A Frayed-Shoestring Electrical System (original) (raw)

Modal Reasoning in Dar es Salaam's Power Network

American Ethnologist, 2017

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, residents, electricians, and power-utility workers tolerate some unofficial forms of modifiying the electrical network, such as unsanctioned reconnections and extensions. These practices, which can also involve theft, bribery, and other illegal activities, both undermine and sustain an increasingly expensive public infrastructure that is in disrepair and subject to routine bureaucratic neglect. But such modifications also have their tacit limits, and people judge as foolish those who have exceeded them. The limits reveal a modal reasoning at work in the relationship among technical systems, urban ethics, and informal economic arrangements. In each of these domains, people use modal reasoning to simultaneously alter and preserve an emergent future. Such reasoning illustrates how infrastructures constitute wholes that emerge from, but are not reducible to, their constituent parts. [infrastructure, electricity, modality, reasoning, urbanism, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]

Making mini-grids work Productive uses of electricity in Tanzania

Mini-grids could help unlock inclusive growth in remote rural areas, but few proactively stimulate productive uses of electricity, as this often requires resource-consuming actions and expertise. This paper characterises the current mini-grids’ industry, taking into account operators’ models and strategies. it then focuses on Tanzania, in particular JUMEME, a new and sophisticated private initiative that aims to build energy use and bring a strong added value to rural areas. i t ends with recommendations for helping such private actors develop the areas they serve

The Veranda, the Air-Conditioner, and the Power Plant: Race and Electricity in Postsocialist Tanzania

Afrique Contemporaine, 2017

This article analyzes the ideological role of race in Tanzania's power sector by tracking the debates over two privately-owned thermal power companies, Independent Power Tanzania Limited [IPTL]/Pan African Power [PAP] and Richmond Development Corporation. Originally contracted as "emergency power" providers, both companies have become a long-term part of Tanzania's electricity generation mix. Both have also been sites of spectacular rent-seeking collaborations between Asian financiers and African politicians, much to the dismay of Euro-American donors. The ensuing scandals and political rhetoric highlight how postsocialist liberalization revitalized debates over race, creating complex new lines of sociopolitical recrimination, and ambiguous mixtures of official and de facto privatization.

ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMERS' SATISFACTION ON PROVISION OF QUALITY OF ELECTRICITY SERVICES AMONG HOUSE HOLDS IN DAR ES SALAAM: A CASE STUDY OF UBUNGO DISTRICT

ABSTRACT In this study the researcher assessed customers’ satisfaction on provision of quality electricity services among households in Ubungo District. The research examined three dimensions of customer satisfaction which were commercial quality, continuity of supply and voltage quality (it means provision of new connection, as well as meter reading, billing, handling of client desires and protests, number of power cuts and duration with prior notice, power without over voltage, voltage balance or power voltage without unknown variation) which results to quality electricity services. The study used case study research design to a sample of 100 households who were randomly carefully chosen from TANESCO population of households in Kimara and Ubungo NHC. Data were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS and thematic coding for qualitative. The results indicate that at least 61% of respondents were satisfied with commercial quality, continuity of supply and voltage quality of the offered electricity services. On level of satisfaction of commercial quality of electricity services offered among customers in Ubungo District showed that 55% of customers were dissatisfied with the way TANESCO cuts power to their clients. Moreover, findings showed respondents rated low response from TANESCO by 83% that meant customers were not satisfied with the time given by TANESCO in handling customers’ claims regarding meter, costs and payments. In addition, up to 67% of respondents were disappointed with the nature of services offered by TANESCO. Again, results showed 93% customers were dissatisfied by price of electricity offered. Similarly, 70% of respondents were dissatisfied with timeliness or ability of TANESCO to deliver services. Data also discovered that 83% respondents were dissatisfied with services reliability of services providers (TANESCO). It meant that services offered were less reliable as customers disliked it. Results also showed absence of instantly and quick reaction to crisis circumstances answered to TANESCO by TANESCO clients is one of the significant reasons for saw low nature of administrations and client disappointment. The significant findings of the report show low nature of administration and client disappointments. It is recommended that TANESCO should handle complaints through client debates and evaluations, and additionally through links to satisfy customers.

Shock Humor: Zaniness and the Freedom of Permanent Improvisation in Urban Tanzania

Cultural Anthropology, 2018

This essay explores scenes of zany comedy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, across three sites: a television sketch about repeated electrical shock; the careers of freelance electricians known as vishoka; and encounters between residents and power utility inspectors. Drawing on the work of Sianne Ngai, as well as long-term ethnographic research, the essay argues that zaniness manifests the structural paradoxes of entrepreneurial populations that have alternately been described as the lumpen, the informal, or simply the urban poor. Specifically, it argues that such populations are often consigned to permanent improvisation and that this engenders a social freedom that, in some respects, remains indistinguishable from constraint. The zany can thus critically nuance portraits of livelihood and citizenship practices in urban Africa by bringing their freedoms and constraints into the same frame.

ASSESSMENT OF THE USER PERCEPTION OF E-PROCUREMENT IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATION: A CASE OF TANESCO IRINGA REGION

DonSolva, 2018

The main objective of this study was to assess the user perception of electronic procurement in public organization a case of TANESCO in Iringa region, this study has been conducted for three main specific objectives. The first one was to assess the influence of management performance in using electronic procurement at TANESCO, second specific objective was to examine the need of computerized system and its contribution on the perceived ease of use of electronic procurement at TANESCO, and the third objective was to assess employee competence influence on the use of e procurement at TANESCO in Iringa Region, Tanzania The study adopted both research methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches. They were both used so as to help the researcher to complement the weakness of each, therefore provide an extended room for triangulation of both instruments for data collection and approaches. The sample comprised of 50 respondents. Data was collected through questionnaires, both open ended questionnaires and open ended questionnaires. The quantitative data was analyzed with the help of Microsoft Excel 2010 and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software program version 22 and were summarized in tables of frequencies, percentages, correlations, regression and charts. Study findings unveiled that management performance and availability of computerized system lead to the minimization and reduction of errors in local purchasing orders, increase speed of work, simplify procurement processes hence allow storage of data and documentation for a long time and most of all increase accuracy of work in TANESCO. Also Employee competence influence E-procurement. Thus the study recommends that employees who are authorized to operate E-procurement system should be closely supervised so as to ensure that they do not get opportunity to misuse the system and perform duties for their own benefit. Also TANESCO should review their policies governing regularly and make sure that E-procurement system placed cope with the current technology.