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Tanzania: Former PM - I Did Not Sign UVCCM Contract
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Orton Kiishweko
Former prime minister Edward Lowassa yesterday broke his silence over his alleged involvement in the controversial construction of a multiple-storey building at the headquarters of CCM's youth wing, UVCCM.
Mr Lowassa, who is the Monduli MP, denied reports that he had signed a contract for the building to be put up, saying that he only signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the parties, and not a contract for the actual construction of the building.
He signed the MoU in his capacity as chairman of the UVCCM board of trustees. "I would like to inform the public that the reports (linking his name to the project) are nothing but malicious rumours," he said, and denied that the agreement was signed at night.
Mr Lowassa said he forwarded the matter to the party's central committee for a decision on whether or not the project should be given the go-ahead.
Some UVCCM leaders have appealed to the CCM national leadership to halt the construction of the building on suspicion of underhand dealings leading to the signing of agreements with the developer.
CCM secretary general Yusuf Makamba said a contract for the construction of the building had not yet been signed, a position repeated by Mr Lowassa in his statement faxed to newsrooms yesterday. But youth wing leaders maintain that a flawed contract was in place, and have called for the concerned party leaders to be held accountable for their roles in the project.
Last week, Mr Makamba cautioned the UVCCM contestant Nape Nnauye about making "inflammatory statements", in which he accused Mr Lowassa of collusion in selling the new building now under construction.Yesterday, the Monduli legislator said he was suing a local Kiswahili tabloid for what he said was a "defamatory" story linking him to the project.
He said the authors did not bother to contact him to verify their claims before publishing them. Last week, UVCCM officials Donald Mejiti of Dodoma and Emmanuel Kiondo of Tanga concurred with Mr Nnauye that the construction was taking place illegally without due sanction from the UVCCM general council.
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They said council members had rejected attempts to sign the contract or commence construction until a properly drawn contract received the blessing of UVCCM and CCM generally. They said something fishy was going on after a developer moved to the site to start construction while the national council had not approved any contract or blessed whatever was going on.
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