Since last year, Numsa educators have been involved with TUICO, a Tanzanian trade union to help them develop education material.

Funded by the Swedish Metalworkers Union and facilitated by the International Metalworkers Federation, the project aims to encourage more participative education methods.

Now that socialism is off Tanzania ‘s agenda, South African companies like ABSA, Shoprite, Eskom are rushing to fill the holes made by privatisation. TUICO is trying to prepare its worker representatives for the inevitable onslaught from capitalist companies driven by profit.

In a first for the trade union, workers at the ABSA-owned finance company, NBC, last year went on strike over their wages and working conditions.

Trade union rights still have a long way to go. Health and safety has a poor record in the country.

Just last year, four workers were killed by toxic fumes when one after another was ordered into a drum to clean it out. When the first worker never came out, the next was ordered in to find him and the next and the next.