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Opposition defectors woes under spotlight
2007-11-09 10:11:37
By Patrick Kisembo
The ruling CCM has been criticized for accepting and banking on leaders who cross over from the opposition without the consent of its members.
“The fact that almost all defectors failed to make it into the National Executive Committee (NEC) during the CCM national congress in Dodoma, is a clear testimony that CCM members mistrust them,” REDET Chairman, Dr Laurean Ndumbaro, told The Guardian in an exclusive interview.
He described their failure as a major success on the part of CCM national congress delegates, who had practised their democratic right.
Thomas Ngawaiya, who ditched the Tanzania Labour party (TLP) and Tambwe Hizza, who had migrated from the Civic United Front (CUF), are among CCM candidates whose bids to join the ruling party’s high policy making organs failed last week. Both Ngawaiya and Hizza were publicity secretaries of their respective parties.
Another prominent loser is Danhi Makanga, formerly a United Demoratic Party (UDP) legislator, who, coincidently, also served during his UDP heydays as the party’s publicity secretary.
The only person to make it to the NEC this time around is Salum Msabah Mbarouk, a former CUF legislator.
Dr Ndumbaro said: “There are leaders in the ruling party who offer such people some leadership opportunities without even consulting their members. I think this is the issue that members want to show that they do not have trust in the defectors.”
He said: “It is not necessary that when an opposition leader ditches one party for another, must be given a leadership post. CCM members do not have faith in such individuals. That is why they did not let them in.”
In another interview, TLP National Chairman Augustine Mrema, congratulated the CCM national congress on using their democratic right to reject people who had crossed over from the opposition.
Mrema said the ex-opposition leaders, including his former publicity secretary, Ngawaiya, had once held top posts in the opposition camp, but had used the same privilege to join CCM for various reasons.
“I feel sorry for them. They just dashed there without seeking anybody’s advice,” said Mrema, himself a former CCM leader who crossed over to NCCR-Mageuzi to become party chairman, and later on formed his own Tanzania Labour Party.
Mrema said he might be against CCM’s mode of running the country; still he applauded the move by the ruling party’s national congress members’ decision to vote out Ngawaiya and his colleagues.
Tambwe Hizza, the former CUF publicity secretary, said his failure to capture a seat in CCM’s national executive committee was not a sign of rejection.
He referred to the 2002 CCM elections when Masumbuko Lamwai, the former NCCR-Mageuzi leader who joined CCM, was elected as a NEC member.
“The same thing happened in 2002 for Salim Msabaha,” he said, adding: If CCM members had no faith in me, why then did they give me all those 595 votes? I only fell short of 79 ballots to join the NEC,” said Hizza.
Former TLP publicity sectary Thomas Ngawaiya hailed the just-ended CCM elections, saying were more democratic compared with internal elections being held by opposition parties like the TLP.
“Getting nearly 450 votes is something very special. I have even beaten some veterans CCM who also vied for the posts,” boasted Ngawaiya, adding that the fact that he obtained some votes proved that CCM members trusted him, only that he could not make it into the NEC.
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