Tanzania: CUF gets new secretary general, Seif Shariff dropped

Khalifa Suleiman Khalifa

Dar es Salaam. Re-elected CUF Chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba has named Khalifa Suleiman Khalifa as the party’s newly elected Secretary General, replacing Seif Shariff Hamad.

Prof Lipumba made the announcement in Dar es Salaam on Saturday March 16 following the party’s high-level meeting.

CUF’s Deputy Secretary General (Mainland), Magdalena Sakaya has retained her position.

The changes come amidst a leadership crisis in CUF which has seen the party divided into two factions, that led by Mr Hamad and the other led by Prof Lipumba. The crisis started after Prof Lipumba rescinded his resignation as party chairman in 2016. He had written a resignation letter in August 2015 but withdrew it as the party was about to choose another chairman.

Lipumba had resigned, he said, in protest of Edward Lowassa’s nomination for presidential candidacy on Ukawa ticket. Ukawa was the coalition of opposition parties in 2015 that fielded one candidate for the General Election.