Hope for better lives remain day-time dream

The recently announced minimum wages for both private and public sectors may not cause any expected relief to citizens due to unabated rising living costs.

A section of interviewed citizens told this paper that life would remain as hard as before as prices of goods and services had gone up even before new wage arrangements.

``The increased minimum wages have appropriately been coupled with increased spending on goods and services,`` said John Haule, a resident of Dar es Salaam ``Electricity cost has gone up and now cement prices are exorbitantly high, obviously going to discourage the construction industry.``

For a couple of months, prices of cement unofficially went up forcing consumers to dig deeper into their pockets to buy a 50-kg bag between Sh 15,000 and Sh 18,000 in Dar es Salaam and other nearby regions while in Kigoma and other places with pathetic infrastructure prices were hiked to the tune of Sh 25,000, sources say.

Although other cement manufacturers have not announced new prices, Tanga Cement Company, the manufacturers of Simba cement brand released official prices.

Mwanza residents would be the most affected with a 50-kg bag selling at Sh 15,900. Dar residents would have to pay Sh 11,700 for a 50-kg bag of cement from Tanga.

It`s not yet known the official prices for other manufacturers - Mbeya Cement and Tanzania Portland Cement, but unofficial price stands at between Sh 15,000 and Sh 18,000.

``Normally prices of Simba cement are higher than those of Tembo and Twiga cements. So, we eagerly wait to hear new official prices from them,`` said another Dar resident Nicodemus Lyimo.

Scarcity of cement is attributed to increased informal export in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to cater for excessive demand.

But also Mbeya cement is said to be exporting to South Africa to facilitate construction boom ahead of the 2010 World Cup to be staged in Africa for the first time. The government has already allowed importation of cement from Kenya to fill in local demand.