Zitto Kabwe and CHADEM have won, CCM has lost

[mwitaz]

A political analyst, William
Butler Yeats, once said, “Do
not wait to strike till the
iron is hot; but make it hot
by striking." This is exactly
what Kigoma North lawmaker, Zitto Zuberi
Kabwe and his party have
done. They didn’t wait to
strike till the iron was hot,
but made it hot by striking
it, and here we are today witnessing the forced
resignation of eight cabinet
ministers. Their colleagues from the
ruling party waited till the
iron was hot and their
dilly-dallying has given
Kabwe and his party
political mileage, the very same way it happened in
2007 when the ruling
party’s lawmakers ganged
up against the very same
Kigoma North legislator. Last year, in dealing with
the David Jairo saga, it was
Kabwe who led the battle
before CCM hardliners
rallied behind him and the
result was the sacking of the former permanent
secretary. The Richmond
scam and details about the
Bank of Tanzania’s
External Payments Arrears
account heist were first revealed by the opposition
legislator, led by Dr.
Willibrod Slaa, before CCM’s
legislators hijacked the
battle. This week again, Kabwe
stole the show when he
decided to go after Prime
Minister Mizengo Pinda. To
prove that he was serious,
the following day he managed to gather a total
of 68 signatures. It is safe
to assume that, come
tomorrow when the
motion of no confidence in
the Prime Minister Pinda would have been moved,
he would have gathered
70 signatures needed to
table the motion. Also, because the CCM
lawmakers were blind or
may not have known the
danger lying ahead,
hijacked Kabwe’s battle
believing that,in so doing they had outsmarted him.
But the truth of the matter
is that Kabwe had given
them enough rope with
which to hang themselves. Today, CCM legislators have
hanged themselves while
Kabwe and chadema have
scored a strong political
victory, including winning
the confidence of Tanzanians. It’s a game well
played by Kabwe and his
party on behalf of
Tanzanians, who are tired
of poor leadership and
corruption. If finally the eight cabinet ministers’
resignation will be
accepted by the appointing
authority, we shall accord
this victory to Kabwe and
his party. CCM will gain nothing out of
this battle because it wasn’t
their battle to begin with;
they just hijacked it or
were given enough rope
by the very same legislators they booed last
year. To a divided CCM, this
could possibly be the
beginning of the end
because it can’t withstand
the political storms from young and brilliant
politicians from the
opposition, chadema. CCM legislators might
congratulate themselves
for hijacking the battle,
and finally forcing eight
cabinet ministers to quit,
but the truth is that it’s chadema that wins
politically by gaining the
trust of Tanzanians.
However, within CCM this
has very little to do with
the battle to combat corruption. It is rather the
product of their internal
divisions and struggle for
power that has been
rocking the party for some
years now. These cracks were
brought about by one
word: corruption. The
word was Dr Slaa’s and his
party’s war cry, especially
when he unveiled the list of shame at Mwembe Yanga in
Dar es Salaam in 2007. During that time CCM
legislators either ignored
slaa or called him a liar, but
when they established
that, the chadema tough
leader was gaining popularity while they were
losing credibility before the
public, they hijacked the
Richmond and EPA scams. The result was what
President Kikwete
described as ‘a political
storm’ because then sitting
Prime Minister Edward
Lowassa and two cabinet ministers were forced to
resign. The following day
the entire cabinet was
dissolved, but a new
chapter of divisions and
the politics of witch- hunting had been put in
top gear. Today CCM remains weak
because it has never
recovered from the
Richmond hangover. For
those who like democracy
and accountability, the credit will always go to
Kabwe and his party for
putting CCM under constant
pressure to the extent of it
unwittingly being in a
position to hang itself. SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON
SUNDAY