Since the Arusha Declaration, TANU and President Nyerere
have stated time and again their determination to restructure the
society towards socialism. If it is certain that most institutions and
the relationships among the various segments of the society are in
contradiction to that goal; it also follows that, if the tran-
sformation is to succeed, those institutions and relationships will
have to change. The structure of the commercial sector and its
relationships with the rest of Tanzanian society — the ways in
which it used resources, for what and for whom — were an-
tithetical to socialist goals at the time S.T.C. was created. It was
inevitable that the structure and those relationships would rise to
the surface as important contradiction as the pace of socialist
restructuring increased and as measures became more far-
reaching. The State Trading Corporation was created in order to
maintain the structure and relationships of the commercial sector
under conditions of public ownership. The policy makers saw suc-
cess in terms of achieving expected economies of scale, the
smooth supply of goods, and the possibilities of trapping profits
for use in other sectors. The consultants saw success as ‘efficiently’
accomplishing under public ownership what had been done
relatively efficiently under private control. The consultants failed
to see that efficiency has meaning only in relationship to specific
goals and they focused on the wrong set of goals. The policy
makers (and management) missed the fact that transforming Tan-
zania required a dynamic, flexible trading corporation that would
be able to change with the rest of the society; that is, one that
could alter as contradictions came to the surface, rather than ren-
dering them more severe by attempting to maintain the status quo.

The lessons should be clear. First, the use of capitalist con-
sultants is almost certain to result in recommendations which
move absolutely or relatively away from the explicit and implicit
socialist goals of the country. Second, bureaucrats cannot be ex-
pected to lead the restructuring of the society; it is the nature of
bureaucracies to make systems work and not to forge fun-
damentally different institutions, watch and continually alter them
in ways which are harmonious to the aims of the society. For that
task, both the restructuring of S.T.C. and the rest of Tanzanian
society will require a different body of people.

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