President Magufuli has broken broken the record as one of the strictest president and is showing signs of not stopping anytime soon.
Tanzanian authorities have deployed the military to buy cashew nuts from farmers to solve a row over prices.
President John Magufuli had given traders a Monday deadline to buy the crops at government-approved rates.
Mr Magufuli rejected offers from 13 companies who wanted to buy the crop at $1.3 (£1) per kilogram.
The Tanzania People’s Defence Forces were ordered to buy the produce from farmers in the southern Mtwara region at $1.43.
Farmers had halted sales of their harvests for weeks, saying offers from private traders were too low.
On Saturday, Mr Magufuli sacked the agriculture and trade ministers over the crisis, which has seen a fall in the prices of cashews.
The president said he wanted to ensure that thousands of farmers got a fair price for their cashew nuts and secure vital export earnings.
Mr Magufuli appointed two other ministers and four deputies after dismissing Agriculture Minister Charles Tizeba and trade and Investment Minister Charles Mwijage.
He also disbanded the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania and revoked the appointment of the board chair, Anna Abdallah.
But some say his real motivation is to boost his popularity in the Mtwara region, an opposition stronghold.
Critics have accused the president of trying to use the crisis over cashews, one of Tanzania’s main exports, for political gain
Opposition politician Zitto Kabwe said the government should seek parliamentary approval for buying cashew nuts.
Awhile back the growing importance of cashew nuts in Tanzania’s economy became evident in Parliament when legislators dropped all the other issues that were highlighted in the government’s Sh 32.5 trillion budget proposal for the financial year 2018/19 and shifted all their energies to the crop.
The ‘battle’ to protect the interests of cashew nut farmers was fronted by MPs from regions that grow the delicately flavored snacks -was in response to the government’s proposal to change the Cashewnut Industry Act (Cap,203) – through the Finance Bill 2018 – with a view to ensuring that export levies are collected in the consolidated fund.
This was a shift from the existing situation whereby 65 per cent of the crop export levy is remitted to farmers through the Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) and the government remains with 35 per cent of it.
For almost a decade or so, tobacco used to dominate the value of Tanzania’s traditional exports. However, the situation changed last year when cashew nuts overtook tobacco become Tanzania’s most sought-after traditional export crop.
Do you think Magufuli’s military is crossing the line of the salers?