Shein: My successor will assume a better Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam. Outgoing Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein yesterday said he was leaving a better country and was optimistic that his successor would build on his record to improve the general welfare of the people in the semi-autonomous Isles.

Dr Shein has served two five-year constitutional tenures and will be succeeded after the October 2020 General Election in the Isles, a place that has over the years witnessed closely contested elections between the ruling CCM and the Opposition.

Yesterday as he addressed the final sitting of the House of Representatives, Dr Shein said he will handover power to a winner he hoped would be from CCM owing to what he said is work that has been done by the government. He enumerated in his speech some of the successes of his administration.

“No other political party can do what we have done and I am sure the outstanding implementation of the 2015 CCM election manifesto by the Union and Zanzibar governments will deliver CCM another victory in the October elections,” he told the CCM dominated House of Representatives.

The then dominant opposition party in the Isles, CUF, boycotted the repeat election for that year after crying foul over the decision by Zanzibar Electoral Commission’s chairman Jecha Salum Jecha to annul results of the first election which they claimed they had won.

This year, CCM will face ACT-Wazalendo as the biggest opposition party after a leadership wrangle in CUF saw its members troop to the new party en mass. CUF now appears more of a pale shadow of itself in the Isles, but it will also line up for the contest.

Dr Shein said the government recorded major achievements in economic growth, improving income of individuals, reducing inflation and cutting budget dependency.

The Zanzibar economy, he said, grew by 7 per cent in 2019/20 up from 4.3 per cent in 2010. Annual income of individual citizens also increased from Sh942,000 in 2010 to Sh2,000,549 in 2020, according to Dr Shein. He said inflation also declined from 14.7 percent in 2011 to 2.9 percent in 2019/20.

Dr Shein noted that economic growth led to an increase in revenue collections to Sh748.9 billion in 2019/20 financial year from Sh171.1 billion in 2010/11 fiscal year.

Budget dependency declined from 30.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent over the same period, enabling the government to implement development projects more smoothly.

According to him, the number of tourists who visited Zanzibar increased from 133,000 to 538,268 over four years, saying measures were afoot to increase the number. Tourism is Zanzibar’s economic mainstay and the Covid-19 pandemic is feared to affect projected growth over the coming few years.

At least 648 development projects worth Sh5.66 trillion have been implemented by the government in the last ten years creating 51,822 jobs, he said.

“We have also formulated land use policy and strategies in the efforts to end land disputes in Zanzibar, design various projects and attract investment,” Dr Shein said.

“Most importantly, we have maintained peace, security, unity and solidarity as provided by the CCM 2015 election manifesto, despite several attempts to disrupt the same,” he noted.

Dr Shein said due to significant investment in the agricultural sector, rice production increased from 21,014 tonnes to 46,507 tonnes in 2019, increasing Zanzibar’s food sufficiency from 51 per cent to 60 per cent.

He said 2,200 hectares have been subjected to irrigation through a $50 million loan secured from Exim Bank of South Korea with the government contributing $14 million.

According to him, the government has started implementing the ten year Agricultural Development Programme worth $48 million.

“We have spent Sh23 billion for installation of CCTV cameras in Unguja, the project is now extended to Chakechake in Pemba,” he said.

Due to improvement in handling Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Shein directed the reopening of schools and other learning institutions.