The government has said it will this week issue a list of civil and
religious organisations to be deregistered over violation of the
country’s laws.
A statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs circulated to the
media yesterday said that the exercise will begin with organisations
registered in the Dar es Salaam Region.
According to the ministry, the main reason for such deregistration
was the organisations failure to present their yearly audited financial
reports and also failure to pay fees.
“The list of the organisations to be deregistered will be issued in
phases beginning this week and will involve institutions that were
registered in the Dar es Salaam Region,” the ministry’s Spokesperson,
Isaac Nantanga said in the statement.
However, he did not mention the day of the week when the list will be out.
“According to the list that we have, at least 10,000 civil
organisations and religious institutions registered by the Ministry of
Home Affairs but those which will be deregistered are only those which
did not present their yearly audited financial reports and those which
did not pay annual fees as required by the law. This directly means that
the institutions that abide by the laws won’t be deregistered,” noted
the spokesperson in the statement.
The statement further said that there were no plans to re-register all institutions.
“It should be noted that the ongoing exercise has nothing to do
with institutions that are involved politics and that the ministry is
not responsible for the registration of Non Governmental Organisations,”
says the statement in part.
In an interview with this paper yesterday, Nantanga said out of the
10,000 institutions there are more civil organisations than religious
institutions.
He said early this year, the ministry took a number of steps to
ensure that the civil organisations and religious institutions presented
their audited reports and at the same time paid the fees.
“Through selected media we reminded the institutions to present
their reports and pay their fees. We went further and published the same
information on our website and also on the ministry’s notice boards to
make sure that the message was well received. Some institutions
responded positively and abided by the law,” he noted.
According to him, it has now reached a point to deregister the which did not abide by the law.
As whether the deregistered institutions can be re-registered afterwards, he said there is no such room.
“Unless an institution appeals against deregistration but
generally, they could not be re-registered since they have failed to
conform to the rules and regulations,” the spokesperson noted.
Last week, Home Affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe said the
government will not hesitate to deregister religious institutions whose
leaders are engaged in politics.
“We’re planning to start enforcing the initiative on 20th of this
month whereby all institutions operating contrary to the law will lose
their registration,” the minister warned.
The warning has however evoked controversy among the groups with
clerics turning the table around and warning the government that such
public statements can cause public unrest.
Referring to the Home Affairs Minister Archbishop for the Anglican
Church of Tanzania Dr Jacob Chimeledya told the Guardian that; “He (the
minister) might think it’s the right move, however, the same statement
might lead to social and political conflicts.”
The leader highlighted the fact that the Constitution confers a
number of fundamental human rights like political freedom to all
Wananchi including the clergy.
Political analyst Prof Willy Makundi said the only authority with
power to deregister civil organisations and religious institutions is
the High Court and not the government.
“The minister was supposed to file a case at the High Court over
some alleged misconducts but not threaten to deregister religious
institutions,” he said.
The Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) called on the minister to
withdraw his statement saying it violates the human right for
information and expression.
Edward Porokwa the executive director of the Pastoralists
Indigenous Non-Govermental Organisations Forum (Pingo's Forum) said: “It
is very difficult to draw a line of separation between religion and
politics…every human being is political in nature, so whatever we do
there is politics in it.
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