Tanzania cannot have a strong economy without ethics

Poverty is a great polluter. Poor people cut trees not because they want to cut trees but because, in most parts of the country, the only fuel available is timber. Thousands of people, especially in rural areas, defecate in the open not because they do not want privacy but because there are no toilets.

In Tanzania there is a long list of neglected basic human needs for the less fortunate masses.  Many people lack decent homes, clean water, electricity, good education and good health care facilities among others. One of the reasons for an all-round decline in ethics is the grinding poverty and the slow rate of growth of our economy.

The high rate of inflation (which persisted until a few years ago), meagre wages in the face of continuous devaluation of the shilling and the crippling rates of taxation, particularly VAT for the individual, has only made matters worse. Today an average job in the Government or even the private sector would pay between Shs. 100,000 to Shs. 300,000/- which by urban standards is just not enough to afford basic necessities like electricity, water, food, transport, telephones plus additional family expenses including schooling for the children. As a result even honest people have decided to become dishonest in some respects including in the payment of taxes. The standard argument by the common man is – what do we get in return for the taxes we pay?

The fall in the real value of the Tanzania shilling has made a mockery of fixed wage earnings. Though inflation has now been brought down to a single digit figure, earning power is low and even those with higher education sometimes find it difficult to get a job.

For those with jobs, life is always a struggle of making ends meet. At the end of a career, there is little left in the nature of savings. At the end of a working life, few persons can claim to be owners of a home or a vehicle or even a healthy bank balance. The saving through Government Pension Funds is a pittance and when facing retirement many wonder what they have achieved after working all through their lives.

Due to the pressure of trying to sustain oneself ethical standards began to decline. The decline in ethical standards is very present today despite the claim by some politicians that corruption has been reduced. Tax evasion and corruption are rampant and laws often evoke neither respect nor fear.

There are many respected individuals who would consider it wrong to violate even a traffic rule but would not consider it wrong not to disclose their total income in order to save tax. The word ‘honesty’ has come to acquire a different meaning in different situations. For example, if a politician from humble origins after ten or twenty years of public service is found to have more than one house or more than one car or has an extravagant wedding with superfluous expenses well above his or her means of income, he or she does not suffer in the eyes of the Government - no one pauses to ask how the large wealth is accumulated or how money totally disproportionate to one’s income is spent. We once heard of all leaders having to be accountable. What happened to that exercise and was an appraisal made of the findings?

In our society there is one standard of honesty when it pertains to money-matters and another when it pertains to other aspects of life like family, friendships, education etc. A person may pray to God daily, stay away from the usual vices and be a nice society man but when it comes to the ethics of earning and of paying taxes, such moral values are often side-stepped.

As long as there is endemic poverty and as long as there are glaring inequalities and disparities, it is difficult to build an ethical society. There is a proverb which reads, “All virtues will disappear in the face of hunger”. Only steady and sustained growth over a reasonably long period will ensure the abolition of poverty and a minimum standard of life for all the people.

Only a society where people lead contented lives will turn its attention to ethics and other values of a civilised society.  Just as it is not possible to build a strong economy without ethics, it is not possible to build an ethical society without strong economic foundations.  That is unless religious clerics become aggressive in their propagation to remind followers that it is sinful to earn money illegally and that the richest person is one who is contented with what he or she has.