Extracts from a paper presented to the Conference on “Tanzania After Nyerere” held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. A full version with a list of references is being published by Francis Pinter – Editor.

Much has been written on Tanzania’s former President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and his political thoughts. To the Christians and social democrats he was a liberal; to the revolutionary nationalists he was the embodiment of the African struggle for freedom and national independence; and, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s he even won the praise of Marxists. Nyerere thus seems to be everything to everybody, A BBC Television programme once described him as an ‘Idealist in Power’ and he himself once said that he should have been preaching from the pulpit instead of being President of a Republic.

Any understanding of the transformation of Tanzania in the last 25 years must be preceded by an evaluation of its leader because Nyerere has effectively dominated the Tanzanian political scene for more than 30 years. Despite his absence from the State Presidency he will continue to be a great influence on the country for a long time to come even after he retires as CCM Chairman in 1987.

The Party
In his “Ujamaa – the Basis of African Socialism” Nyerere dismissed the idea that classes had existed in pre-colonial African societies claiming instead that these societies were living in tranquillity and peace and had seen no antagonistic contradictions. He felt that it was possible for Africans, regardless of their social backgrounds to come together in national movements and to retain unity after independence. He failed to see that the different social groups had come together during the colonial period only because each one of them was affected in some adverse way by colonialism. The nationalist movement that emerged during this time was a united front of classes and not a political party in the Marxist sense.

After the attainment of independence Nyerere insisted on the nationalist organisation retaining its old structure. He did not see the need of transforming the nationalist organisation into a political party. There were debates within TANU regarding the need, especially after 1967 when TANU had declared its intention of building socialism, to transform the organisation into a socialistic political party. Nyerere maintained throughout that TANU would remain a mass party open to every Tanzanian who believed in its objectives and principles. He completely rejected the notion of a vanguard party, saying that the structure of such a party would be like that of the Catholic Church, with a Pope, Cardinals, Bishops etc. The Tanzanian ruling party has till today remained unchanged, a mass organisation comprising people of different social classes and different ideologies. The 1982 Party National Congress voted into the National Executive Committee leading socialists and a few Marxists as well as strong anti-socialists and proponents of capitalism.

Nyerere’s theory was that the existence of a multi-party system in a young country could result in political differences which might be exploited by external powers to destabilise the country. He felt that, in the absence of powerful internal economic groups with divergent political programmes, allowing the existence of a multi-party system was a luxury that a new state could not afford. This position was easily accepted at the time because all political organisations that had existed previously had failed during the elections to gain any meaningful number of votes. Nyerere was therefore encouraged in 1963 to put forward the idea of a one-party system.

In its evolution in the last twenty years the ruling party in Tanzania has undergone several changes. The struggle between those who want the Party to continue as a united front and those who want to purify it into a revolutionary vanguard has continued. Nyerere has throughout the period taken the former stand. In 1977 when TANU on the mainland and the Afro-Shirazi Party in Zanzibar merged to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi, a compromise was struck between the two contending forces. In some of its structures, the Party moved from the British Labour party model into one found among the ruling parties of some of the socialist countries.

One of the achievements Nyerere prides himself on is the existence of a single strong party with powers supreme to any other organ of the State, including the National Assembly. But we do not know how the Party will evolve after Nyerere steps down from its chairmanship in 1987. The possibility of a multi-party system existing in Tanzania in the near future is a difficult one to predict. But what is very clear is that with the absence of Nyerere from the Party leadership the two contending forces will fight it out and whoever wins will make sure that the opposing elements are weeded out of the Party. It is the outcome of the struggle within the Party that will decide whether or not Nyerere’s progressive policies will survive in the post-Nyerere Tanzania.

National Integration
Tanzania is among the few countries in Africa that has been able to attain real national integration. The reasons given are many. It is true that over 120 ethnic groups exist in Tanzania and that there is not a single one that can claim dominance. The fact that some of the country’s leading figures such as Nyerere and Rashidi Kawawa come from small ethnic groups has also contributed to the situation. Swahili is spoken and understood throughout the country. At the time of independence there was no strong national bourgeoisie in the country and the petty bourgeois intellectuals that emerged have not been completely uprooted from their peasant backgrounds.

