DAR ES SALAAM: THE Vice-Chairman (Mainland) for ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Abdulrahman Kinana revealed on Sunday what transpired during reconciliation meetings with the main opposition party, CHADEMA.
The top leaders of the two political leaders engaged in reconciliation marathon meetings from April 2022 until June 2023 as the ruling party was implementing President Samia Suluhu Hassan's 4Rs, which stands for Reconciliation, Resilience, Reform and Rebuild.
Speaking with party leaders and members in Dar es Salaam Mr Kinana, said that that they (CCM) did the best they could to encourage the main opposition party reconcile for the betterment of the country's political atmosphere.
Mr Kinana said during the in-camera meetings held at different times, his side was responsive to several demands raised by the opposition party, CHADEMA.
He said one of demands from the opposition party was to be paid all previous subsidies from the government, including the ones that they rejected because they did not recognise the government in power after the 2020 General Election.
"There were times when things were tough. They asked for the president's sympathy and demanded payment of all subsidies, even the ones they had previously turned down," he noted.
Mr Kinana further said it was difficult to pay in a lump sum given that subsidies are given in every particular financial year from the government budget.
"However, despite the difficulty, President Samia ordered responsible authorities to find other sources of funding and succeeded in paying them almost 2.7bn/-, but not in a single day they (CHADEMA) mentioned it. Rather, they keep on complaining and insulting the President," he said.
In line with this, Mr Kinana also said that nine cases out of eleven that involved CHADEMA cadres were withdrawn from the court except two related to murder and drug abuse.
He urged CHADEMA to be understanding, and courteous, and recognise the goodwill of the President to maintain peace and stability in Tanzania.
"I want to reassure you that the president has good intentions for this nation, she cannot tolerate seeing that we are going to conduct the elections in a disorderly manner, she will not allow that," he said.
According to Mr Kinana, the reasons behind the two parties' failure to reconcile included CHADEMA's rudeness, insults, defamation and humiliation to President Samia.
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"Since public meetings were allowed in good faith, we asked our colleagues (CHADEMA) not to use them to ridicule, abuse, or degrade one another. Regrettably, they started criticising the president and using derogatory language," he stated.
He added that the second reason is that CHADEMA's pledge towards the new constitution formation was unattainable since CHADEMA wanted to monopolise the process while in reality, the matter needs public participation.
He said the President created a reconciliation committee to find a solution, but the efforts have not yet yielded results.
"We have held meetings throughout the year from May 2022 to June 2023, and we have held 11 meetings," he said.
He added that that was a great gesture made by President Samia to show that she wants to find and maintain peace and stability in the nation.
Similarly, he added that the government also made an effort to release more than 400 prisoners of political offences aiming to bring peace and harmony.
Another effort he mentioned is to create a good environment for CHADEMA leaders who were abroad worrying for their safety, and they all managed to come back and live in peace and harmony, he said.
