Almost immediately afterwards, on January 17, Assah Mwambene, writing in the Daily News, reported that talks between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), aimed at ending decades of political impasse in Zanzibar, had started and the two parties were calling for public support. A joint communiqué signed by Civic United Front (CUF) Secretary General, Seif Shariff Hamad and the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Secretary General Yussuf Makamba said the two parties were determined to bring about mutual understanding. “We have started our negotiations and appeal to our respective parties to be patient and have confidence in us that these talks will meet their expectations” the statement said.

President Karume takes part in a CCM rally in Zanzibar (photo Issa Michuzi)

However, there was some surprise a few days later when Makamba was reported to have spoken in an entirely different way according to Majira. At a CCM rally in Zanzibar two CUF leaders who had defected to CCM, Tambwe Hizza and Ali Shamte, castigated CUF leaders in general and Seif Shariff Hamad in particular, calling them cheating and dishonest. Makamba was reported in Tanzania Daima to have said that as long as he was in command of CCM the opposition should forget about winning any election, adding that the Union and Zanzibar governments “belong to CCM”. He pointed at the RC and DC, telling them to make sure that CCM always wins.

Then Tanzania Daima went further. It quoted a CUF MP from Pemba as saying that he doubted if CCM was serious about seeking a solution to the political impasse in Zanzibar. CCM leaders were just buying time. The MP criticicised certain CCM leaders who were given to attacking CUF all the time. The Pemba MP however said the only person in the team he had faith in was veteran CCM leader Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru whom he described as ‘honest and sensible’. He said the CCM team at the negotiations had been composed in such a way as to fail, so that the party could then “go to the donor community and throw the blame on CUF.”

STOP PRESS: As this issue of TA went to the printers, Rai published an interview with Ismail Jussa, the Personal Assistant to the CUF Secretary General, who is a member of the negotiating team. He said that the talks were likely to be concluded at the end of April. He declined to go into details or to comment on the possibility of power sharing, but said everything would be laid on the table. Jussa lauded President Kikwete, saying he had played a crucial role in ending the political polarisation that had been going on for ten years.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Don McKinnon, has explained why his organisation could not take steps against the Zanzibar government over the 2000 elections and the shooting of marchers in Pemba in 2001. Addressing students at the University of Dar es Salaam, he said the problem his office faced was how to separate the Union government of Tanzania from that of Zanzibar. He said another reason for lack of action was because the talks going on at that time between CCM and CUF looked like they were going to lead to a national consensus. “It is true that the 2000 elections were not entirely free and fair, yet it did not produce an authoritarian government that was not willing to listen and negotiate, he said – Majira.

Just before the meeting began on February 14 the spiritual leader of the Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, invoked the power of prayer to help him save the Church. The Guardian in Dar wrote of the biggest clash yet between ‘Global South’ conservatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America where the Anglican Church is growing and liberals in the more affluent West, where congregations are shrinking. Conservatives say that homosexuality is sinful and unbiblical and in December 2006 the Anglican Church in Tanzania had announced that it was cutting links with “bishops who consecrate homosexuals and ordain such persons to the priesthood.” The conservatives were described in an article by the Catholic writer Libby Purves in the London Times (which gave good coverage of the meeting) as the ‘illiberal, genitally-fixated wing’ of the Church. Liberal theologians suggested that the Church should focus on tackling poverty, AIDS and the challenge to Christianity from Islam.

Tensions had flared into a near revolt by the Global South in 2003 when an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, was named bishop in the US Episcopal Church. The traditionalist primates at the meeting in Dar were threatening to snub their U.S. counterpart Bishop Katharine Schori who was at the meeting supporting Robinson and same-sex unions.
The Global South set up camp in an Indian Ocean beachfront hotel to discuss the issues while next door the U.S. Episcopalians were doing the same.

TANZANIAN BISHOP PROTESTS
In December 2006, The Anglican Church in Tanzania announced that it was cutting links with ‘bishops who consecrate homosexuals and ordain such persons to the priesthood.’ It would no longer accept funding from dioceses in the U.S. Church.
However, according to the Episcopal News Service, Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo of the Dodoma-based Diocese of Central Tanganyika, in a January 26 Epiphany letter, questioned the legitimacy of singling out the Episcopal Church on matters of human sexuality when the issues permeated ‘all of our development and mission partners – churches, missionary agencies, governments and secular organizations.’ His letter was in part a response to the Tanzanian bishops’ December statement that had declared the province in a state of ‘impaired’ communion with the Episcopal Church – and had asserted that there had been a ‘failure to register honest repentance for their actions that were contrary to the dictates of Holy Scripture.’