There were past attempts to disturb the national unity attained. In 1985 there was a strong trend in Zanzibar which almost threatened to break up the Union itself. The Zanzibaris themselves, with the help of Nyerere, were able to overcome this threat and the result was the forced resignation of the President of Zanzibar.

National integration can therefore be said to be one of the important legacies that Nyerere has bestowed on Tanzania. It is difficult to conceive of any struggle being won along tribal or religious lines. Tanzanians are highly politicised and they identify with each other, not because of common ethnic backgrounds or common religious beliefs but because they share economic or political interests.

Socialism
In 1967 Tanzania declared its intention to build socialism on the basis of self-reliance. This attracted the attention of many. To social-democrats in Europe this heralded the possibility of seeing the realisation of their ideals in an African Set-up. Imperialist powers, on the other hand, were afraid that Tanzania would set up an example to the rest of Africa. From 1967 then Tanzania’s actions in the domestic and international arenas were judged in accordance with the terms of the Arusha Declaration. Tanzania’s close relations with China or its granting of diplomatic status to the German Democratic Republic were seen as tendencies to further integrate Tanzania within the Eastern orbit. But, as Nyerere keeps reiterating, the Arusha Declaration should be viewed as a statement of intent. Neither in 1967 nor now 20 years after has Tanzania become a socialist state.

The Declaration followed discussions within the Tanzanian leadership regarding the development process that the country has been following since 1961. The Declaration should also be seen as the manifestation of a political struggle within the leadership at the time, though the document is attributed to Nyerere, who was able to capture an important movement in Tanzania’s history and to understand the feelings of his people and therefore be able to articulate their sentiments effectively. At that time in Tanzania’s leadership there was no effective and articulate socialist trend and the one person in the TANU leadership who could be said to be radical, namely Oscar Kambona, turned out later to be the very person opposed to the leadership conditions that went with the Declaration. Nyerere can therefore be said to be the intellectual power behind the Declaration.

The late Walter Rodney, in his article “Ujamaa versus Scientific Socialism” tried to present some elements of the Ujamaa philosophy as being identical with aspects of scientific socialism. One person who disagreed and who, in fact, was always at pains to disassociate the Ujamaa concept from the science of socialism, was Nyerere himself. He maintained that Ujamaa had got its roots in the African traditional society which had no classes. He completely discouraged the notion of class struggle and believed strongly that it was possible to “evolve” into socialism. In fact in many of his foreign policy statements one can see a real attempt to distance himself from a Marxist perspective.

Nyerere’s major contribution to the socialist debate in Tanzania has been in putting socialism on the agenda and in allowing different schools of socialist thought, including the Marxist one, to contend. Some of the progressive achievements of the Nyerere era are now under threat, especially with the acceptance of the IMF conditionalities but he will definitely go down in history as the person who raised the prospect of socialist development in Tanzania.

African Liberation.
Tanzania’s position on liberation is well known. Almost all the liberation movements in Africa have enjoyed sanctuary in Tanzania. Nyerere has always been non-racial in his perspective and this at times got him into conflict with his colleagues. During the days of independence he rejected the position of “Africanists” within TANU who put forward the slogan “Africa for the Africans” meaning Black Africans. This led the “Africanists” to march out of TANU and form the African National Congress. In 1958 at the TANU National Conference in Tabora when some of the leaders strongly opposed TANU’s participation in the colonially-proposed tripartite elections, where the voter had to vote for three candidates from the list of Africans, Asians and Europeans, Nyerere stood firm in recommending acceptance of the proposals.

Nyerere has always believed in peaceful means in the struggle to achieve certain political ends. When he was faced with a situation of whether to go into prison or pay a fine, he preferred the latter, not so much because he did not want to make himself a political martyr, but because, in his absence, things might have got out of hand and violence might have erupted.

However, when he is faced with a situation where all peaceful means are closed, Nyerere has never hesitated to advocate violence against an oppressive regime. A few months before Britain handed over power to the Sultan’s regime in Zanzibar he appealed to the British Government to reconsider its intention because he felt that if the situation was not rectified to allow the African majority to peacefully take power then violence was inevitable. And in this he was right, because, four weeks after independence, the Sultanate regime was violently overthrown by the opposition parties.

