before the army general reported to his office, the president said he had appointed him to deal with poachers.
The president later expressed his disgust at the way courts in the country were handling cases that relate to wildlife crime.

Addressing the judiciary on the same day he spoke about the need to buy at least three Air Buses for ATCL, he said he failed to understand how a court would take over five years to decide on a case in which a man had been arrested, ready-handed, with pieces of ivory.

Surely one does not need more evidence to prove a person’s commitment to rid the country of poachers.
And it’s such down to earth commitment which Tanzanians would now like to see their President casting his eyes, more critically, on the Selous Game Reserve so that it can be returned to its pristine era in 1976 when apart from being home to 110,000 elephants, hundreds of thousands of flora and fauna species, it had been a no-go-area for other activities that had nothing to do with conservation.

The importance of taking utmost care of the country’s rich national parks and game reserves lie in the fact that tourism is the highest foreign exchange earner for this country with 1.9bn US dollars per annum.

Protection of national parks and game reserves provide endless money through, among others, tourism, massive job creation, and through flora and fauna protects and sustain the country’s ecosystem.