AfricaPress-Tanzania: ONCE again Tanzania’s name yesterday entered the history books when President John Magufuli led his predecessors in laying the foundation stone for the construction of office and administration blocks of the State House at Chamwino in Dodoma.
As opposed to the State House in Dar es Salaam which was built by colonialists, the Chamwino State House is being constructed by the government through its internally generated funds, a task that is carried out by the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) wing the National Service.
Mama Maria Nyerere, widow of Founder President Julius Nyerere, represented the founding father of the nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere at the ceremonial event, by cutting the ribbon and mixing concrete, symbol- ising the official beginning of construction work of the en- visaged spectacular structure.
Second phase President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the third phase President Benjamin Mkapa and the forth phase leader Jakaya Kiwete held spade as they joined Presi- dent Magufuli in laying down the foundation stone.
Speaking at the event, President Magufuli said his administration was determined to transform the State House area into an impres- sive tourist attraction site with exceptional wildlife, including giraffes.
He said the 8,473 acres or 34km square piece of the land is 16 times larger the size of Saanane Island National Park in Mwanza Region and gives the State huge breathing space for other different activities.
No nation in Africa and in the world has such a big area for its State House. President Magufuli’s administration had moved ag- gressively to build the State House having completed the construction of a three- storey office building for the president in Chamwino.
The plan which cements the late President Nyerere’s vision to shift the state administrative offices from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma had also seen completion of the construction of a 27km-long wall surrounding the State House area.
According to President Magufuli, the Dar es Salaam based State House was built by German administration in 1893 as a governor’s palace.
The structure which involved three wings faced tur- bulence in the 1910s when it was bombed during the world war.
After the war, the British administration rebuilt the destroyed building in the 1920s.
The rehabilitation work was completed in 1922 involving the main structure that holds the national flag and two wings. President Magufuli said between 1958 and 1966, the founding father built more structures, adding up to a total of six wings within the same space.
He acknowledged that Nyerere’s successors also worked hard in rehabilitat- ing and re-constructing the Dar es Salaam based State House to the appearance it holds today.
“Between 1990 and 1995, President Mwinyi was involved in building the wall.
President Mkapa rehabilitated and rebuilt the President’s residence at the Magogoni State House,” he said, noting that President Kikwete was involved in the construction of the now Kikwete Conference Hall.
He said he had directed the contractor—Suma JKT and the consultancy -Tanza- nia Building Agency (TBA) to ensure the new State House structure captured all important details, including the appearance of the Dar es Salaam based structure.
“This structure will also have six wings. We are keeping all the structures that were initially built un- der President Nyerere and that we will honour his lega- cy,” he said.
Explaining the govern- ment transition from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, former President Kikwete said the decision to move the administration capital to Dodoma was democratic. He said all regions except Coast voted in support of the decision in 1971.
“The problem was that while the Germans moved the administration to the port city of Dar es Salaam, the elders had hoped the decision should return the adminis- tration but not sending it to Dodoma,” he said.
He said Nyerere and Chama cha Mapinduzi agreed on the State House to be erected at Chamwino, but only the presidential residence was built.
“Later the government decided the State House office and ad- ministration be built at the neighbouring Chimwaga Hall … the idea failed to materialise as I decided to build a large university now known as UDOM,” he said.
He explained that it was unwise for the president’s office to be miles away from the residence as he was concerned about security and cost of running the government.
Already, the government has made advanced payment amounting to 1bn/- to the Nation Service Suma JKT.
Magufuli said he had instructed Finance and Planning Minister Dr Philip Mpango to release an addi- tional 2bn/- to help push the construction work further.
The new building is a single storey structure and in contrast with the Dar es Salaam building, the struc- ture will have a basement floor.
Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr Moses Kisuluka, assured that the build- ing will have similar features as that of the Dar es Salaam State House.
He said work on the project began in January 2020 but was pushed ahead due to geological factors and heavy rains.
It will seat on the 9,340 square meters and is projected to be completed between four and five months.
Brig Gen Charles Nguge of the National Service announced that the construction of the main structure is at 15 per cent while the foundation was completed by 53 per cent.
