The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Bernard Mapalala
20 July 2008
The ruling party announced Friday it has removed the Ilala municipality deputy mayor, Mr Mohamed Yakub from his post over his role in the infamous eviction of 96 families in Tabata Dampo for which the government later paid about Sh1billion compensation in February.
CCM Dar es Salaam Regional Secretary, Mr Kilumbe Ng'enda, said the decision has the blessings of the regional political committee after being satisfied that Mr Yakub had acted against party's leadership ethics. Mr Yakub who is also counselor for the Mchafukoge ward has also been handed/served with a stern warning.
The CCM regional executive committee is satisfied he participated and supervised the dishonest and brutal demolition of houses and eviction of the residents which had left the 96 families homeless.
"Apart from the damages and loss Yakub and his associates caused, the offence caused serious inconvenience to victims of the exercise and ashamed the party," said Mr Ng'enda.
The decision to remove Yakub from his post was reached by the party's regional political committee meeting held on Thursday. The party believes the decision would serve as a deterrent to other party cadres to observe rules of respect for human rights and good governance, he declared.
He said Yakub has now been put under probation for 18 months and he has been declared unfit for any public post within the party and the government other than his counselorship. The decision, he said, goes along the decision of the regional executive committee to nominate counselors Johannes Kaseno (Kitunda), Said Kitambulio (Kiwalani) and William Bomani (Pugu) to vie for the vacant posts in the party's Ilala counselors committee.
In February the Ilala municipality ordered the unjustified and brutal demolition of 96 houses, an exercise which received strong condemnation from human rights activists. The Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Abbas Kandoro quickly qualified it as illegal.
The public outcry led to the formation of a three-man inquiry team by the then Minister of State in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr Stephen Wassira to clarify what happened up to the demolitions. The commission's findings established that there was serious violation of rules of good governance in reaching the decision to evict the residents who have lived in the area for 40 years.
Those who were questioned by the probe team include regional administration officials and others in the office of the DC, the land office, the municipality, victims of the exercise, and the beneficiary, the Allied Group Freighters director, Nicholous Chawe and the company's chief executive officer John Nyange.
The commission which was given 16 days sifted documents on the dispute over the ownership of plot number 52 at the industrial area along the Nelsan Mandela Expressway to establish the legality of the company's claim to ownership of the plot.
The team also investigated the procedure that was used to bless the demolition of the houses to check on any violation of law or procedures, including reviewing decisions of the housing tribunal. The commission also worked to establish which government officials took part in the eviction exercise to see if the law and regulations were followed.
In another development, Ng'enda said CCM has also stripped party membership on the Mnazi Mmoja local government officer, Khamis Kizenga for dishonesty and abuse of office. He is accused of publicly abusing his fellow leaders, issuing death threats and forging minutes of party meetings.
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