Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi names Cabinet today

Dar es Salaam. All eyes and ears will be focused on Zanzibar today as newly sworn in President Hussein Mwinyi announces his cabinet lineup, with the main interest being on the type of administration he will want to govern.

Top on the list will be whether Dr Mwinyi will name his First Vice President, a position usually reserved for the main opposition party’s losing presidential candidate - but nonetheless garners at least ten per cent of the total valid votes cast in a General Election. Anxiety heightened in the Isles yesterday following an announcement from the State House revealing that Dr Mwinyi would today make public his choice of ministers and deputy ministers.

The President would in coming days also appoint permanent secretaries, as well as heads of key corporations and directorates to complete the top tier of his new government.

It is largely expected that the President will pick from the ruling party CCM’s, loyalists and those who played a part in ensuring his election as the eighth President of Zanzibar.

There was no ruling out any surprises as the new President has signaled since he assumed power. Analyst say he will likely go for a mix of young politicians as well as experience to inject his government with more vigour, he has said, he wants to run the country.

But, of considerable interest will be if Dr Mwinyi will continue in the footsteps of his predecessor, Dr Ali Mohamed Shein, who went his full second term (2015-2020) without a First Vice President as the constitution requires. Dr Shein only nominated a few opposition politicians from smaller parties to the House of Representatives - and gave them three ministerial positions, if only to serve the dictates of the law. They were Hamad Rashid - who was appointed Health minister - as well as Juma Ally Hatib and Said Sudi who were made ministers without portfolios.

In that election cycle, the main opposition party Civic United Front (CUF) - led by the-then CUF secretary general, Mr Seif Sharif Hamad (who was the losing presidential candidate) boycotted the repeat elections and stayed out of government after crying foul claiming a stolen victory.

President Mwinyi who won over 70 percent of the 2020 election that has also disputed by his main rivals ACT-Wazalendo - with the same Mr Hamad as the opposition’s top candidate - has publicly extended an olive branch and expressed his willingness to welcome them in forming a Government of National Unity (GNU). Mr Hamad’s fellow leaders and supporters joined ACT-Wazalendo en masse after a bitter fallout in CUF and according to the results announced by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, he came second after securing 19.9 percent of the total votes cast.

It was not very clear yet if the opposition party had forwarded any name of choice for the First Vice President to the new president under seven days of his swearing in as stipulated in law. ACT-Wazalendo Party leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe, yesterday told The Citizen that the party would not be joining the government.

“Even if Dr Mwinyi appoints ACT-Wazalendo members in his cabinet, the party will not agree,” he said, in response to swirling romours that some of the opposition party officials would be named in the new Zanzibar government.

Mr Hamad and eight other CUF leaders formed Dr Shein’s inaugural GNU cabinet between 2010 -2015, when CUF and CCM ended years of rivalry and signed a power sharing pact known as ‘Mwafaka.’ If ACT-Wazalendo which won four House of Representatives seats in the 2020 elections (one of whom, Abubakar Hamis Bakary has since died) stays out, Dr Mwinyi may have to do with the nominations of opposition members to assemble a GNU of sorts.

In the first GNU government, those from the main opposition party were Hamad Masou (Infrastructure and Communication), Abubakar Hamis Bakary (Justice and Constitution affairs), Abdillah Jihad Hassan(Livestock and Fisheries), Saidi Ally Mbaruk (Information and Tourism), Juma Duni Haji (Health) and Fatma Fereji (State minister in 1st VP’s office). There were also two opposition deputy ministers namely Zahara Ally Hamadi (Education) and Haji Mwadini (Infrastructure and Communication). Yesterday the statement from the State House said Dr Mwinyi will unveil his cabinet at a televised press conference at 10am. Dr Mwinyi earlier nominated former Regional Commissioner Hemed Suleiman as his Second Vice President and Dr Mwinyi Talib Haji as his Attorney General.

President Mwinyi had a hectic day yesterday, touring Mnazi Mmoja referral hospital and the busy Kijangwani public market. A statement last evening said that, following the visit to the hospital, Dr Mwinyi fired the director of Health, Dr Jamala Adam Taib, and the managing director of Mnazi Mmoja hospital, Dr Ali Salum Ali. He did not name their replacements immediately.