AfricaPress-Tanzania: PHONY Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) face a grim future in Zanzibar as the government plans rigorous scrutiny of all of them, in order to remain with only productive ones.
Intensification of NGOs registration and coordination system is one of the major special tasks under the Ministry of State, President’s Office, Regional Administration, Local Government and Special Departments in the 2020/2021 financial year.
“Many NGOs in Zanzibar today are not legitimate; don’t even observe their own constitutions,” Minister Haji Omar Kheri told the House of Representatives while winding up members’ debate on his portfolio’s 2020/21 budget estimates.
The minister said the envisaged inquiries on NGOs will especially seek to establish their respective goals, remarking: “We have both productive and unproductive NGOs…some of these organisations are indeed a political, social and economical nuisance.”
Other major tasks which will occupy the ministry in the next fiscal year, according to the minister, include preparations of a new draft for the local governments with special focus on participatory decentralisation by devolution.
The ministry, in collaboration with the Isles research institutions and Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), will also prepare the country’s special research programme, reinforce registration system for social events to ensure births, deaths, marriage and divorce certificates are issued at sub-offices in all districts.
Minister Kheri told the House that through Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi (JKU), the Isles plans to equip 3,000 youth with patriotism training and bolster agricultural production through construction of three more green houses over the next fiscal year.
