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- Oct 17, 2012
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Jane Flanagan
Wednesday June 17 2020, 9.00am, The Times
Tanzania dissolved its parliament and set course for an election in October days after an opposition leader was badly beaten and laws were passed granting senior government figures immunity from prosecution.
There is growing concern that President Magufuli, who took office in 2015 promising to tackle corruption, wants to create a dictatorship.
A range of amendments approved by MPs will protect senior ministers from any legal action in the course of governing. Critics say the legislation effectively hands “powers to continue violating constitutional rights” to President Magufuli whose time in office has been marked by crushing freedoms and dissent.
The latest beating of a senior opposition figure came only hours after Tundu Lissu, Mr Magufuli’s most high-profile critic, announced he would return from exile to challenge him for the presidency in October’s general election.
In a statement America and the EU said the attack on Freeman Mbowe, of the Chadema party, last week was “only the latest in a long series of disturbing acts of violence and harassment perpetrated against members of the opposition”.
Mr Lissu, 52, Chadema’s vice chairman, survived being shot 16 times in an assassination attempt outside his home in Tanzania’s capital in September 2017. He has repeatedly delayed his planned return to the east African state over fears of more attempts on his life, but is determined to unseat Mr Magufuli in the forthcoming ballot which he predicts will turn into a “bitter and violent fight”.
The savage battering of his party colleague, whose injuries included a broken leg, “was planned to send me a serious warning,” Mr Lissu told The Times from his base in Belgium.
“I know I am taking a risk, the threats to my life haven’t gone away, but there are some risks you have to be prepared to take,” he added. Mr Magufuli, 60, has denied all allegations of brutality and has pledged to hold free and fair elections.
Analysts say recent events reflect how rattled the government is by the popularity of Mr Lissu and his party. Mr Magufuli was elected in 2015 on a pledge to root out corruption and public mismanagement. Instead, what was once regarded as a promising beacon of democracy in Africa, has become increasingly autocratic. Tanzania’s mountains, national parks and the island of Zanzibar have made it one of the continent’s biggest magnets for tourists. Its relative stability since independence from Britain has also helped absorb political shocks in the region.
Rights organisations said new laws will not only provide the government with greater freedoms to abuse opponents and activists but will outlaw all efforts by lawyers and activists to seek justice on their behalf.
“Protecting the leaders from being sued when they contravene constitutional rights means giving them powers to continue violating the rights,” Anne Henga, of the Legal and Human Rights Centre, said.
According to local reports, the speaker of Tanzania’s parliament, Job Ndugai, has also told colleagues that he will seek to scrap presidential term limits once the incumbent triumphs in October.
Jeffrey Smith, from Vanguard Africa which campaigns for free and fair elections, said recent actions by Tanzania’s regime demonstrated it “knows they cannot win on an equal political playing field.”
“They use any means necessary, including violence, to try to silence the opposition. This is a clear sign of weakness, not strength,” he said.
