AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been described as exemplary in African setting.
Analysts and academics, reacting barely a day after the Head of State ruled out a lockdown, pointed out that copying and pasting Western countries’ anti-Covid-19 measures would be pointless.
They attributed this stance with a number of factors, some of them being ensuring that while imposing preventive measures; It was vital to ensure that the pandemic does not cause grave impacts on economies and social wellbeing.
When addressing Security and Defense Force top brass at Chato in Geita Region on Wednesday, Dr Magufuli ruled out locking down Dar es Salaam.
He explained that locking down the capital city, which happens to be the epicenter of the virus, would severely affect the people’s livelihoods.
The Head of State hammered the point further home by reminding the audience in televised remarks, that, being the country’s commercial capital, the busiest and most densely populated with around six million people, locking down Dar es Salaam would be most inappropriate.
“Doing so would mean that people in Dar es Salaam who depend on food from upcountry regions would be gravely hurt, and truck drivers who transport food and other cargo would be rendered jobless,” the president argued.
Speaking yesterday to the ‘Daily News,’ scholars and analysts said that locking down the central business district would have created unspeakable impacts.
They maintained that the already introduced measures which range from introduction of quarantines, special Covid-19 hospitals, ramping up tests, suspension of school and college programmes, banning of sports activities and controlling the number of passengers in public transport utilities, among others, were more than enough to demonstrate the government’s determination to curb the disease.
As they backed up Dr Magufuli’s stance, they called on individuals to heed to advices and directives issued by the government and health professionals.
University of Dodoma lecturer Dr Frank Tily stated that President sought to see far and considered the socio-economic impacts that would have resulted from the lockdown.
The option was inappropriate for developing countries like Tanzania, he said.
The don argued that any decision that someone takes must be research-backed; Therefore, in the case of Covid-19, the Tanzanian government had definitely seen which way was the best for her.
“Looking at other countries that have chosen the lockdown they have probably made assessments on period they would take to make economic recovery after the pandemic,” he said, adding that in Tanzania many people work in informal sector, so the impact would have been extremely harsh.
He added that since landlocked countries like Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo depended on Tanzania’s ports to import and export commodities, a lockdown would have adversely affected them.
Economic Professor Honest Ngowi of Mzumbe University Dar es Salaam Campus said so far, global businesses in sectors like transport, agriculture, mining, tourism, hospitality and others had been affected.
“Implementing the lockdown, although it is an effective means of limiting further spread of the disease, it’s impact on economic activities is unbearable and even worse in poor countries…businesses would paralyze,” he said.
Prof Ngowi said the lockdown was more proper for countries with good social security systems and technology that enable people to work from home but for countries that have an unfriendly environment, there was a need to have mixed measures.
Dr Malima Zacharia, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), said a lockdown would be disastrous.
“The President is far-sighted. Suppose the disease persisted for two or three months and people didn’t work and produce? Private companies would lay off workers.
At the end of the day, a dangerous bomb like the Coronavirus would be created,” he remarked.
He added that the government would not be able to collect taxes while most governments depend on tax collections for paying salaries and financing development activities.