Bishop Mhogolo wrote that not all Tanzanian bishops were of one mind. ‘The way we do God’s work is to strategise our mission and then look for resources for the mission,’ he said. ‘The recruitment of people, both within and outside the country, becomes part of our efforts in realising God’s mission…. We then ask ourselves, why should we single out the Episcopal Church and treat it differently?… We know that a substantial amount of money and funding that governments, churches, and missionary societies receive comes from gay and lesbian people.” He noted that in the Tanzanian cultural context “gay and lesbians are regarded as criminals punishable by long-term imprisonment…. We live in a country where gay and lesbians are violently persecuted, mistreated, hated and ostracized…. We as Black Africans know the hurts and permanent damage caused by our past experiences which still linger on to the present,” he said. “We have gone through all that and we know how it hurts… and we don’t want to go that way again.”

The Bishop said that it was with a clear conscience that his diocese continued to accept money from its liberal counterparts in New York. With individual donations of $50 a year, hundreds of Americans provided shoes, clothes, food and exercise books so that AIDS orphans in the Tanzanian diocese might attend primary school. “If a gay person wants to help an HIV orphan to go to school and you say: `No, I’m not going to receive that money, you are rejecting the person and you are rejecting an answer for the HIV person” he said. The Bishop said he opposed last year’s statement by his church because it did not reflect the realities of life in Tanzania where most of the population eked out a living on less than a $1 a day.
However, the Bishop sidestepped the issue of gay clergy. “Let the judgment be done by God, not by me” he said.
When Easter came the Bishop was reported to have been barred from conducting mass at the Cathedral in Dodoma. Three parishes in the Central Diocese had announced a total rejection of benediction, baptism and confirmation of their children by Bishop Mhogolo.

Although, according to the Guardian, the bishop actually stayed away from the cathedral on advice from the police on the eve of Good Friday, he maintained that his absence was in compliance with his work schedule, although acknowledging continued tension around the diocese. The bishop nevertheless admitted the existence of friction between him and some worshippers whom he alleged are supporters of his rival. “I know who is behind all this (his rejection)”, said the bishop. He added that a former high ranking church leader in the diocese he had accused of embezzling funds set aside for renovation of the house of the bishop, had instigated his downfall. “He goes around tarnishing my image but I am not worried as long as I stand for the truth” he said.
“It is not true that I support homosexuality”, the bishop complained. He said his comments on homosexuality implied that the church should not consider it as the greatest sin compared to robbery, corruption, adultery and others. Bishop Mhogolo reiterated that homosexuality has never been a problem to the church in Africa. There are so many other problems ranging from poverty, ignorance and diseases that the church in Africa could address instead of importing the issue of homosexuality which is a problem of the American church, he said.

ZANZIBAR

Three days into their Dar meeting the bishops went to Zanzibar. President Karume in Zanzibar joined them for special prayers for unity and remembrance of the abolition of the slave trade. “I wish to make a special mention of the earlier church missionaries who contributed to the abolition of slavery in Zanzibar and East Africa and their establishment of care centres for freed slaves,” Karume said.

Dr Rowan Williams

THE ULTIMATUM

Back in Dar es Salaam the Archbishop of Canterbury had reminded his bishops of the need for humility in a veiled rebuke to those whose wrangling over gay clergy threatened to tear the church apart. “Very early in the history of the church there was a great saint who said God was evident when bishops were silent…. There is one thing a bishop should say to another bishop … that I’m a great sinner and Christ is a great saviour.”

However, the Global South primates decided not to celebrate the Eucharist with the Presiding American Bishop, as they continued to stand behind their September declaration that they would “not be able to recognize Katharine Jefferts Schori as a Primate at the table with us.” The “table” he noted, was the language used for an altar as found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Australian Archbishop Aspinall was quoted as saying that the bishops had “frankly and passionately” discussed the state of the Episcopal Church. The views raised by the four American bishops ranged from pain and confusion on the part of those who did not share the majority position to criticism of “unwanted and uninvited” interventions by Global South primates in the United States.
However, “whatever happens, we still will be friends,” Archbishop John Chew of South East Asia said.

At the end of the meeting, according to the Guardian, with the main problem not resolved, the bishops issued an ultimatum under which the liberal bishops would be given seven months to prove that they had fully reversed their pro-homosexual agenda or face expulsion from the Anglican Church. The London Times reported that the Church then took another step towards its apparently inevitable schism. The US Episcopal bishops were reported to have rejected the ultimatum.

