Dodoma — THE government has reiterated that presidential appointments, like the appointment of ambassadors depend on the discretion of the appointing authority.

Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Mahadhi Juma Mahadhi, told Parliament yesterday there are established guidelines in appointing envoys. Mr Mahadhi was responding to a question by Mwanakhamis Kassim Said (Special Seats), who wanted to know what guidelines are followed when appointing an ambassador.

In an earlier question, the MP had wanted to know how many ambassadors represent the country abroad, how many came from Tanzania Zanzibar, and how many honorary consuls does Tanzania have and where are they are located.

In response, Mr Mahadhi said that Tanzania has 32 embassies and three consulates general in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and in Mombasa (Kenya). He added that at the moment out of the 32 embassies, there are 27 ambassadors representing the country, while six embassies do not have ambassadors because some envoys have recently retired, and the president has not appointed others.

"We currently do not have ambassadors in Berlin (Germany), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Abuja (Nigeria), Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Geneva, Switzerland.

He said that out of the 27 ambassadors, four are from Zanzibar and named them as Ambassador Mohammed Mzale in Stockholm (Sweden), Mohammed Hamza, Cairo (Egypt), Deputy Ambassador Ramadhani (UN) and Ambassador Ali Saleh in Muscat, Oman.

Mr Mahadhi also said that Tanzania has 16 honorary counsels in various important commercials cities around the world mentioning them as Mbabane (Swaziland), Tel Aviv (Israel), and Damascus (Syria). Others are Illinois (USA), Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey), Hong Kong (China), Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne (Australia), Osaka (Japan), Luanda (Angola), Rotterdam (Holland) and others are in Mauritius, Cyprus and Philippines.