Pictures of government officials jailed for lateness goes viral

zainab quadri

November 30, 2015 11:16 AM

In a bid to to tighten standards and tackle corruption, 6 government officials in Tanzania were jailed this week after turning up late for a meeting.

Government officials jailed for lateness in Tanzania.

“The officials spent six hours in custody following the order by the district commissioner,” the Uhuru newspaper reported, in an editorial praising the move.

“They showed up two hours earlier on the following day,” it added.

The local government official in a suburb of the main city Dar es Salaam ordered his six colleagues be locked up after they turned up over three hours late for a meeting he had called at 8:00 am about land disputes.

The commissioner reportedly said the tardiness of the public servants was “irresponsible.”

Earlier this week, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli scrapped independence day celebrations to spend the money on a clean-up campaign as Tanzania struggles with an outbreak of cholera.

“It is so shameful that we are spending huge amounts of money to celebrate 54 years of independence when our people are dying of cholera,” Magufuli said in a statement read on state television on Monday.

Magufuli, who took power earlier this month after winning October 25 elections, has introduced a swathe of austerity cuts and crackdowns on public corruption.

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