Asha Rose Migiro, recently appointed Deputy Secretary General of the UN

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced in February that it would not allow private candidates to be nominated for elections in spite of a High Court ruling a year earlier which stated that this was unconstitutional. NEC Chairman Judge Lewis Makame said the High Court decision directed the government to prepare a legal system which would help private candidates to take part in elections. According to article 30 (5) of the country’s constitution, the rule which does not allow private candidates ‘shall remain in force until the time cited by the High Court is over’ – Guardian.

Tanzania borrowed from Barclays Bank to finance the purchase, which many critics said was unnecessary and overpriced. When asked, Vithlani told the Guardian he had made no disbursements from the $12 million to public officials in Tanzania nor to any third parties outside Tanzania.

BACKGROUND
At the time of the sale the British Government had been divided on what it should do. Tony Blair supported the deal but he was strongly opposed by his then Minister of Overseas Development Clare Short and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

REPERCUSSIONS
This news story soon had repercussions in the international media and amongst politicians and others in both Tanzania and Britain.
BAE was alleged to have made two parallel arrangements with the alleged middlemen. In the first, a conventional agency agreement was signed under which 1% commission was to be paid if the deal went through. But under a second, more unusual agreement, BAE owned offshore company ‘Red Diamond’ was said to have deposited another $12m, representing 30% of the contract price, in Switzerland. This money was said to be under the under the personal control of Vithlani. In the world of international arms deals, a commission of 1% to local agents is generally regarded as legitimate but commissions of over 5% are regarded as questionable.
BAE Systems, asked if they had made a payment into Vilani’s account refused to answer, saying: “We will not be commenting on any point of substance. This cannot of course be taken as any kind of admission.”

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE

In a heated 3-hour debate in the House of Commons Clare Short, now an independent MP, joined the Conservative opposition in accusing Tony Blair of pushing through this ‘scandalous’ and ‘squalid’ deal. Short has consistently argued that Tanzania could have paid much less for the same equipment. Lynne Featherstone, for the Liberal Democrats, said that Britain had to be ‘squeaky clean’ if it wanted to retain any influence, reputation or credibility in world affairs. “Somewhere between the government, BAE and Barclays – and perhaps all three – our reputation is in tatters,” she said.
Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said BAE had sold ‘ageing technology’ and that the system was not adequate and too expensive. Mitchell said the deal had all the warning signs of impropriety – “a vastly inflated price, an unsuitable product and unorthodox financing”.

Clare Short revealed detailed conversations she had had with former President Mkapa after she had taken the decision to cut back UK aid to Tanzania by £10 million ($19.2 million) as a result of her concerns over the deal. “He told me that the radar contract had been signed before he came to office, a deposit had been paid and there was a penalty clause if Tanzania did not go ahead” she said. At this point, Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer asked, “Is the Hon Lady saying that, after the presidential election, the Tanzania government was interested in finding a way out of the project.” Ms Short replied: “President Mkapa was a technocrat and a fine president, but he was not politically powerful and he had inherited the contract. If the UK had done the right thing by refusing an export licence he would have been a happy man.” However, “the Ministry of Defence had given approval for the project, which was already under construction in the Isle of Wight, on the basis that it would not be contested because it was uncontroversial.” Ms Short said: “President Mkapa and I reached an agreement that if he promised that there would be no second half to the project, we would go ahead with increasing our aid again. I saw him after he had ceased to be president and he told me that he had kept the promise.”

Conservative shadow minister Andrew Mitchell wanted to know why the Government approved an export licence against the recommendations of the World Bank and the International Civil Aviation Authority. “If the government argues that a judgement call was taken after lengthy consideration, why did it act without reference to the opinions of those best placed to comment? Did the Government know of the $12 million payment to a Swiss bank account when the export licences were granted.” When the (UK) Government gave evidence to the Committee reference was made to the fact that Tanzania was, self-evidently a sovereign state. The point was made and largely accepted that it therefore had the right to decide what air traffic control system it wanted to buy. Conservative MP Peter Lilley said: “We in this country talk a lot about governance. We lecture the governments of developing countries, telling them that they must investigate, be transparent and hold Ministers to account. But the sad truth is that on this occasion the suspicions fell on a British company. It was British ministers who turned a blind eye; it was the British government who rushed a decision through before the World Bank could even publish its report.”

