Six Sudanese cabinet ministers have quit and another was sacked, the government said on Thursday, days after tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets demanding long-awaited reforms.

Village boy, everything indicating, poor rural surroundings, seated; chicken and chicks roaming and feeding freely in the background.

If there is one thing that bugs fussy readers such as this columnist, that thing is reading a sentence in which the writer doesn’t care about punctuation. But hang on! Is it that we don’t care, or could it be that there are numerous scribblers among our ranks, including subeditors and proofreaders, who lack the knowledge on how to punctuate a sentence? A keen survey of our print media products gives the impression that there are many among us in the industry who have no idea of what comprises a sentence. We torture our readers when we subject them to ten-mile long, unpunctuated constructions. Indeed, long, winding sentences, even when carefully punctuated, are best avoided. There are all these scribblers, including opinion writers and even columnists, who seem to have problems knowing where their particular sentence ends, and where the next begins. And this malady is common in both our English and the Kiswahili newspapers. Someone writes a sentence, and after it comes to an end, he puts a comma (,) then starts another! If you ask us, we would say short sentences make reading more interesting and much easier. Check out the style of Freddy Macha in his columns, ‘Kutoka London’ in Mwananchi Jumapili and the ‘A Chat from London’ (The Citizen, Friday). Short, crisp sentences. Or, Dk Levy in his ‘Ndani ya Boksi’ column with his lengthy, yet very readable articles published in Mwananchi Jumamosi. Enough of lecturing. Let us now move to deliver what this column is essentially all about: linguistic gems from the Bongo English press that we picked up in the recent past. So, here we go… In Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Saturday, July 04, there is a story on Page 4 entitled, ‘Two foreign clerics facing charges over illegal entry’. In this one, the scribbler writes: “Magistrate Thomas Simba ALLEGED that upon completion of jail terms, the DRC nationals should be deported BACK to their country.” Magistrate alleged? Oh, no! A magistrate personifies the court, he is the dispenser of justice. Which is to say, a magistrate/judge does not utter an allegation, the synonym of which is “claim”—madai/tuhuma in Kiswahili. He says, he orders, he penalises/sentences the guilty! It is everybody else who stands before him (either as an accuser or a defendant) who alleges. And it is after the allegations are proven beyond reasonable doubt that the magistrate/judge gives his verdict. His judgement can only be annulled by a higher court—in a very carefully worded criticism. Still on the same sentence. It is our contention that saying “deported BACK” is to entertain superfluity. The word “back” is unnecessary. Saying the DRC nationals should be “deported to their country” is enough! Another gem from the same broadsheet is on Page 1, thanks to a story entitled, ‘Five die, two injured in lorry-van (sic!) collision’. Therein, the scribbler reports what happened and more, saying: “The driver of the lorry…escaped after the crash and the police are following his tracks to arraign him IN COURT.” Arraign in court? No, siree! You just arraign, because the verb “arraign” incorporates the notion of being taken to court to face the judge/magistrate. Finally, we have before us a copy of the Friday, July 3 edition of the tabloid whose boss endorses this columnist’s paycheque. On Page 4 of this one, there is a photo taken at the Saba Saba grounds in Dar, featuring a minister tasting grape wine, a product of a Dodoma-based industry. This was part of the minister’s tour of pavilions in which entrepreneurs exhibited their merchandise. Now the headline for the picture is thus written, ‘Up-coming enterprises showcase products at Saba Saba grounds’. Up-coming enterprises? Nope! Two things are noteworthy here. First, the hyphen (-) is unnecessary—we just need to write “upcoming”. Second, the enterprises are already in place, so they cannot be upcoming. We aver the headline had in mind enterprises that are endeavouring to grow—they are still young. Now these are UP-AND-COMING (not upcoming) enterprises. Upcoming refers to an event that is—as they say in sports—on the cards. That which will take place soon. Today, for instance, soccer lovers in Bongo are feverishly talking about the UPCOMING titanic encounter slated for Sunday, pitting Young Africans SC against Simba SC! Ah, this treacherous language called English!

The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Donald Trump must hand over financial records to prosecutors in New York.

Malawians on Thursday voiced anger after newly-appointed President Lazarus Chakwera unveiled a cabinet that they said was tainted by family ties.

Nearly 20 years ago, the Tanzania launched an ambitious programme to help the nation reach a middle-income economy status by 2025.

