I have no plan to defect to ACT-Wazalendo, says Seif

Zanzibar. CUF secretary general Seif Shariff Hamad yesterday refuted claims that he was planning to join another opposition political party-ACT-Wazalendo.

He said the matter was not at all in the agenda of the meeting that brought together six opposition parties in Zanzibar recently and that the only resolutions that came out were the ones briefed to the media.

Earlier yesterday, Lipumba-allied CUF secretary for Security and Defence committee, Mr Khalifa Suleiman Khalifa, told a press conference in Unguja that Mr Hamad’s plan to join ACT Wazalendo was among issues discussed during the meeting held few days ago.

“Principally, ACT Wazalendo and Mr Hamad have agreed on the deal on conditions that while Mr Hamad will control the party on the Zanzibar side, ACT Wazalendo’s party leader Zitto Kabwe will command the party on Mainland Tanzania,” he told a press conference.

But, Mr Hamad told The Citizen during an exclusive interview that since CUF had pending cases at the court, his faction had alternative plans that would be implemented after the court judgement.

“Earlier, I told the public that we have Plan B that would be executed after judgements have been made in our cases. This is regardless of whether we win the cases or not and that is what should be considered at the moment,” he said.

He said claims that they were planning to join ACT-Wazalendo wasn’t among the said alternative plan, noting that being one of the CUF founders, it wasn’t easy for him to leave the party as some people were thinking.

Speaking to The Citizen, Mr Kabwe said ACT Wazalendo had no agenda of lobbying CUF leaders to join them, saying Tanzania required strong and best opposition to strengthen its democracy and that disputes within the second largest opposition party were weakening struggles they were making through democratic paths.

He said his party would support the best opposition and that political parties with disputes would not be part of the best opposition, noting that was the reason ACT Wazalendo wished wrangles within CUF could end even tomorrow.

“We won’t turn into a hyena that awaits for a fight to end so that it would grab the victim in order to benefit ourselves. Our party believes that by doing so we will be committing a political sin,” he said.

Mr Kabwe called on CUF leaders to wait for court judgements, noting that his party would continue supporting Mr Hamad in respecting court judgements to be made.

However, during a press conference, Mr Khalifa said CUF would not be disturbed by Mr Hamad’s defection and that the party would remain stable and stronger even after his defection.

He said CUF would respect similar decisions that would be made by other leaders insisting that they were also free to leave.

For his part, a member of the CUF governing council who doubles as the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) legislator, Mr Mohamed Habib Mnyaa, said a faction under the party’s chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba was prepared for any decision that would be made by Mr Hamad and that the party will remain stable.

CUF has plunged into disputes that has split the party into two factions; one led by its national chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba and the second aligned its secretary general Hamad.

The disputes started when Prof Lipumba announced to resume his chairmanship after he had resigned few months to the 2015 General Election.