HOW CHADEMA HAS SURVIVE IN TANZANIA STORMY POLITICAL VIEW

Chadema members follow the proceedings during the last week's elections in Dar es Salaam The opposition Chadema is going through a gradual process of transformation and consolidation amid allegations that it has maintained popularity in Kilimanjaro Region only.

The party has gone through traumatic events and experiences which have tested it to the limit, and which could have easily led to the collapse of other parties.
At least for the time being, Chadema is second to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Tanzania Mainland in terms of strength, and this is not an accident.
Civil rights activist Martin Luther King once remarked, I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

Chadema leaders echoed this stance in the run-up to and during the party's elections in Dar es Salaam last weekend after questions were asked as to whether genuine democracy existed within the party. Conflicts, dissatisfaction and clandestine camps were some of the challenged the party faced ahead of the elections which saw Mr Freeman Mbowe being elected as the Chadema national chairman.

Secretary-general Willibrod Slaa said the party's focus -taking over the country's leadership reins -had enabled it weather the storm that had threatened to split it down the middle. Dr Slaa added that Chadema was more united than ever after the turbulence of the past few weeks.

Chadema's biggest test since its founding in the early 1990s came when deputy secretary-general Zitto Kabwe stunned supporters and political rivals alike when he declared that he would challenge Mr Mbowe for the chairmanship. He, however, pulled out on the insistence of party elders. Divisions and intra-conflicts had led to the weakening of some of what used to be major opposition parties particularly after the 1995 General Election, starting with NCCR-Mageuzi.
The same trend was observed with the Civic United Front (CUF) after the 200 General Election. Many people feared that Chadema was next and party stalwarts had to summon all their wisdom and persuasive powers to hold the party together. If there is a unique quality that the party can boast of is the fact that it has never been seriously affected by defections.

Some of the prominent figures who decided to abandon the party include its co-founder, the late Edward Barongo, who defected back to CCM, claiming that Chadema was 'elitist' and did not fight for the interests of poor people.
Barongo had served in the first post-independence government of Mwalimu Nyerere. He had served as a Cabinet minister, regional commissioner and board chairman. He also had a large following in Kagera Region where he was respected as a freedom fighter.

Despite all this, his defection did not do any irreparable damage to the party.
The defection of the current Tanzania Labour Party (TLP) chairman, Mr Augustine Mrema, from CCM to NCCR-Mageuzi in 1995 had serious repercussions for the ruling party due to the support that Mrema enjoyed in rural areas.

Chadema founder Edwin Mtei failed to lure Mrema to the party, and it wasn�t surprising when a sizeable number of Chadema members decamped to join Mrema in NCCR-Mageuzi.

Chadema has in recent years lost prominent members to CCM. They include former Kigoma Urban MP Walid Amani Kabourou and the incumbent Dar es Salaam CCM regional chairman John Guninita. The two had unkind words for Chadema and its leaders as they crossed over to CCM. However, there are people such as Prof Mwesiga Baregu and Mr Anthony Komu who gave maintained their trust in the party after crossing over from conflict-hit NCCR-Mageuzi.

Chadema recently received a big boost with the coming on board of former MPs Chiku Abwao and Wilfred Lwakatare, who crossed over from NCCR-Mageuzi and CUF, respectively. Prior to the Zitto storm, the party survived another huge test after Tarime MP Chacha Wangwe died in a car crush in July last year. There were reports that Mr Wangwe was killed by his rivals within Chadema, sparking days of rioting in Tarime. However, Chadema went on to retain the seat after Mr Charles Mwera narrowly defeated CCM's Christopher Kangoye in a closely contested election. It marked the first time that an opposition party had retained a parliamentary seat in a by-election.

Prof Baregu told The Citizen that what was taking place was a consolidation of the opposition through a party which had survived "tragic occurrences". He added saying that this development was shaped by internal party dynamics through its grandiose propaganda "Operation Sangara" and its expansion to the grassroots in the rural and peri-urban centres. The president of the African Progressive Party of Tanzania (APPT-Maendeleo), Mr Peter Mziray, says that what is happening is a 'justifiable' process, adding that some opposition parties will just wither away, leading to the existence of one strong party.

Dr Mohamed Bakari, a senior lecturer in political science, shares this view, saying there are people who have shifted their loyalty from other opposition parties to Chadema while at the same time there are few who have been disillusioned with the CCM leadership and therefore they see their hopes within Chadema. Chadema founder Edwin Mtei, who led a group of elders to persuade Mr Kabwe, to withdraw his candidacy said it was wisdom which persuaded Mr Kabwe to pull out of the race and leave Mr Mbowe to contest unopposed. "We saw him (Zitto) as still having more time and energy to save the party for long time to come taking into consideration his age, he still has the 2015, 2020 to take the country's presidency in future," said Mr Mtei.

Mr Mtei vowed to use his experience in politics, also to synthesise these strengths and strategies used by Mr Kabwe to build a strong team, which will beat their rival parties in the October civic elections and next year's General Election. Mr Mbowe said: "This election is a message to our friends in CCM that we will come out of even stronger than before. Our enemies wanted the party to be deeply divided, but this did not happen."