Given this background, one aspect of Nyerere’s position has caused some surprise. He has consistently refused to openly support democratic and socialist forces bent on overthrowing a regime in an existing African state even when it was obvious that the regime was being supported by external forces. He always invoked as his defence the OAU position of non-interference in the internal affairs of another state. Thus the opposition groups operating against Mobutu in Zaire, Ahmed Abdallah in the Comoro’s or Kenyatta, and now Moi in Kenya have enjoyed no open support from Nyerere. One hopes that as the struggle intensifies for what Nyerere calls Africa’s second liberation that this position will be discarded and that it will be possible for Tanzania to give all possible assistance to those fighting for their second liberation.

The Army
In 1961, at the time of independence, Tanganyika inherited a colonial army led by British officers. There were hardly any senior Tanganyikans. This created a problem the result of which was the army mutiny of 1964. The junior army staff demanded higher pay and Africanisation of the armed forces. What Nyerere did as a response to the mutiny was something unique in Africa at the time. He dissolved almost the entire army and created a new one. He demanded also that all those joining the armed forces must be members of the Party and introduced political education as part of army training. The result was the high politicisation of the armed forces. Tanzania was able to reap the benefit of that foresight in 1979 when it went to war against Amin’s Uganda. The army was not only motivated by the desire to recapture part of Tanzanian territory usurped by Amin, but was also committed to overthrowing him because he was perceived as a dictator and a source of tension in East Africa. It is also inconceivable that the Tanzanian army would have played any positive role in the question of African liberation had it not been for its politicisation. It is also possible that the credit for the stability that Tanzania has enjoyed during Nyerere’s Presidency is partly due to this politicised army. In his years in power Nyerere was not without his enemies. There have been conspiracies as revealed in the 1970 and 1985 treason trials. The fact that none of these succeeded supports the thesis that the army considered itself very much part of Nyerere’s regime and had nothing to gain in overthrowing him

The State
Nyerere in all his writings has failed to address himself to the State. Tanganyika at the time of independence inherited a colonial State and its institutions. What Nyerere tried to do was to give the State the national colours. But he never considered dismantling the State or how the new forces that emerged at independence could effectively use it. One can venture to say that part of the problem that has resulted in what is said to be the “failure of socialism” is the reluctance on the part of the leadership and Nyerere in particular, to examine the question of the State. It is baffling that it was thought that a colonially inherited State could be a vehicle for socialist transformation. The one person in the Tanzanian leadership who saw the problem was the late prime Minister, Edward Sokoine, who, in an address to Party cadres in 1983, conceded that the State needed to be overhauled. Unfortunately this was not taken up by the Party or the mass media.

Conclusion
Nyerere’s intellectual and other contributions have taken deep root in Tanzanian society. For the foreseeable future any Tanzanian President and Party Chairman will be judged in accordance with yardsticks set up by Nyerere. Whoever goes against the main tenets of Nyerere’s legacy is likely to not only meet with popular disapproval but to have problems with the Party. There are also certain moral principles that Nyerere laid down which leaders will long continue to be judged by. Moreover any leader pursuing tribal or religious bigotry would find it difficult to sustain his position. Even when, the liberation of South Africa from apartheid is attained it will be difficult to see post-Nyerere Tanzania giving up the struggle for total liberation and real socialism.

Haroub Othman

The Tanzanian Government has taken several measures as a result of the recommendations of the Presidential Commission investigating the killing of four sugar cane workers last year at Kilombero. Details of the incident were given in Bulletin No 26.

The Ministry of Agriculture has completely restructured the management, created a new post of Deputy General Manager and transferred a number of senior officials of the Kilombero Sugar Company.

The Morogoro Regional Crimes Officer has been sacked for his mishandling of the incident, the Morogoro Regional Commissioner has been moved to Kigoma and the Regional Police Commander has been recalled to Police Headquarters in Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of Agriculture has also directed the Holding Company, the Sugar Development Corporation (SUDECO) to extend a Shs 10 million loan to the sugar company to finance improved housing for sugar cane cutters.

