Attorney General Andrew Chenge told parliament recently that Tanzania had declared war against corruption and there was no way in which it would go back on this. But, a year after the publication of the ‘Warioba Report’ on corruption in December 1996 (TA No 57) questions are being asked about when its recommendations are going to be implemented and what is going to happen to those persons alleged in the report to have been corrupt.

For example, the ‘East African’ quoted outgoing American Ambassador Brady Anderson as saying that in 1995 about $80 million of government revenue had been lost but the culprits had not been brought to book. Visiting former World Bank President Robert MacNamara said that he had been shocked by the current level of graft. Swedish Ambassador Thomas Olof Palme spoke of corruption being taken lightly and Finnish Ambassador Hari Rantakari said that, before discussing long-term development plans, this issue of corruption had to be tackled. In Parliament several CCM MP’s joined opposition members in expressing shock in early November when they heard from the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that in the 1994/95 fiscal year some Shs 12 billion had been ‘spent unvouched, misused or outwardly stolen’.

But EU Resident Representative Peter Beck said that he believed that President Mkapa was determined to combat corruption but needed support from society and the civil service. And Principal Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bernard Mchomvu said that the graft claims had been exaggerated by the media; the government-owned Daily News went further and described the diplomat’s stand as ‘a crusade against the government and a lack of respect for an independent nation’.

Judge Joseph Warioba himself is reported to be convinced that there is now enough evidence to try the suspects but Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye told parliament that the government would not be driven by internal or external pressure. The rule of law would prevail in determining corruption cases.

PRESIDENT MKAPA TAKES ACTION
President Mkapa is reported to have retired 122 corruption-linked officials and, according to the East African (November 24) has declared his intention to strengthen Tanzania’s Prevention of Corruption Bureau. He had been promised foreign aid for this he said. He was thinking about appointing an independent prosecutor for the Bureau who would concentrate on corruption cases and thus avoid some of the delay which has been incurred when files have been passed between the Bureau and the Director of Public Prosecutions. In November MP’s passed new legislation giving the Bureau powers of arrest, search and detention.

Following the Warioba Report President Mkapa had appointed a task force which had completed its work in May 1997 and submitted its files, including some mentioned in the Report, to the Prevention of Corruption Bureau. In a front page article on October 19 the Sunday News reported that the Bureau’s Director General Mr Anatoly Kamazina had announced that more than 200 people had been questioned between December 1996 and May 1997. Major General Kamazina had sent a number of the files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP); some of these had been returned with a request for more evidence; some of the documentary evidence on others almost filled his office he said. It was understood that the files of certain senior personnel in the then Ministry of Communications and Works, mentioned in the Report, had not been sent back by the DPP. But the Director was quoted in the Daily News as complaining that it was the Corruption Prevention Bureau which was delaying prosecutions. One of the files which lacked material evidence had been that involving the former Minister of Communications Transport and Works, his then PS, the then Director of Roads and a road engineer.

Meanwhile, certain people are already before the courts on charges of corruption. According to the Daily News the Director General of the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) has been charged with six counts of corruption including possession of two houses and $6,000 in cash. The Director of the Mwanza Municipal Council has been charged with owning property worth Shs 93 million which was alleged to be beyond his level of income (Daily News, October 30). Three Bank of Tanzania officials were also in court in late October charged with siphoning off Shs 136 million. On October 13 the East African reported that the General Manager of the Sugar Development Corporation had been sacked by President Mkapa following allegations of mismanagement leading to the loss of Shs 44.4 million.

The Council of (Zambian and Tanzanian) Ministers has dissolved the top management of the TAZARA RAILWAY AUTHORITY. The Tanzanian Minister of Communications and Transport told workers that the company’s liquidity position had reached a stage which would have warranted a declaration of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, former Lands Minister Edward Lowassa has been awarded Shs l million ($1,587) by the newly formed Media Council (a voluntary body set up by journalists as a watchdog to improve media standards) against the newspaper Heko which had published a front page article saying that he had been named in the Warioba report. The editor of the paper said that his staff had misinterpreted the Report and that Mr Lowassa’s complaints were genuine. Former Communications and Works Minister Nalaila Kiula has complained in parliament that he had been condemned in the Warioba report without being heard – the Commission had been malicious and vindictive he said. A CCM MP Mr Kitwana Kondo also complained in parliament that Bureau officers had confiscated his car. Attorney General Andrew Chenge said he sympathised but that the MP should appeal to the responsible legal organs.

