Membe, Kinana and Makamba to be grilled by 12 top CCM bigwigs

Dar es Salaam. The date for what could be ‘a decider’ of political destiny for CCM’s former heavyweights Bernard Membe, Abrahman Kinana and Yusuf Makamba is yet to be decided, but it is already shaping up to be an epic battle of wits.

At stake for Tanzania’s former top diplomat and CCM’s two secretaries-general lies the possibility of being expelled from the party, suspension or a stern warning as the Security and Ethics Committee may deem fit.

The three are set to be grilled by 12 CCM bigwigs, who are powerful figures in the ruling party and the Union and Zanzibar governments.

The Security and Ethics Committee, according to the amendments made on the CCM constitution in 2017, is under the chairman, who happens to be President John Magufuli.

Others who sit in the committee are Secretary-General Bashiru Ally, Phillip Mangula, Dr Ali Mohammed Shein (President of Zanzibar), the Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Dr Abdallah Juma Mabodi,  Rodrick Mpogolo, and Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.

These are joined by four other members of CCM’s National Executive Council (NEC), two from each side of the union (Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland).

The decision to summon the three was reached by NEC when it sat in Mwanza last week under the leadership of President Magufuli.

The three, together with January Makamba, Nape Nauye and William Ngeleja, were implicated in an audio clip in which voices could be heard referring to the Head of State in unflattering terms.

This will be the second time that the former foreign minister Membe faces the committee, in February 2014 when still foreign minister and Member of Parliament, he, alongside January Makamba and William Ngeleja were quizzed by the committee which was then headed by Phillip Mangula.

Former Prime ministers Fredrick Sumaye and Edward Lowasa, and Steven Wasira were also quizzed by the same committee.