PRESIDENT John Magufuli has condemned witchcraftlinked killings, including those of seven innocent children who were murdered in Njombe Region early this year, dismissing as senseless, beliefs that the perpetrators would acquire fortunes.
Addressing a public rally at Sabasaba grounds in Njombe Town yesterday, the deeply upset Head of State said the brutality had tainted the image of Njombe and asked a religious leader at the meeting to lead the gathering on a repentance prayer session.
The First Citizen spoke to residents before laying a foundation stone for construction of a 107km- Njombe-Makete Road which will cost 224.56bn/- and launching of Njombe Region Referral Hospital which was constructed at 3.2bn/-.
“It is very unfortunate that one can kill a child of a relative over beliefs that he or she will get rich.
Such people are silly; you cannot become rich by killing children,” he furiously remarked, adding: “The residents of Njombe are good people and very hardworking but these pockets of killings have stained you a lot.”
As he was winding up his speech, Dr Magufuli handed over 5m/- to Njombe Regional Commissioner Christopher ole Sendeka, as consolation to the families which lost their children in the killings.
Dr Magufuli reached out to religious leaders to preach against the misconceptions by some crooked members of the public that they can get fortunes through ritual killings.
President Magufuli warned that even as he has never signed any death sentence for convicts on death row, he might consider doing so if perpetrators of such offences are brought to his attention.
He also revealed yesterday that he transferred the then Njombe Regional Police Commander (RPC), Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SAPC) Renata Mzinga, over her failure to stop the crimes.
And, in a rare twist of events, Dr Magufuli issued orders for the transfer of the Njombe Officer Commanding District (OCD) before reinstating him a few minutes after the cleric led the gathering in a collective repentance prayer.
The OCD was working with the former RPC when the killings occurred. Earlier, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, said the Njombe regional referral hospital was complete by 96 per cent and was expected to open its doors to patients by July 1, this year.
“Construction of the buildings, including OPD (outpatients department) is complete. The two remaining months will be used for procurement of medical equipment and supplies and installation of other systems,” she explained.
Ms Mwalimu noted further that 119 health personnel, including specialist practitioners, will be deployed at the hospital to provide all forms of specialised treatment to patients.
Apart from the regional hospital, Dr Magufuli said the government had allocated 32bn/- for execution of water projects and 14.481bn/- for construction of three district health centres in Njombe, Wanging’ombe and Makambako.
At the same occasion, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Engineer Isack Kamwelwe, said construction of the Njombe-Makete road to bitumen standard will open up markets for food and cash crops from Njombe to other regions in the country.
Eng Kamwelwe further stated that his ministry has recently received 3.5bn/- for completion of construction works at Songwe International Airport which will further unlock markets for horticultural, fruits and other perishable goods from Southern Highlands regions to international markets.