President Mwinyi has also asked the Party to examine weaknesses in the Sugar Company’s CCM and JUWATA (Trade Union) branches.

Prime Minister Warioba told the National Assembly during its January session in Dodoma that the Government had received and endorsed the Kilombero probe report. He said that the leader of the police team had taken cover in the vehicle he was in as strikers threw stones at them. This left the rest of the group disorganised and they started firing randomly in the air without proper instructions from their leader.

The probe team, under the chairmanship of Judge Chipeta had said that the CCM and JUWATA branches at the factory knew nothing about the worker’s complaints. JUWATA from national to branch levels had not understood and scrutinised the workers complaints. The probe team had also recommended that the Kilombero administration should observe Presidential Directive No 1 of 1970 regarding workers education and participation.

Prime Minister Joseph Warioba said that the police had committed a big mistake and that the incident had embarrassed the Government.

(The second part of the article begun in Bulletin No. 26)

The Parliament of the United Republic is unicameral. It is composed of the National Assembly and the President of the United Republic. The President is not a member of the National Assembly but he assents to all Bills passed by the Assembly before they become Acts of Parliament.

The National Assembly’s role is to supervise Government in the implementation of Party policies through legislation. It is also responsible for passing the annual budget of the Government. The National Assembly. or its committees, can question Government Ministries on all matters under their jurisdiction. The present composition of the National Assembly is as follows:
– Constituency Members (Mainland 119, Zanzibar 50) = 169
– National Members chosen by Parliament = 15
– Regional Commissioners ex-officio (20 Mainland, 5 Zanzibar) = 25
– Members elected by the House of Representatives of Zanzibar = 5
– Members nominated by the President (5 from Zanzibar) = 15
– Women members (special seats for women; 5 from Zanzibar) = 15
Total 244

A candidate for election as a Constituency Member of Parliament must have the following qualifications:
– he must be a citizen of Tanzania not less than 21 years of age;
– be must be a Member of the CCM and must abide by the provisions of the Party Constitution;
– he is disqualified if he is:
– under a declaration of allegiance to some other country than the United Republic;
– under any law in Tanzania adjudged to be of unsound mind;
– under sentence of death or a sentence of imprisonment exceeding six months; – detained under the Preventive Detention Act of 1962 for a period exceeding six months; or,
– an undischarged bankrupt having been adjudged or declared bankrupt under any written law.

In order to be validly nominated at a primary nomination to stand as a candidate for a constituency a person must be nominated in writing by not less than twenty five voters registered in a polling district within the constituency for which he is a candidate. Any number of candidates can be nominated in a constituency provided that they are all Party members and fulfil other qualifications required by law. By 4p.m. on a day assigned by the Electoral Commission as nomination day all forms must be submitted to the returning officers.

As soon as practicable after the primary nomination a special meeting of the District Party Conference is convened. This Conference is itself composed of elected Party members. The main purpose of the District Party Conference is to cast preferential votes. The Returning Officer presents each candidate to the Conference by reading his particulars from the nomination papers filed by each candidate. Each candidate must be given a fair and equal opportunity to answer questions put to him by the members of the District Conference.

Having discussed the merits and suitability of each candidate, the Conference Members then proceed to vote by secret ballot for the candidate they think is most suitable. To ensure that each candidate is given a fair opportunity, the Electoral Commission is represented at each District Conference by three supervisory delegates, who are required to report to the Commission their opinion of the Conference.

The preferential votes are counted and the results are declared. Then the Returning Officer certifies the number of preferential votes accorded to each candidate and forthwith sends such certificates together with the nomination papers of the candidates to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party. The NEC considers the nomination papers of the candidates, the certificates accorded them at the meeting of the District Conference, the minutes or record of the proceedings of such Conference and any report of the supervisory delegates. Finally the NEC nominates two candidates to contest the ejection.

