Stergomena Lawrence Tax appointed as first-ever female Defense Minister of Tanzania

Stergomena Lawrence Tax has been appointed as Tanzania's new Minister of Defence and National Service, on Monday. According to Chinese news agency, Xinhua, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has appointed Tax late on Monday, September 13.

With this, she became the country’s first female Defence Minister since independence. According to the statement released by the Directorate of Presidential Communications at the State House, Tax replaced her predecessor Elias Kwandikwa, who died in early August while undergoing treatment in Dar es Salaam.

The 61-year-old newly appointed Defence Minister had also served as the first and only executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). While working with the inter-governmental organization established in 1992, she promoted political, socio-economic, security cooperation and integration among its 16 members.

According to AllAfrica, an online news outlet primarily focused on the African continent, Tax was nominated this week to become a Member of Parliament just a few days after she retired from the post of Executive Secretary at SADC. She had been holding the post for the last eight years.

Tanzania’s President also reinducts 47-year-old minister January Makamba

Tax, a mother of two children, had also served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of East African Cooperation from 2008 to 2013. Her appointment has been considered strategically significant as the country saw a major gun battle near the French Embassy in Dar es Salaam in the last month. 

Apart from Stergomena Lawrence Tax, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan also appointed 47-year-old minister January Makamba. He was dismissed for criticising Samia Suluhu's predecessor. In 2019, Makamba was sacked from the government and was forced to apologise to then-president John Magufuli, who passed away in March this year.

(Image: Stergomena Lawrence Tax Twitter)