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Let what is public be back in the fold
2007-01-25 10:12:26
By Edit
Arusha mayor Paul Lotta Laizer and two other CCM members of the city council were forced to resign following allegations linking them to land misallocation and financial mismanagement scandals.
They were said to have conspired to sell a piece of land to a businessman when the `partying` countdown to the 2005 General Elections had started.
This is not the first time a mayor has resigned in Tanzania in connection with abuse of office charges, though Arusha has possibly set the proud precedent of ensuring the honour a public position by avoiding its stigmatisation.
A few years ago, the then Dodoma Municipality also sent its mayor packing over financial mismanagement allegations.
These episodes underscore the fact that leaders can be especially prone to scandals like misuse or mismanagement of public land, funds and other property mismanagement.
What is unique in the Arusha case is the manner in which a handful of city council members turned a plot designated to serve as a bus stand into land for private use.
Incidents of this kind explain why many of our urban centres are notorious for running without proper plans, and hence the chaos that characterises their operations.
It is because of this that we think the forced resignation of the three Arusha mayor civic leaders should serve as an eye opener to the government and wananchi on the havoc that misuse, mismanagement or embezzlement of public property can lead to - and take measures to guard against such manifestations of abuse of office.
But the public must also be amazed by the political manner in which the situation has been handled by pegging the three officials\' resignations, who are essentially local government employees, to party ethics.
Justice would have been done - and seen to have been done - were the trio taken to court after the resignations to answer charges of illegally turning an area designated for public use into private property.
We are aware that there is a lot of other public property such as buildings and the like that irresponsible authorities have allocated to the wrong parties through dubious means and often for selfish reasons.
We also know that it is not always that investigations have been made to safeguard public property from landing in the wrong hands, say, by bringing all culprits to book. We therefore urge all the authorities concerned to make special efforts that will ensure that what rightfully belongs to the public remains safely in public hands.
President Jakaya Kikwete promised as he launched the campaign trail for his presidency last year that areas designated for public use would be used as such if he made it to State House. Fortunately, he has.
We think that time has come for him to embark on a more focused public property reclamation campaign, the recent Arusha saga serving as case study showing why a countrywide clean-up exercise is necessary and how it ought to be implemented for maximum effect.
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