Answering a question about the extent to which democracy was now working in Tanzania in a recent interview House Speaker Pius Msekwa said that yes it was working and the foundations had been laid for its maintenance and durability. He added: “I actually have heard many people commenting that so far multi-partyism is working properly only inside Parliament; but it is not doing so well in the country as a whole. I am personally inclined to concur with these views”.

The warring groups within the main opposition NCCR-Mageuzi Party – the NCCR-Mrema faction (led by the Chairman of the party, Augustine Mrema) and the NCCR-Marando faction (led by the party’s Secretary General Mabere Marando) seem still to be far apart and this is not helping their cause at all.

Firstly, the High Court continues to prohibit the two factions from holding meetings of the old NCCR National Executive and Central Committees until a suit disputing the chairmanship of Mrema filed against him by Marando is disposed by the court.

Secondly, as the NCCR party suffers more casualties from petitions presented to the High Court against the election of its MP’s, it is finding it impossible to register in the subsequent by-elections because the faction leaders cannot agree to sign the necessary election registration documents.

The most recently dislodged NCCR MP has been the very fiery and prominent MP for Ubungo, Dar es Salaam Dr. Masumbuko Lamwai.

NCCR-Mrema faction Secretary General Mr Prince Bagenda was successful in his petition to the High Court to remove the CCM MP for Muleba South (Kagera Region) because of malpractice during the last elections, He assumed that he would have a good chance in the forthcoming by-election. But when he went to submit his nomination papers, the Returning Officer (and later, on appeal, the Vice-chairman of the Electoral Commission) rejected them because of irregularities – they did not contain the signature of the original NCCR Secretary General Mabere Marando, who still officially holds that post, although now leading the other faction of the party. Marando’s reaction to these events was, according to the Daily News, to accuse Bagenda of political ineptitude. Marando said that he would have been prepared to sign the nomination papers but had not been asked. The results of the by-election, where there was a poor turnout (announced on November 11) were:

Wilson Masilingi (the CCM MP who had been removed) 25,703
Ernest Mashobe (Civic United Front – CUF) 6,121
Gratian Mukoba (United Democratic Party – UDP) 2,957

A similar situation arose in the Arusha seat where the son of Mwalimu Nyerere, NCCR MP Makongoro Nyerere, whose success in the general elections had come as a surprise to many observers, lost his seat in October. He had originally survived a petition against his election but Appeal Court Justice Lameck Mfalila overuled this and spoke about the ‘massive foul play’ by the Returning Officer who was said to have excluded votes from seven polling stations. There had also been 5,246 ‘ghost’ voters and over 50 ballot boxes which had not been sealed. Mr Makongoro said he would now pursue further studies abroad. He was withdrawing (after being nominated for the by-election) in the interests of party unity. The by-election was scheduled for December 28. The Marando faction nominated a Mr Jeremiah Mpinga to replace him.

Another MP unseated earlier, the NCCR MP for Bunda (Musoma) Mr Stephen Wassira, has been refused permission by the Appeal Court to take part in the forthcoming by-election because of his alleged involvement in corrupt practices at the 1995 elections.

Even President Mkapa has expressed disappointment at the internal conflict in the NCCR. Democracy was enhanced by the presence of a strong opposition he said.

In other election petitions the Kasulu East NCCR candidate failed in his petition to prove 17 charges of corruption and violation of electoral procedures against the CCM MP for the constituency. In the Bukoba Rural election petition case, witness number 28, a CHADEMA party election agent, caused laughter in the court when he admitted that he had failed to attend a training session because he had heard that the truck bringing election agent’s allowances had arrived in the village. “Gari la kugawa pesa ilipofika, tulikimbilia fedha” he said.

Meanwhile, leader of the small (5 MP’s) UDP party, John Cheyo (described in the ‘East African’ as outspoken and stylish) is benefiting both from the collapse of the NCCR and from his key position as Deputy Leader of the opposition and Shadow Finance Minister – through his alliance with the 27 Zanzibar CUF MP’s who form the majority of the opposition in the Union parliament. He is increasing his national exposure in the media and his popularity by sharp questioning of government ministers. His party has also joined the Liberal International.