In defence of the deal, Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn said the government had considered whether the export would seriously undermine the economy or seriously harm the sustainable development of the recipient country. “At the time the government judged it would not and, looking back from this vantage point, it would be hard to argue that it did” he said. He added that he could not comment on bribery allegations because they were under investigation. He said: “One decision taken on one case does not mean we are going soft on corruption. Look at the broad range of the things we are doing.”… “That is not to say that there were no concerns about the system and its suitability – there clearly were.” The Conservative motion holding the government to account was lost by only 76 votes, a small figure given the overwhelming majority Labour has in Parliament.
Some experts believe that there were other considerations which caused the Tanzanian government to buy the equipment but these could not be revealed because they involved Tanzania’s security.

PROTESTS IN DAR
On January 21 opposition leaders in the National Assembly in Dar es Salaam demanded that government leaders who were involved in the deal should resign immediately, to facilitate proper investigations. The demand was made at the climax of a 2 hour procession organized by five opposition parties to express misgivings about alleged corruption in government circles.

PRESIDENT KIKWETE’S COMMENTS
President Kikwete said that Tanzania would seek a refund from the UK if a corruption probe into the sale reveals it was overcharged. The President said officials found guilty of taking bribes during the deal would be punished. He added that Tanzania had the right to buy the air traffic control system and Britain should be ashamed if British businessmen had taken advantage of the transaction to earn illegal income. “It does not make sense for a rich government like that of Britain to milk a poor country like Tanzania” he said. President Kikwete said that the BAE agent who sold the air defence system lives in Tanzania but has British citizenship. “The British investigators came to us and asked for our cooperation in investigating the role of the BAE agent in Tanzania, which we provided”, he said. He added that the British detectives suspect that the BAE management was sharing the spoils with the agent who transacted the deal. However, he said his government was looking into the possibility that some Tanzanian accomplices were involved in the deal.

More recently, Tanzanian Minister of State (Good Governance) Philip Marmo said he was surprised about the graft claims since the procurement followed all procedures including parliamentary approval. The same was said by Andrew Chenge, the present Minister for Infrastructure Development who was then the Attorney General. – Majira.

BAE said it was co-operating fully with the investigations but strongly denied operating a secret slush fund to sweeten deals.

There were two serious incidents of armed attacks in Northern Tanzania in March. Gangsters shot and injured two tourists out of a party of four Americans and one Briton plus a tour guide. In the other incident, thugs dressed in police uniforms placed a false roadblock along the Arusha- Dodoma Highway. Car passengers were forced to lie on the ground and were then robbed of their belongings including phone handsets, wrist watches, gold chains, necklaces and money. The government immediately launched a special operation involving the army to hunt down suspects who were thought to be Somalis. “We will be tougher this time” said President Kikwete. “We will leave no stone unturned in seeking the criminals responsible.”

The Police have destroyed over 2,000 illegal firearms at the Lake Tanganyika Stadium in Kigoma. The Regional Commissioner lit the bonfire in the presence of five provincial governors from neighbouring Burundi. “The proliferation and movement of these firearms within and across the borders have left a trail of agony and destruction among our people” he said.

On January 17 the police published the names of 20 suspected drug dealers allegedly selling heroin, bhang and other illicit drugs. The suspects were sent to court.

Meanwhile, at the Dar International Airport a businessman from Mozambique was arrested carrying drugs. He said he had planned to sell the drugs within Tanzania but had failed to do so because, he said, the government had stiffened its war against drug dealers. He had swallowed some rolls as he was about to leave Tanzania for Israel through Dubai – Guardian.

The National Assembly has passed a ‘Money-Laundering Act’ which it is hoped will boost the effectiveness of the task force formed by the government to contain drug dealers and their syndicates in the country. The task force was said to be investigating 17 people suspected to be drug dealers. It had destroyed over 1,000 farms growing bhang in various parts of the country and also seized several tonnes of khat – Guardian.

Western governments were criticizing SADC for not doing enough to resolve it. President Kikwete, who hosted the summit amid growing Western calls for a tough line on Mugabe`s political crackdown, said the regional grouping appealed to all sides in the dispute to step back from the brink. “Of course the appeal to parties is to be cooperative and give this initiative a chance, also for the parties to exercise restraint and avoid anything that’s going to inflame the situation,” he said. “I believe through open and frank discussions we will be able to diagnose properly the political and security problems facing our region and decide on a course of action to deal with them.”

The statement issued at the end of the summit shocked Zimbabwe’s opposition and disappointed many people outside the country who do not appreciate how extremely popular Mugabe has become on the African continent after fighting so hard for the independence of his country and for driving out most of its white farmers. The statement called on Britain to honour its commitments to fund Zimbabwe’s land reforms, and called on the West to drop sanctions against Mugabe`s government. It asked South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate political dialogue in Zimbabwe.

