Press Release
The Sugar Conflict in Tanzania is a Deliberate Ploy

In the mid February 2016, the Tanzanian government declared officially that it would not allow traders to import sugar into the country unless they have a special license from the State House. That step was taken on the basis of the so called ‘protecting the internal sugar factories’. This has led to an inflation of the sugar price by more than 100% comparing to the government’s fixed price of Tsh.1800. The situation has caused anxiety to the citizens due to the expensiveness of the product while in other parts of country the product is even unavailable.

We, Hizb ut Tahrir Tanzania, continue to state categorically that this problem is a deliberate ploy whose ultimate aim is to cushion some capitalists’ tycoons to thrive in the sugar sector in the name of protecting internal sugar factories.

Also, the recent statement by government in parliament from the Prime Minister who confirmed that Tanzania has a shortage of sugar by 100,000 tonnes in its demand of 400,000 tonnes, and pledged that the government will import 100,000 tonnes to fix the deficit since the internal factories have stopped to produce while are waiting the harvesting of the raw materials of sugarcane.

http://www.mwananchi.co.tz/habari/Vita-ya-sukari-sasa-kila-kona--wafanyabiashara-wakamatwa/-/1597578/3194804/-/vwohudz/-/index.html.#sthash.h9NEJVBT.dpuf

That statement is shameless and a thorn to the flesh of the citizens’ lives. Why did the government halt the importation of the product yet there was such a huge deficit? What sort of weakness do these factories have, they halt production due to waiting for harvesting raw materials? If the government was sincere in fixing the deficit, why was it not done earlier?

This issue also depicts the conflicts in the evil capitalist ideology in which our country is part of. This ideology alleges to adopt the policy of ‘free trade’ in its economy. While on the other hand the government tampers it by interfering through price control, not allowing traders to engage in importation of certain goods of their choice, forcing consumers to stick to government set prices on goods etc. Where is the free trade policy?

As for the government’s actions to seize the sugar cargo of some of the traders on allegations of them hoarding goods. That is an ill-intentioned plan by the government to cover-up for the shame of not resolving the problems at hand. Instead they want to seek political-publicity stunt and hoodwink the ordinary citizens who cannot analyze the events. We are inquiring, if the traders were allowed to import the said goods; could there be hoarding of the same if truly there was such an issue?

The Islamic ideology is contrary to the capitalist ideology, it vehemently condemns hoarding of goods to create imaginary shortage. Meanwhile, it provides a conducive environment to shun hoarding including the State not interfering in setting of prices in any goods.

Masoud Msellem
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Tanzania