Socialite Zari Hassan is new owner of a brand new Bentley and she says the new addition was courtesy of a top up by her former flame and baby daddy Diamond Platnumz.

Kenyan singer Akothee has told married women that they must be ready to let single women have moments with their husbands, reports Nairobi News.

Dodoma city center is becoming a sea of green and yellow  by the day as preparations for Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) national congress to pick contestants for the October  General Election .

On July 1, 2020, Tanzania officially crossed a threshold and was elevated from the low-income to the lower middle-income bracket of developing countries in the World Bank’s classification of countries. This is an important milestone. However, this must not be confused with a country graduating from the United Nations’ least developed countries (LDCs) category.

Tuesday was Saba Saba day in Kenya, and there were marches to mark this historically significant event – and the usual running battles with riot police, and tear gas-filled air in Nairobi.

As we hurtle towards culmination of the National Development Vision 2025, the government urges Tanzanians to ramp up innovations in the fields of science and technology.

Seven winners of the “Tajirika na eGazeti” campaign will share a total of Sh1.2 million in a first weekly draw slated tomorrow July 9 at Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel.       

Full of ignorance of and bias against China, some people from certain countries have recently made groundless accusations against and disseminated many fallacies about China’s human rights conditions concerning Hong Kong. Even a small discrepancy will lead to a great error

Pyrethrum exports from Tanzania climbed by 15 per cent during the 2018/2019 season following improved production.

Moscow has told the US embassy to «mind your own business» after Washington's diplomatic mission raised concern about curbs on media freedom in Russia.

The death toll from demonstrations and ethnic violence that erupted in Ethiopia last week following the murder of a popular singer from the Oromo ethnic group has risen to 239, according to a tally of police figures.

Chadema’s central zone chairman Lazaro Nyalandu has on Wednesday, July 8  collected picked up forms seeking approval to stand for the presidency on the party’s ticket. Among other things he promises to form a Government of National Unity and a new constitution.

 The Covid-19 pandemic presents a complex situation, requiring multiple stakeholders in the healthcare sector to work well together. Many healthcare workers are experiencing high levels of stress and making considerable personal sacrifices to care for patients with Cov-id-19.

In April 2020, about two months after the African continent recorded its first case of Covid-19, the African Academy of Sciences undertook an extensive survey of its members.

With the 2020 General Election just around the corner, opposition parties face a litmus test over how to approach the presidential election, given the 2015 experience and a near impossible legal bottleneck.

Petra Diamonds, which owns Mwadui- based Williamson mine, says it will work with the government in the intended sale of its 75 per cent stake in the business.

The date was August 6, 1998. The venue was Mpanda Town in the then Rukwa Region. President Benjamin Mkapa was gracing the extension of Katavi National Park, which would later become the name of a new region

One of the founders of Russia’s Pussy Riot rock band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, was interviewed at length on the BBC this past weekend.

Tanzania has made considerable progress in the HIV/Aids response towards attaining the UNaids 90-90-90 treatment goals with 83 per cent of Tanzanians living with HIV having known their status in 2019, says a new report.

The Trump administration has notified Congress and the United Nations that the United States is formally withdrawing from the World Health Organization, multiple officials tell CNN, a move that comes amid a rising number of coronavirus cases throughout the Americas over the past week.

Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended authorization for cross-border humanitarian aid in Syria for a year, though Moscow swiftly proposed a more limited extension.

Kenya’s Ministry of Education has declared the 2020 academic year lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic therefore all primary and secondary schools will now reopen in January 2021.

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) is training manufacturers of soft and carbonated drinks, as well as bottled water, on what the Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS) system entails while simultaneously rolling out the system.

Dar es Salaam. Dr Mayrose Majinge today July 7, became the first woman to pick Presidential nomination forms on Chadema’s ticket, coming good a promise that she made several weeks ago.

Londres.Tension is mounting at the bottom of the Premier League as the fight to avoid relegation heads towards a dramatic conclusion.

Police are holding 32 people, including five security guards, in connection with the theft of Sh2.08 billion that was being transported to NMB Bank branch in the city.

Swissport Tanzania - the ground handling and cargo service provider - has lowered its current year’s profit projections by 83.2 percent, citing the Covid-19 pandemic that created a “tougher than anticipated” business environment.

Lilongwe

Tshikapa. An Angolan soldier was killed on Sunday by DR Congo troops after a tense incident and an exchange of gunfire along their border, according to local DR Congo officials.