What Mashinji said after Halima Mdee snubbed his handshake

Dar es Salaam. Drama ensued at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court Yesterday after Kawe MP Halima Mdee snubbed a handshake from former Chadema secretary general Dr Vincent Mashinji who recently decamped to ruling party CCM.

Speaking to the Citizen today, Dr Mashinji said the act of the Kawe MP Mdee refusing to shake his hand was an act of lack of civilization, saying that in future he will still seek to greet her when they meet.

“Personally I don’t have any problems with her but as you know you can never tell what problems someone is facing on a particular day,” said Mashinji.

When asked on Mashinji’s comments Halima said the former Chadema Secretary General was a hypocrite.

Ms Mdee, Dr Mashinji, Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe and six others are currently defending themselves against charges of conspiracy to commit offences, unlawful assembly, rioting after proclamation, raising discontent and ill-will for unlawful purposes, sedition and inciting commission of offences.

The charges are alleged to have been committed between February 1 and 16, 2018 in Dar es Salaam

But while the case continues, Dr Mashinji – who was relieved of the opposition party’s secretary general position when Mr Mbowe replaced him with Kibamba MP John Mnyika in December last year (2019) - decamped to the ruling party (CCM) last week.

Speaking in the presence of CCM ideology and publicity secretary Humphrey Polepole last week, Dr Mashinji dismissed Chadema as a “rudderless outfit” whose ideology was incompatible with the direction the party was taking.

“Chadema is supposed to be a conservative party, but there is a clear mismatch between what we believe in and what we are doing. That is why I’m requesting to join CCM, which, I think, is taking the country in the right direction,” he said.

And, when Dr Mashinji met his co-accused persons at the Kisutu Resident’s Magistrate Court on Monday, February 24, 2020, he managed to greet several Chadema bigwigs but when he extended his arm for a handshake with Ms Mdee, the latter ignored it.

Those that Dr Mashinji managed to greet included: Tarime Rural MP, John Heche, Bunda MP, Ester Bulaya, Iringa Urban MP, Peter Msigwa and the opposition party’s women wing secretary general, Grace Tendega.

While seating between Ester Bulaya and Grace Tendega, Ms Mdee was seen busy chatting on her smartphone with little regard for Dr Mashinji’s handshake request.