He has attacked what he described as the huge sums of money being spent by national leaders on travel expenses. He said that Mwalimu Nyerere had spent Shs 1.4 billion in the 18 months up to September 1996 and that President Mkapa had spent Shs 2.2 billion during the same period. Cheyo compared this with the Shs 2.3 billion in the budget for the water sector and Shs 546 million for the energy sector. The government-owned Daily News described his comments as ‘verbal poison’ and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru, warned him against seeking political popularity though unresearched data. He said that only Shs 173 million of Mwalimu’s expenses had been paid by Tanzania. The South Commission, of which Mwalimu is Chairman, had paid Shs 1.3 billion and the Burundi Fund, of which is he the Facilitator, had paid Shs 63 million. Cheyo was particularly voluble on a Bill presented to Parliament in October to increase benefits to retired leaders and the government subsequently withdrew the Bill so as to give more time to consider MP’s comments.

Meanwhile the government party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi – CCM, has taken early steps to prepare itself for the next general elections in the year 2000 and the local elections in 1999.

At what was described in the press as an expensive ($800,000) Congress in Dodoma in mid-November attended by 1,500 delegates, President Mkapa was elected party chairman and former Prime Minister and long-standing party leader John Malecela retained one of the party vice-chairmanships (Zanzibar President Salmin Amour was chosen again for the other) even though it was said that Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye had hoped to be elected to the mainland post. Robert Rweyemamu writing in the ‘East African’ was critical of the way in which the party chose the same people to be nominated for the top party posts and how these people were then ‘elected’ by chants, clapping and table banging but not by actual voting. In fact there was an election and each candidate obtained more than 99% of the votes. Some observers expressed the view that Malecela had to be chosen again in the interests of unity because he represented a wing of the party not entirely in sympathy with President Mkapa’s reforming zeal. Rweyemamu reported that a long standing party member, Mr Leonard Munasa, had wanted to stand for the chairmanship but was told that to be elected he had first to be nominated and he hadn’t been nominated. The writer said that leadership should not only be democratic; it should be seen to be democratic.

Other observers however felt that the CCM was showing other parties how to conduct their affairs in a way which brought about concensus rather than the kind of bitter division seen in the NCCR.

More democratic was the contest for the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) where 500 plus members were competing for 80 posts. In all, two ministers, two regional commissioners and 11 MP’s lost their seats. Sadly, one lady member, after making an impassioned plea for votes, died from high blood pressure. The NEC then appointed members to the powerful Central Committee. It now includes the Prime Minister and Messrs Ngombale Mwiru, Jakaya Kikwete, Juma Ngasongwa and three women: Mrs Zakia Meghji, Sifa Swai and Mary Watondoha. The party’s new publicity secretary is Jackson Msome.

During Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye’s visit to London in late September he met students and answered questions, many of which had been sent by e-mail from students all over the world. After a few general questions a lady student stood up. She was so young and so good looking, not the sort from who you would expect a harsh or embarrassing question. Then she took the mike, paid due respect to the Chair (High Commissioner Dr Shareef) and the PM. She mentioned her name as we had all been asked to do. Then she said “Mimi ni mwanafunzi wa MBA Scotland, niliyeletwa na serikali ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania (I am an MBA student in Scotland and I was brought here by the government of the United Republic of Tanzania).

And that was it. She stopped talking and started crying. Sobbing heavily and tears trickling down her cheeks. We all went dead silent and looked at her as she was in the very front row. The episode ended when one voice from the floor simultaneously with the High Commissioner sad ‘basi, kaa, tumekusikia na kukuelewa’ (“OK sit down. We’ve heard and understood”) a sentence which was spontaneously and instantly repeated by those in attendance, starting with the front seats and repeated by row after row from the front to the back of the hall almost mantra. The lady’s point had touched all of us in attendance.

Later, our High Commissioner, who I must say was on top of the proceedings, announced that there was a question which was going to be read out. It was in Swahili and went into some detail about the plight of various groups of students, of how they had had to resort to kazi za suluba (hard labour) or had gone into debt or had not been able to obtain their certificates on completion of courses because there were no funds to pay for the fees.

The PM faced over 50 questions and he did well. But this was the only question in which he did not try to defend the government’s policy or practice. He simply said that mistakes had been made by sending abroad more students than the government could afford and that some of them (undergraduates) should never have been sent abroad in the first place. However, some funds had already been sent to relieve student problems and more would follow. He reminded us that he was also a parent and asked us to believe in his word. The questioner had now come back into the hall, sobbing again.
Bonaventura Rutinwa

(It is understood that no more undergraduates will he sent abroad at government expense and there has also been a freeze on sending even postgraduates abroad save in exceptional cases – Editor)