serve the second five-year term. The three-month ban on Mwanahalisi is expected to end on January 12, 2009. Interestingly, this time the president remained mum on the saga, giving rise to more questions than answers. During 2008, a number of journalists went the extra mile to ensure that ills afflicting the nation were laid bare for everybody to see, thereby forcing the government to take action. Media reporting, for example, forced the resignation of Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two energy and minerals ministers: the then-incumbent minister Nazir Karamagi and his predecessor, Dr Ibrahim Msabaha. The resignation of Lowassa and the two ministers in February 2008 followed their involvement in what has come to be known as the ‘Richmond saga’. This involved their decision to force the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company, Tanesco, to enter into an agreement with a dubious company for hiring of gas-to-power generators. The deal was meant to solve power cuts caused by drought. The Richmond saga would not have come to light had it not been for the media’s persistence on the issue. A few months later, the then Minister for Infrastructure Development, Andrew Chenge, was forced to resign after a British corruption watchdog, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), accused him of having stashed US$1 million of corruption proceeds in an offshore account. The minister had earned the money as a kickback for the supply of Radar to the Tanzanian government during the administration of former President Mkapa. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -103- Media Institute of Southern Africa