After the names of the candidates are known, the Electoral Commission fixes the date of the campaign, which is conducted under the auspices of the Party. Candidates are not allowed to organise their own campaigns, nor are they allowed to spend money to win votes. The Political Committee of the District Conference arranges the programme for the campaign, which must be overseen by three Supervisory delegates. As at the District Conference, the Supervisory Delegates must see that the Election Manifesto is strictly adhered to by the candidates and that both candidates are given a fair and equal opportunity to address the electorate. They also have to report any anomalies to the District Political Committee of the Party and, if the anomalies persist, they must report immediately to the Electoral Commission, which is empowered to take any steps it deems fit to rectify the anomaly.

Voting is not compulsory. The voting procedure is as follows. Each voter has to go in person to the polling station at which he is registered. He has to Identify himself that he is the voter he claims to be by presenting his registration card. The Presiding Officer verifies the identity of the voter by checking the particulars in his register. On being satisfied about the identity of the voter the Presiding Officer presses a stamp on the back of a ballot paper and folds it, he hands it over to the voter, who proceeds alone to the screened compartment, where he casts his vole and puts the ballot paper into the ballot box. At the close of the poll the Presiding Officer, his assistant and the polling agent seal the ballot box and padlock it. It is then escorted to the Returning Officer. The Presiding Officer must also prepare a ballot paper account showing the number of ballot papers used, those unused or spoilt, and the latter are then put in different packets, sealed and presented to the Returning Officer.

The Returning Officer is responsible for the counting of votes and the safe custody of all election documents for six months, after which period they must be destroyed unless there is an order from the High Court pending an election petition.

National Members of Parliament are elected by the National Assembly itself from among candidates nominated by mass organisations and approved by the National Executive Committee of the Party. The five mass organisations are the Trade Union (JUWATA), Youth Organisation (VIJANA), Women’s Organisation (UWT), Cooperative Union (WASHIRIKA) and the Parents’ Association (TAPA). Each organisation nominates six candidates. The National Assembly elects fifteen Members out of the thirty candidates Dominated by the five mass organisations.

Women Members for the special reserved seats are also elected by the National Assembly after their names have been approved by the NEC. Prior to that all women candidates whether Members of the Women’s Organisation or not, submit their nomination forms to the UWT. In nominating them the UWT has to give equal consideration to candidates from both parts of the United Republic. The NEC will have to approve thirty candidates, fifteen from each side of the United Republic. To ensure that the Islands are represented the constitution stipulates that at least five woman members must come from Zanzibar. Women are also free to contest seats in other categories of Member, for example, as Constituency Members, National Members etc. The Parliament of 1980-85 had a total of 26 Women Members, of whom one was a Cabinet Minister, two were Ministers of State and one was a Regional Commissioner.

At the first sitting of the Assembly in a new Parliament the members elect a Speaker. He may be elected from within the House, or from without. A Speaker who is not a Member of Parliament must have the necessary qualifications to become a Member of Parliament. The present Speaker is not a Member of Parliament. The Deputy Speaker must, however, be a Member of Parliament.

The first sitting of the House after a general election is summoned by the President. Subsequent meetings are summoned by the Assembly on a date mentioned in a motion moved by a Minister and decided without amendment on the last day of the sitting of the Assembly. The National Assembly meets four times a year for about ninety days. The longest session is the budget session which meets for about fifty days. The proceedings of the Assembly are conducted in Kiswahili or English. All Members, however, use Kiswahili when debating in the House, but most of the Bills are published in English.

The National Assembly has ten standing committees as follows:
– the Steering Committee,
– the Constitutional Affairs and Legislation Committee,
– the Finance and Economic Committee;
– the Political Affairs Committee;
– the Public Accounts Committee;
– the Parastatals Organisation Committee;
– the Social Services Committee;
– the Standing Orders Committee;
– the Foreign Affairs Committee; and,
– the General Purposes Committee.

