Bureaucracy

All modern states need a functioning civil service. Unfortunately for Tanzania, Nyerere's period in power saw the civil service become a state bureaucracy which proved both meddlesome and inefficient. It interfered with privately-owned businesses but seldom with productive effect. A representative example was the sisal industry, which accounted for 40 per cent of Tanzanian exports. Its sales and output could have been 15 per cent to 20 per cent higher had government departments not intervened in an attempt to extract higher tax from a profitable concern.

As well as being a drain on government finance, since its members were among the highest paid of state workers, the civil service also became tainted with corruption. Misappropriation of public funds and tax revenue became standard practice. Nepotism and favouritism prevented those of real talent rising to the top and the awarding of government contracts depended more on whom the contractors knew than on the quality of the service they offered. The right of officials to grant permits to those bidding for contracts meant they issued them in return for what were, in effect, bribes. Those officials who became the fattest cats in this system acquired the name 'Wabenzi'.

Some attempt was made in the early 1970s to limit the number of bureaucrats but this proved little more than a gesture. Between 1975 and 1985, the number of officials in government departments swelled by 35 per cent from 21,000 to 28,300. Since nearly all the officials were TANU party members who owed their position to Nyerere's patronage, they were highly unlikely to oppose him on any major issue, a situation which was obviously much to his liking. A quiescent civil service is a necessary part of any modern authoritarian system.