By Lawrence Kilimwiko
DAR ES SALAAM — Nine years into the structural adjustment program (SAP), Tanzania's workers, social workers and human rights activists are saying the program disregards basic human rights.
They point out that international treaties, to which Tanzania is a signatory, guarantee the right to life, social security, education, health, an adequate standard of living and work with fair remuneration. This includes the right to organise and join trade unions, the right to collective bargaining and equal pay for equal work.
Since Tanzania embarked on the SAP sponsored by the World Bank/International Monetary Fund, these human rights are violated daily. Those worst affected are society's most vulnerable. President Julius Nyere resigned in 1985 when the government decided to implement the SAP. Nyere had fought against IMF demands for its implementation from 1979.
The World Bank and IMF conditions include drastic cuts in social expenditure, removal of food subsidies, retrenchments, currency devaluation and the introduction of user fees for education and health care.
Human rights activists say these conditions levy a cruel tax on people's lives. They say the high rate of infant and maternal death is caused by poor nutrition — the result of SAP policies.
This is happening in a country which once invested much in clinics and other health facilities .
Dr Fatma Mrisho, director of preventive services in the Health Ministry, says although Tanzania has 3175 mother and child health clinics and 3600 health care facilities — far more than most African countries — the quality of care is alarmingly poor.
Between 3000 and 4000 women die annually from pregnancy-related complications.
According to Dr Anatory Lukonge of Tanzania's Family Planning Association, 13.5% of children born alive die before their first birthday. Of those who survive, 50% do not live beyond five years.
Part of the problem lies in the present low budget for the health sector. While defence and security receive 20% of the budget, the education and health sectors receive only 4%. "Why should our society accept maternal death as the natural order of things?", asks welfare officer Sadik Mfaume.
While international treaties guarantee the right to collective bargaining and the formation of free trade unions, the government denies these rights. It has formed the Organisation of Tanzanian Trade Unions (OTTU) without involving the workers — and has outlawed strikes.
While the 1993 consumer index indicates a worker needs a minimum annual wage of Tanzanian shillings 349,629 (US$699), the government pays civil servants a monthly salary of Ts5000 (US$10), and people in the private sector earn Ts3500.
Workers' efforts to press for more pay have failed, partly because the union is government controlled and strikes are illegal. The government-sponsored and controlled OTTU says that although the state has raised salaries since 1986, the rises do not correspond to the soaring cost of living. Compared to 1977, the OTTU says, real wages were down by 326% in 1993.
Under the SAP, government has retrenched 50,000 civil servants. Surprisingly, even the SAP sponsors recommended the government raise the salaries of the remaining civil servants to at least Ts45,000. The government has remained silent on the pay rise.
The deepening crisis in Tanzania is marked by hunger, famine, rural-urban migration, street children, prostitution, unemployment and environmental degradation.
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly recognised economic, social and cultural rights in Articles 22 to 27. Article 25 states that the right to an adequate standard of living includes: "food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood".
[From AIA news agency via Worknet (South Africa).]