LATEST APPOINTMENTS: Samia demands diligence

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Friday that several appointments she made were in response to further propel the nation’s social-economic development, which required more personnel to effectively serve all sectors.

The country, according to her, was not expanding in size but rather in terms of the things brought in by the choice to open up the country, necessitating the appointment of more personnel to manage them.

Dr Samia made the remarks at State House in Chamwino, Dodoma at the occasion to swear in various leaders she had picked recently, outlining the rationale for her appointments as well as their duties.

“The population has increased too much, and all these people require services, so we must make sure that there are personnel in place in every sector to meet their needs.

To that end, Dr Samia remarked, “Now that we are making these adjustments and new appointments, those who have been appointed should proceed to carry out their assigned tasks diligently.”

Those who were sworn in as ambassadors include Chief Secretary Dr Moses Kusiluka, Consul General of Tanzania in Dubai, Iddi Bakari, to become ambassador in Türkiye, Dr Salim Hamad, an assistant to the President in political matters, and Dr Kassim Khamis, assistant to the President in speeches.

Others who were sworn in were Engineer Rogatus Mativila, Chief Executive Officer for the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) to become Deputy Permanent Secretary in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local governments (PO-RALG) responsible for infrastructure.

Benedict Wakulyamba was sworn in as the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.

Regarding the rationale behind her selections, she began by citing the Chief Secretary. According to her, Dr Kusiluka is the President’s closest assistant, and when the latter is busy with work and has visitors who want to meet her, they may become uneasy when they hear that her representative is not an ambassador.

She explained that Dr Kusiluka has been given the status of an ambassador to give him more freedom to carry out his duties, interact with more people and lessen the President’s workload.

“But there are also two ambassadors that I have appointed in my private office, Salim is currently the assistant to the President on political matters; we have appointed him as ambassador because political matters are not only in the political parties but also in several embassies within the country,” Dr Samia said.

She continued, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs frequently engages in political dialogue, so we really would like Salim to participate, so that my office can learn what has been said so that action can be taken quickly.”

“Ambassador Kassim won’t be given a station; instead, he’ll stay in the country. He worked for AU for a considerable amount of time as an analyst there, publishing numerous journals. Now that we have decided to appoint him as ambassador, he will continue to conduct analysis in my office,” she said.

According to her, harmonising politics with social development is a big task given that politics has been completely left to political parties; thus, she appointed advisors to the President on political matters, who are William Lukuvi, Abdallah Bulembo, Rajab Luhwavi, and Haji Omar Kheir.

In addition, she added, “This is why I appointed Retired Captain George Mkuchika as Minister in the President’s Office for Special Duties. Now that this is his special job, he couldn’t do it alone, so I appointed these veterans to assist him.”

In order to ensure that all Tanzanians are on board and that the country attains development, Dr Samia said their role will be to visit the community and discover what is lacking, how society interacts with politics, how things are going overall, and what the government should do.

“We have also made minor changes in PO-RALG by appointing Eng Mativila, who did a very good job at TANROADS and I thought I should promote him now to be the Deputy Permanent Secretary in charge of infrastructure,” she said.