Donors urged to cut aid over ‘suppression’

Dar es Salaam. The main opposition party, Chadema, yesterday appealed to the international community to suspend financial support to President John Magufuli’s administration as part of efforts to press for respect of the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

Chadema legal affairs director and Singida East MP Tundu Lissu told reporters at a press conference yesterday that the party was concerned about the extent of violations of the rule of law, human rights and separation of powers in such a way that the Parliament and the Judiciary were no longer executing their duties as stipulated in the Constitution. “Development partners providing money to President Magufuli’s leadership should suspend aid because it is the same money used to suppress democracy,” he said.

“We urge the international community to deny political, diplomatic and economic support to President Magufuli’s administration,” he added.

CCM, govt react to Lissu

In a quick reaction, however, CCM secretary for Ideology and Publicity Humphrey Polepole said the party was concerned about Mr Lissu’s appeal to donors. He noted that it was not proper for politicians to run to the international community whenever there were some issues that could be solved at national level.

“It must be understood, however, that President John Magufuli’s main policy direction is to reduce donor dependency through using available resources and creating an independent economy,” he explained.

Head of the Communications Department of the ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mindi Kisiga said aid was guided by well-established bilateral and multilateral agreements, which could not be suspended on the whims of one person.

“Countries need one another for socio-economic, political and security cooperation and issues such as aid are guided by agreements that cannot be suspended for internal political consideration,” Ms Kasiga said.

The Citizen understands, however, that the US suspended bilateral aid to Tanzania under the MCC programme after the Zanzibar Electoral Commission suspended the General Election in the Isles in October 2015.

Parliament

Mr Lissu said further that the government had taken control of Parliament and National Assembly Speaker Job Ndugai was being directed by the executive arm of government to suspend MPs. President Magufuli hailed Mr Ndugai at the State House last month for the good job he was doing and he asked him to suspend MPs, who were “noise-makers” from the House, where they were protected by the Parliamentary Immunities, Powers and Privilege Standing Orders. President Magufuli promised that outside the House the noisemakers would be silenced. He uttered such words a few days after the Speaker suspended Kawe MP Halima Mdee (Chadema) and Bunda MP Esther Bulaya (Chadema) for one year for violating Parliamentary Standing Orders.

The Judiciary

But yesterday speaking on the need for independent Judiciary, Mr Lissu said Chadema was concerned about the fact that Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma, was still acting more than seven months after his appointment, something that reduced his confidence in his judicial duties. “President Magufuli was quoted during a rally last year ordering judges to expedite tax dispute resolution so that he can provide them with some of the money that will be recouped if the government wins the cases. This is interfering with the independence of the Judiciary,” he said.

Reallocation of funds

Chadema is also concerned about a growing trend of re-allocation of budgetary funds without Parliament approval. Mr Lissu cited the construction of an airport in Chato and the procurement of aircraft for Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) as examples. Chato is the home town of President Magufuli.

“Who can tell us where the money to construct the airport in Chato came from and when was it endorsed? Who can tell us the process followed to procure the aircraft?” he queried.

Mr Lissu also spoke of how the civil service had been disrupted by what he called arbitrary sacking of civil servants and appointment of senior officials, who lacked requisite qualifications. “Laws require that district council directors, for example, be recruited from the civil service and not from outside, but as we have seen, politicians, who were defeated during the 2015 General Election are the ones, who have been appointed to key technocratic positions,” he alleged. The new strategy now to counter arbitrary arrests and detention of politicians on directives of regional and district commissioners will be to take legal action against them, according to Mr Lissu.

This is because they are misusing the Regional Administration Act, 1997, which gives them powers to order the arrest of individuals and hold them for 48 hours, but on security grounds.

“I have already filed two civil cases in my constituency (Singida East) demanding Sh200 million each and nine other cases will be filed soon. Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe has filed one against Hai DC and that we have ordered Kawe MP to do the same,” he said. Chadema has adopted a new strategy an increase in the number of arrests and detension of political leaders, including lawmakers. The party’s secretary-general, Dr Vincent Mashinji, and six top officials were on Saturday arrested and detained in Ruvuma Region through the directives of the DC. They were released on police bond yesterday.