I WILL PAY BACK YOUR MONEY AFTER SADC SUMMIT!
Muhidin J. Shangwe
It has been a very busy August for Tanzania. Not without a good reason.
The 39th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit of the Heads of State and Government took place on 17th and 18th in Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. It was a homecoming for the Community given Tanzania’s role in the liberation of nearly all SADC members from the clutches of colonialism and apartheid.
Several side events had taken place prior to the Summit, including the SADC 4th Industrial Week which took place from 5th to 9th.
The build-up to the Summit had its own flashpoint. Paul Makonda, the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner (RC), for instance, issued a series of statements, which set the tone of what was coming ahead.
For those unaware of Mr. Makonda’s portfolio, he represents the president in the administrative region of Dar es Salaam. Western media outlets have made it habit of referring to him as the city’s Governor as they struggle to comprehend this administrative structure, which has its roots deep into the colonial times.
Since the Summit was to take place in his region, Mr. Makonda’s enthusiasm to play host was evident. It started with a meeting with journalists way back in May as part of an awareness campaign as he tasked them to ask the public questions about SADC to gauge their understanding of the bloc. There was a prize for those who would be deemed to have asked relevant questions. The results revealed worrying ignorance for anyone who cares, at least judging from responses which were posted online. This is for another day.
In another move, traders at the famous sculpture market in Mwenge were told they could sell in the city center for visiting delegates.
Dar was ready to impress.
Then came the bombshell on July 28th when the RC announced that those who don’t wash their bodies and those who wear ragged, dirty clothes would be banned from the city center during the Summit. Ridiculous it may have sounded but the RC took his time to lecture on the level of personal hygiene acceptable in his city’s impromptu sanitation standards.
As Dar dwellers were contemplating and some making mockery of the order, they must have been caught by surprise by what was to follow. The RC was at it again, announcing his plan to create a database of married men! He explained that it was an attempt to curb shameless cheating husbands who, scavenging without their wedding rings on, have left many hearts of young women broken with fake promises.
Mr. Makonda revealed that he would use the Summit to learn the best practice on the issue from SADC members, an indication that this was, after all, a well-thought plan. Any good plan must be informed by good practice, mustn’t it?
The move was a subject of ridicule and disapproval to a large extent, even after a prominent lawyer had explained the legal justification for it. Apparently, Tanzania has a law in its books that allows those affected by broken marriage promises to seek legal remedies within a year! Nevertheless, the anticipation of what was coming after the Summit was enough to create public suspense.
The announcement followed a busy week of preparation for the Summit. Regular radio and TV ads and huge billboards on all the city’s major roads, had set the mood of and for a colossal gathering. But it was the married-men database which added an extra element in the public discourse.
To give credit when it’s due, Mr. Makonda’s statements and orders did succeed in that SADC started to feature in average people’s informal conversation. This is despite the fact that all media outlets featured news about the SADC Summit on a daily basis. In an unprecedented move, the announcement made it to the The Shade Room, an American Instagram gossip page that has 16 million followers worldwide!
Tanzanians are known for their sense of humor and they can be quite mean at that. In this case, humor was delivered in abundant supply. Netizens quickly seized the opportunity with a series of jokes that promised action but only after the Summit had ended. The one I found to be the funniest lamented about a regular loanee who, impliedly, had no business whatsoever with SADC, but, when asked to return the money to his creditor, he promised to do so after the Summit!
Now, the Summit has since come to an end. How will the married-men database plan pans out?