President Kabila (Democratic Republic of Congo) attends the SADC meeting in Dar

Many MP’s wanted civil society organisations and the private sector to be represented in the new Bureau to make it more independent. One opposition MP said the fact that the Bureau was under the President’s Office would make it difficult for it to fight corruption properly. The new law should also be enshrined in the country’s constitution to make it more independent they said.

Earlier, in March, the Swahili press reported that donor countries were taking a very close interest in the Bill as, according to Minister of State (Good Governance), Philip Marmo, they would like to ensure that their funds are well utilised. He said 75% of the Bill resulted from conditions included in international contracts.

The donors presented proposals that could lead to a 15th amendment to the Constitution. They wanted more powers to be given to the Anti-corruption Board (PCCB). The proposals were presented by representative of the development partners, Ambassador Bjarne Sorensen of Denmark, during a meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Public Administration. It was proposed that the PCCB should be an independent body, similar to the Commission for Human Rights and Secretariat for Ethics. Sorensen also suggested that the PCCB should submit its reports to the President as well as to the Parliament as is the case in Nigeria, and that it should co-opt members from civil society. Donors would also like to see a similar law being passed in Zanzibar.

Several prominent people have been arrested recently on corruption charges. Former Tanzanian Ambassador to Italy, Prof. Costa Mahalu, his Finance Attache and Counsellor have been taken to court accused of occasioning a loss of Euro 2.06 million to the Government. A former Assistant Accountant in the Prime Minister’s Office was sentenced to 10 years in prison after she was found guilty of more than 30 counts of forgery and theft of TShs 300 million, the property of the government. The Guardian reporter wrote that some of the audience were in total disbelief as the prosecution succeeded in getting a deterrent sentence. The accused wept ‘with torrential tears running across her cheeks’ he wrote. In mitigation, she pleaded with the court to have mercy on her because she had stayed in remand custody since 2001.

A former Director of the Arusha City Council was expected to stand trial over a loss of TSh 36.9 million. The Arusha Regional Police Commander said other officers had been interrogated in connection with the loss and three of them had already been charged – Habari Leo.

Speaking during a dinner on January 15 hosted by the Britain Tanzania Society in his honour, he commended the Society’s continued support to Tanzania’s economic development, terming the society members ‘ambassadors of goodwill.’ “One may be tempted to say that BTS is yet another Tanzanian mission in the United Kingdom. You have acted as our goodwill ambassadors, over and above your efforts to support the development activities of Tanzania”. He said the society’s senior members were not just working towards sensitising retired people to be active in the pursuit of economic stability in Tanzania by soliciting aid, but were also encouraging Tanzanian students in Britain to join in these efforts.

Mr Kikwete said he felt proud and encouraged to see BTS members so committed to helping out in key areas of service delivery in Tanzania, particularly in the education, health and other social service sectors. The President also briefed BTS members on current challenges facing Tanzania. A full account of the dinner is in the current issue of the Newsletter of the BTS – Editor.

President Kikwete in London (photos Issah Michuzi)

The President later addressed a meeting of Tanzanians living in Britain. He said that his promise to help solve the Zanzibar impasse had taken time and some people had even lost hope. But in the end CCM had agreed on what was to be done. He said it was a ‘win win situation’, adding that people could expect to see early action. He was right. Three days later the meeting between CCM and CUF took place (see above).

Earlier, presenting a paper at a forum on African Development and Public Sector Reform at Chatham House, which was attended by politicians, academics, researchers, businesspeople and ambassadors from Africa and Europe, President Kikwete said the reform was aimed at improving productivity in the public service, bringing in new ideas as well as offering better pay to civil servants.

President Kikwete also held talks with UK businesspeople and invited them to invest in Tanzania, especially in the financial sector.
When the President met Britain’s Secretary for International Development Hilary Benn he was told that Britain would contribute £105 million to Tanzania’s 2007/8 budget, up from the original £90 million. It was to help the country’s poverty alleviation efforts.

When heads of state are invited on official visits to Britain they are normally allowed a little time off. President Kikwete decided to spend an afternoon watching English football. Newcastle United were playing Tottenham Hotspurs. It was a very lively match. I tried to find out from his entourage which team he had been supporting. They were not sure but thought it was Newcastle. Newcastle is the one team I once supported actively – when I was a student – and I was rather pleased that the President had been cheering for the same team. After the BTS dinner I asked him which team it was. To my disappointment he said Tottenham. The next day he met Prime Minister Blair and the media published pictures of him receiving a present of a Newcastle supporter’s shirt. Tony Blair can be very persuasive. Perhaps he changed the President’s mind! – Editor.