Tanzania’s commissioner anti-gay sentiments angers Denmark and costs the country $9.8 million in aid

On Wednesday (Nov. 14) the Danish government said it would withhold 65 million crowns ($9.8 million) in aid citing allegations of human rights abuses.
On October, Dar es Salaam commissioner Paul Makonda, a fervent Christian and loyal ally of President John Magufuli announced plans to round up gay people.
Makonda’s anti-gay sentiments may have been the last straw which broke the Camel’s back but Human Rights and democracy space has been under attack for some time now.

Weeks after Dar es Salaam commissioner Paul Makonda, a fervent Christian and loyal ally of President John Magufuli announced plans to round up gay people in Tanzania’s commercial hub, Denmark has decided to take a stand.

"I have information about the presence of many homosexuals in our province," Paul Makonda told reporters as he called on citizens to begin reporting homosexuals for round-ups to begin soon.

"These homosexuals boast on social networks," said Makonda,

"Give me their names," he demanded. "My ad hoc team will begin to get their hands on them next Monday."

"I prefer to anger those countries than to anger God," he said.

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Well, he didn’t succeed in rounding them all up since Magufuli’s administration quickly beat a hasty retreat from his remarks terming them personal opinion rather than government policy after coming under severe criticism globally, but not before causing anguish to some ‘poor helpless Tanzanians’.

“They are raiding houses. It is a horrible thing. It is just going to get worse. So many people are leaving the city, running away. They are targeting the activists, saying we are promoting homosexuality. We have to hide,” One LGBT activist, from Dar es Salaam, told the Guardian on condition of anonymity.

Makonda did, however, succeed in angering Denmark, one of Tanzania’s biggest foreign donors.

Also read: President Magufuli goes after research firm which carried out survey revealing his popularity was dwindling rapidly

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On Wednesday (Nov. 14) the Danish government said it would withhold 65 million crowns ($9.8 million) in aid citing allegations of human rights abuses.

The minister of development cooperation Ulla Tornaes took to Twitter to announced the decision triggered by ‘Makonda’s $9.8 million mistake’.

“Very concerned about the negative development in Tanzania. Most recently unacceptable homophobic statements by a Commissioner. I have therefore decided to withhold DKK 65 million in the country. Respect for human rights is crucial for DK” She tweeted. (Translated from Danish via Google)

Ms Tornaes has also postponed a planned trip to the east African country, Danish broadcaster DR reported.

The Tanzanian government has not yet commented.

Makonda’s anti-gay sentiments may have been the last straw which broke the Camel’s back but Human Rights and democracy space has been under attack for some time now and has taken a turn to the worse under Magufuli administration.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Tanzania and punishable by up to 30 years in prison and Human rights activists say anti-gay sentiments have only increased since President John Magufuli's election in 2015.

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In 2017, the country's deputy health minister defended a threat to publish a list of gay people.

In its latest attack against Media freedom, Tanzania arrested two journalists working for Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who were on a work assignment in Tanzania and detailed them overnight.

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Early this year, Tanzania opposition firebrand, Tundu Lissu who survived an assassination attempt, described Tanzania has a land of horrors’ where the government was determined to crush dissent by all means including assassinating them and cited disappearances of critics as a worrying trend.

Last year, President Magufuli, once a darling of foreign investors and seen as a reformer, attracted stinging criticism at home and internationally, after he said schoolgirls who get pregnant will not be allowed back to school.

“Ukishapata mimba ni Kwaheri Translated: (After getting pregnant, you are done.)" he said while speaking at a public rally in Chalinze town, about 100km west of the main city Dar es Salaam.

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Danish move also comes days to European Union statement saying that it will review its ties with Tanzania as it ‘regrets the deterioration of the human rights and rule of law in the country and as a result will be conducting a broader review of its relations with the East African nation.’

It later recalled its head of delegation in the country, Mr Roeland van de Geer, "to discuss the situation in Tanzania".