AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli has emphasized that lockdown is not the best option for Tanzania to counter the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Magufuli maintained his government’s stance not to emulate the draconian measure, insisting that lockdowns would have caused more severe problems to the ordinary Tanzanians.
The Head of State said closing the country would mean restricting economic activities and movement of people, which would eventually hamper all development programmes.
President Magufuli was speaking after Sunday Services at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT), Chato Parish in Geita region.
Cognisant of the adverse effects of lockdowns domestically and across the region, Tanzania opted against closing her borders, said President Magufuli.
He noted that most neighbouring countries depend on the country’s borders and roads to move their economies.
“We are surrounded by many countries, almost eight countries need us to move their economies, closing borders would mean shrinking their economies,” he said.
“Some countries depend on food from Tanzania, rice, maize, meat and milk…they get all these from us, so closing our borders would have severe (socio-economic) impacts,” he added.
According to President Magufuli, the recent sugar crisis in the country showed clearly the importance of not closing borders with neighbours. He said 26,000 tonnes of sugar were imported into the country from Uganda.
“We had a shortage of sugar recently, I called the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni and asked him to support us with sugar, he agreed to sell us 26,000 tonnes of sugar, and the consignment has already been shipped into the country,” he noted.
He said more 10,000 tonnes of sugar were recently received at Dar es Salaam port from abroad.
“It would have been difficult to bring in sugar if our borders were closed,” he said.
Dr Magufuli said the business between Uganda and Tanzania has been successful and easier because there is free movement of cargoes to and from Uganda.
Explaining the effects of a lockdown domestically, the President said such a response would have derailed big development projects currently implemented by the government in various parts of the country.
He said lockdown would mean suspending flagship projects including the construction of Standard Gauge Railway, Julius Nyerere Hydropower project, the construction of a new ship in Lake Victoria and a lot of ongoing road projects across the country, which employ thousands of Tanzanians.
“The projects are under foreign contractors, therefore suspending them because of Coronavirus would have caused massive losses,” he noted.
President Magufuli said locking people inside would have forced the government to feed them, which has proved quite difficult for countries that adopted the response.
“I don’t like to say what is going on to those who opted for lockdowns, but what I can say is that lockdown is not the best model for us,” he said.
President Magufuli again encouraged Tanzanians to continue praying and to put their faith in God to protect the nation from the virus, while urging people to continue working.
He particularly asked the public to engage in economic activities including farming, saying there will be high demand for food come next year.
“Those who locked themselves will see the impact next year, but Tanzania will support them, therefore you should keep farming as much as you can so that you can sell your crops to the needy next year,” he said.
On the other hand, President Magufuli said regular reports that drivers from Tanzania tested positive for the virus were disturbing.
“Sometimes, many drivers are said to test positive, but I wonder how would they manage to drive several kilometres without collapsing until they get tested at borders,” said President Magufuli.
On Saturday, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta closed the country’s borders with Tanzania and Somalia, saying it was a deliberate measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
He, however, exempted cargo trucks but said drivers would have to be tested for Covid-19.
“There will be a cessation of movement of persons and any passenger-ferrying automobiles and vehicles into and out of the territory of Kenya through the Kenya-Tanzania international border,” Kenyatta said in a televised address.
