ACT-Wazalendo set to write to Samia, Mwinyi on GNU

Dar es Salaam. ACT-Wazalendo has expressed dissatisfaction with the status of affairs in Zanzibar’s Government National Unity (GNU).

ACT-Wazalendo agreed with the ruling CCM to form the GNU after the 2020 General Election that saw President Hussein Ali Mwinyi assume the highest office in the Isles. Following the dissatisfaction, ACT-Wazalendo’s Central Committee (CC) resolved during its January 21, 2023 meeting to write a letter to the CCM vice chairman who doubles as the President of Zanzibar, Dr Mwinyi.

The letter that will provide details of issues at the centre of their dissatisfaction will be copied to the party chairperson who is also the President of the United Republic of Tanzania. “We are not satisfied with several issues in the GNU,” said ACT-Wazalendo secretary general Ado Shaibu when contacted after a press conference held yesterday at the party’s headquarters. “Though we are not in a position of disclosing the issues just at the moment, they will be clearly explained in the future to President Mwinyi,” he said.

According to Mr Shaibu, the CC decided to issue the aforementioned letter after carefully considering a report on the views obtained from party members and leaders over the course of the GNU.

He added that top party leaders have been instructed to meet with envoys from respective nations and international organisations to brief them on the GNU’s unacceptable conduct. “After receiving reports from envoys and officials of foreign organisations, they restored excellent relations with the Zanzibar administration following the founding of the GNU,” he said. “The CC has also set a timeframe for the implementation of two key issues agreed between President Mwinyi and former party chairman, the late Seif Sharif Hamad, during the GNU formation process,” he said.

According to him, the two issues include the formation of an independent judicial inquiry to probe incidents of injustice and human rights violations recorded during the 2020 General Election and compensate the victims after a comprehensive analysis.

“The two leaders also agreed to review Zanzibar’s election and judicial systems,” said Mr Shaibu. He said the CC resolved to ask President Mwinyi to disclose findings of the task force report formed to address issues of democracy in the Isles.

Mr Shaibu announced a nationwide rally itinerary, with the curtain raiser set for February 19, 2023 at the Zakheim Grounds in Dar es Salaam. The meeting will be followed by another meeting scheduled for Nungwi in Unguja on February 26, 2023.

Other meetings and respective dates according to the schedule in brackets are; Pemba (March 4); Tanga (March 8); Coast (March 9); Lindi (March 10); party’s region of Selous (March 12); Tabora (March 14-15) and Kigoma (March 16-18).

Mr Shaibu stated that a second schedule of meetings will be issued later, with residents’ lives and modernising the country’s democratic structures at the top of the agenda.