Chadema finally acquires modern office building

Dar es Salaam. The main opposition Chadema had to wait for 30 years before acquiring a one storey building that will be used as its headquarters.

The 10 room office building is said to have been purchased and renovated at the cost of ShSh1.5 billion.

Chadema had set aside Sh2 billion for procurement of the property.

Insiders have told The Citizen sister newspaper, Mwananchi that the party plans to start using the new headquarters this month, leaving their small, low standard house in Ufipa Street, Kinondoni area.

Chadema shifted to the Kinondoni building in 2000,.

The partys’ leaders have been facing criticism over the failure to acquire a modern headquarters that matches its status and achievements in pluralism politics.

However, party’s Chairman Freeman Mbowe and secretary general John Mnyika have been insisting that their priority remained at strengthening the party at the grass-roots level.

Criticism gained momentum last year after another opposition political party, ACT-Wazalendo that was established in 2014, managed to launch its modern headquarters located in Magomeni in the city.

Chadema’s building has a modern outlook and attractive theme compared to all other opposition political parties.

The building is roofed with tiles, decorated with a garden, paving floor, car parking and conference rooms.

Reports from the party says the rooms will be used as offices for party’s top leaders and its respective council’s executives.

A party leader who asked not to be named said yesterday that only minor improvements remained before the building is fully occupied.

The chairman of a small committee formed to supervise and coordinate the procurement and rehabilitation of the buildings in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, Mr Ezekiah Wenje said all important processes have been concluded.

“All that remains is to invite j0urnalists and show them our new state-of-the-art office. We have planned to invite the registrar of political parties too among many other guests,” said Mr Wenje over the phone.

According to him, members of the media will be introduced to different parts of the buildings, noting that the part was thinking of many huge things therefore environments providing stable thinking was of paramount importance.

However, Mr Wenje, who is also the chairperson of Chadema in the Lake Victoria Zone did not want to disclose the location of the office or the number of floors in the building or its costs, instead he asked the reporter to wait for the official launching.

"We will launch the office in July, it will not go beyond that month, wait in the next few days you will see our modern building, don't be in a hurry, we want it to be a surprise to Tanzanians," he said.

He said the process of finding a sub headquarters in Zanzibar was in final touches.

In another development, Mr Wenje, who is also a member of Chadema’s Central Committee said the party's office buildings in Ufipa will remain as an important part of Chadema’s history.

"Ufipa will remain as part of our museum, where we started the journey from, it will be part of the history of Chadema.

The offices will not be sold either... but it will be a library that will carry many memories showing the mountains and valleys we underwent to be where we are now," he said.

Chadema’s protocol, communications and foreign affairs director, Mr John Mrema, when contacted by Mwananchi to discuss the strategy of moving to a new office, was not ready to explain the matter, stressing that when the time comes the public will be informed.

However, it is stated that the decision to purchase two office buildings of Chadema's headquarters in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, was blessed after Mr Wenje presented proposals before the Central Committee meeting held in Dar es Salaam on April 10, this year.

In April this year, one of the members of the Central Committee who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity said in the meeting, "...about four proposals come whose buildings are in Masaki and Mikocheni, but we have taken one of the buildings in Mikocheni.

"It will be a very modern headquarters, we want to get rid of the propaganda about the office. Sh2 billion have been allocated for the Tanzania Mainland offices and between Sh300-400 million for the Zanzibar offices, everything is going well.