Zitto Kabwe set to form shadow cabinet

Dar es Salaam. The ACT- Wazalendo leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe, will form a shadow cabinet as the opposition party seeks to up its role in holding the government accountable.

A statement yesterday signed by the ACT-Wazalendo secretary general, Ado Shaibu, said Mr Kabwe was tasked to form a shadow cabinet by the party’s national executive council, which held its meetings at weekend.

The shadow cabinet will also be tasked with responsibilities of providing the government with alternatives on policy matters.

“The party’s executive council, which concluded its meetings this past weekend, tasked Zitto - as the party leader who is responsible for policy - to assume authority to form and oversee the shadow cabinet,” the statement reads in part.

The ACT-Wazalendo’s shadow cabinet will comprise spokespersons for various sectors.

These will be responsible for issuing alternative professional policy opinions that span from social, economic, political, national and international issues.

Mr Shaibu said the decision to form a shadow cabinet was derived from the fact that one of the most important strategic tasks for the ACT-Wazalendo political opposition was to oversee and hold the government responsible.

This task, he said, had been effectively undertaken by representative organs such local councils and the parliament since the dawn of multiparty system in Tanzania.

“However, our research - conducted during party tour to various regions - has established that the said representative organs have abysmally failed to appropriately hold the government responsible for its actions. This was undoubtedly due to a lack of political legitimacy because of the fact that most of their representatives weren’t democratically elected,” said Mr Shaibu.

This, he said was more pronounced after the 2020 elections when the representative organs lacked representation of opposition parties including, not reaching the required qualifications to form a shadow cabinet in the parliament.

Mr Zitto said later yesterday that he would meet with editors where the shadow cabinet would be unveiled.

“Announcing spokespeople for each ministry will further cement our focus of serving Tanzanians as a political party that is not in power. It is our duty to oversee the government,” he said.