Tanzanian Govt to Run Wazazi Secondary Schools – Minister

ALL secondary schools owned and run by the parents wing of the ruling party (WAZAZI) will be returned to the government, the National Assembly was told here yesterday. The Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Ambassador Hamisi Kagasheki, said that the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training was working out modalities of repossessing the schools. He said this in response to a question from Ms Lucy Owenya (Special Seats-CHADEMA) who wanted to know government’s efforts to make public the report by the Scotland Yard regarding fire which gutted Shauritanga Secondary School in Kilimanjaro Region in which 40 students perished some 15 years ago. The legislator noted that there were some students whose bodies could not be identified and were buried in a mass grave near the school. She wanted to know when the government would run the school as ward secondary school as promised by the then minister for education, Professor Philemon Sarungi. The Deputy Minister for Home Affairs said all WAZAZI secondary schools, including Shauritanga, would be possessed by the government. On the number of deaths at the school, Ambassador Kagasheki said a total of 40 people, including 37 students, four of them died in hospital later and two unidentified people were buried. He said since then, nobody had ever reported that a relative or a student from the school was still missing after the inferno 15 years ago. He advised that anyone wishing to see the Scotland Yard report regarding the Shauritanga inferno was free to contact the Ministry of Home Affairs. He said police regulations do not allow such reports to be made public. By Ichikaeli Maro & Faustine Kapama