The governor of Tanzania's largest city wants to set up a database of married men to crackdown on rampant love rats.

Paul Makonda, the governor of Dar es Salaam, said he wanted a publicly accessible database of men's marital status after receiving a string of complaints by deceived women.

"Many women from Dar es Salaam region have been deceived many times and they have had enough," he said at a press conference on Monday.

"Our main aim is to relieve pain from these women who are suffering from these cheaters - as a governor, I am not happy to lead women who are sad and heartbroken."

"If possible we will set up a database in the regional commissioner's office in each region that every man who promises a woman marriage, this should be registered in the database which will allow women to check to see whether the person asking is married," he added.

He said the government run service would include men's photographs, but he gave no details about the stage of the proposal. It is not clear if such a database would be legal.

Mr Makonda, a close ally of president John Magafuli, has a history of making controversial proposals to enforce sexual morality.