Tanzania has become the latest African country to say it will not legalise homosexuality even if that means it loses substantial financial aid from Britain. Government officials reacted strongly to British Prime Minister David Cameron's threat to cut aid to countries that deny gay rights.
"Tanzania will never accept Cameron's proposal because we have our own moral values. Homosexuality is not part of our culture and we will never legalise it," Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe was quoted as saying by Tanzania's Guardian newspaper.
"We are not ready to allow any rich nation to give us aid based on unacceptable conditions simply because we are poor. If we are denied aid by one country, it will not affect the economic status of this nation and we can do without UK aid."
Ghana's President John Atta Mills said on Wednesday his government would never legalise homosexuality. Uganda has also reacted strongly to Cameron's comments.
Big aid recipient
Tanzania, a former British colony and one of Africa's biggest per capita aid recipients, received 320 million euros of aid for its 2011/12 budget, with Britain the largest provider of general budget support.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) gave Tanzania 164 million euros in aid in 2009/10 and has pledged to spend an average of 184 million euros per year in Tanzania until 2015.
Serious criminal offence
Homosexuality is a serious criminal offence in Tanzania, punishable by imprisonment, but no one has been prosecuted. "We cannot be directed by the United Kingdom to do things that are against our set laws, culture and regulations," Membe was quoted as saying.
Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein also rejected the British demands for gay rights to be respected in Tanzania.
"We have strong Islamic and Zanzibari culture that abhors gay and lesbian activities, and to anyone who tells us that development support is linked to accepting this we are saying no," Shein told journalists on Thursday.
Zanzibar, Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago, enacted a law in 2004 banning homosexual relations. Male offenders face more jail time, up to 25 years, than convicted women.
Homosexuality is illegal in 37 African countries, and rights groups say gays are often the targets of violent hate campaigns.
Source: Reuters
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I can assure all that within a month Tanzania will make a U-turn and complies with the Brits. That is the Tanzanian approach! Done many times before.
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO TZ, if the west wants Homosexuality let them do it 2 themselves not in Africa, to hell with your so-called AID. our values are not worth your so-called AID!!
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