More Tanzania ministers move on amid mining sector investigations
Two Tanzanian ministers resigned after the country’s President John Magufuli told government officials suspected of wrongdoing in an investigation into the nation’s diamond- and tanzanite-mining industries to step down. Edwin Ngonyani, a deputy minister of works, transport and communication, resigned on Thursday evening, but declined to comment on the allegations. George Simbachawene, a minister in the office of the president in charge of regional administration and local government, who was also named in the probe, announced his resignation in a YouTube video posted by Azam TV, a Dar es Salaam-based broadcaster. "I chose to resign because I have been implicated by the two reports presented to the president today and so that the state organs can investigate freely," Ngonyani said by phone. Magufuli is overhauling the mining industry as the government targets doubling its contribution to GDP to 10% by 2025. In March, he banned mineral exports and ordered an audit that found London-ba...
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