Every Bill is published in the Official Gazette in two issues at an interval of not less than seven days. The first publication of a Bill must be at least twenty one days before the Bill is introduced in the House. Very urgent Bills may be introduced without fulfilling the twenty one day rule provided they are supported by a certificate of urgency signed by the President and laid on the table by a Government Minister. After a Bill has been published and before it is debated in the House, it is referred to the appropriate Standing Committee. After the Chairman of the Standing Committee has reported to the Speaker that the Committee has concluded its consideration of a Bill referred to it, the first reading of the Bill is entered on the Order Paper on such day as the Minister in charge of the Bill may appoint. The first reading is confined to the general merits and principles of the Bill. It is at this stage that Members consider whether to support or oppose the Bill. The debate on the second reading of the Bill is confined to amendments if any. The procedure is the same for both Government and Private Members’ Bills, except that before a Private Member’s Bill is published in the Official Gazette its objects and reasons must be approved by the House itself. When a Bill has been read a second time, a printed copy is presented to the President by the Speaker for the President’s assent or other order.
Chief A.S. Mkwawa

Jan van Donge and Athumani J. Liviga writing in the April 1986 issue of the Oxford University Press publication “Parliamentary Affairs” gave some facts and figures arising from research they have been conducting into the recent history of the Tanzanian Parliament and the CCM Party. They covered the period 1965 to 1980.

For example, an analysis of the four elections for M.P.’s (1965, 1970, 1975 and 1980) revealed that 45% of all candidates stood once only and lost their election battle; 78% of the successful candidates served only one term; 41% of all M.P.’s stood for re-election but half of them lost the second time; and only 22% sat in more than one Parliament. An exceptional eight people were members of all four Parliaments.

Parliamentary elections have also proved risky for front bench members. Some Cabinet Ministers have a long record of representing their constituencies (four of the eight who won four times are long serving Ministers) but one or more Ministers lost their seats in every election. There is thus no hard core of safe seats for political heavy weights as in the British system. The grass roots exert a strong influence in Tanzania.

SUCCESS RATE OF CANDIDATES 1965-1980

Number of Times Winning/Losing – Number of candidates

Win once- 190
Lose once – 267
Win once; Lose once – 53
Win once; Lose twice – 6
Win twice – 39
Win twice; Lose once – 9
Win twice; Lose twice – 2
Lose twice – 6
Win three times – 10
Win three times; Lose once – 4
Win four times – 8
Lose three times – 2

Looking at Party as distinct from Parliamentary elections the story is rather different, The 1982 elections confirmed those already in power, This was also the case in the elections for district and regional Party chairmen as well the Party National Executive Committee (NEC), The latter was dominated by professional politicians who make their living working for the Party while M.P.;s hardly played a role. Of the 130 NEC members elected only five were constituency M.P.’s but 11 had held the position in the past. Only in the elections for regional chairmen can a relationship be seen between a parliamentary career and a Party career. Almost half of the 25 regional chairmen elected in 1982 had at sometime been parliamentary candidates. Only one combined the two posts at the same time. At the district level this relationship was not evident at all. Fifteen of the 112 district Party chairmen had been parliamentary candidates; none of them was at the time in parliament and nine among them had never won.

A comparison of success in the 1980 parliamentary elections with success in the 1982 NEC elections is instructive. 25 of the 164 NEC candidates from the mainland had also stood as well in the 1980 parliamentary elections. Some of them won in both, some lost in both but ten who lost in the parliamentary elections became members of the NEC in 1982. If a politician fails in a parliamentary career that does not mean an end to a Party career.

In the case of the national M.P.’s there is a much lower rate of turnover than in the case of constituency M.P.’s. Politics loses its risky character. 25 of the 40 national M.P.’s stood for (indirect) re-election in 1980 and 19 of them won. People who lose in their constituencies sometimes try to come back as national M.P.’s. Twelve of those who contested such seats in 1980 had been directly elected M.P.’s before. This was no guarantee for success however as six of them lost in the indirect elections as well. It may be necessary, according to the authors, to be well connected at the top because the national M.P.’s tend to belong to the political establishment. Fifteen of the 40 national M.P.’s elected after the 1980 elections were Cabinet Ministers, managing directors of parastatal organisations or NEC members.

The authors of the article conclude that parliamentary elections are of an exceptional nature in the Tanzanian system. Although in general there is much security of office in Tanzania this does not apply to ordinary M.P.’s. Cabinet Ministers belong, the authors say, to the world of security. If people who belong to that world lose an election they tend to be appointed as M.P.’s and are included in the Cabinet. In every Cabinet there has been a substantial number of appointed M.P.’s. A ministerial career can be, say the authors, independent of favour with the electorate.