The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has rubbished media reports that a new faction has emerged within the party, widening the rift that a special task force led by retired president Ali Hassan Mwinyi (pictured) is trying to bridge.
Recent reports in a section of the media suggest that the purported faction wants 16 establishment personalities implicated in various scams purged from the party.
A group of individuals claiming to be staunch CCM members has posted a document on a website, pressing for the expulsion of those they brand corrupt CCM and government officials from the party.
However, the group that identifies itself as ‘True CCM Fighters' has not disclosed the identities of its members.
The same faction wants the Tanzania government to seek assistance from the governments of Man Jersey, United Arab Emirates, Costa Rica, and Switzerland for the recovery of billions of money stashed away by individuals implicated in various scams.
The faction claims that CCM ought to reassess itself and determine its destiny following moral decay and erosion of public ethics among its members and leaders.
It claims that a few individuals have opted to subordinate public interests to those of their families.
It goes further to say that as the ruling party, CCM must cleanse itself as it used to do in the past.
" We are not ready to leave the fate of our nation in the hands of a few greedy individuals," the group declares.
Withholding their names, individuals targeted by the faction include a former Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), a former prime minister, two former ministers who served in the third phase government, a businessman-cum-Member of Parliament and a former director of intelligence.
Also in the list include 11 Members of Parliament from Arusha, Mara, Kagera, Shinyanga, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam regions. The faction accuses the individuals of robbing the public through shoddy deals they allegedly masterminded.
The shoddy deals, according to the faction, were linked to External Payment Arrears (EPA) account of the central bank, Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), Mwanachi, Tangold and Meremeta companies, Commodity Import Support (CIS) project and the procurement of a presidential jet.
Others are acquisition of a military radar, arms, military helicopters and vehicles, tax exemptions, selling of open spaces and the implementation of the central bank's twin tower project.
CCM Vice Chairman (Mainland) Pius Msekwa who appeared to be irked by the matter vehemently reacted to the reports when contacted for comment by The Guardian on Sunday.
"Why are you troubling yourself to cross check such nonsense and a non-existing matter? If those individuals have not revealed their identities, then I would treat such reports as mere fabrications masterminded by individuals who do not wish CCM any good," he said.
According to Msekwa, such reports were fictitious stories fabricated with the intention of distracting the attention of CCM members from their core plans as the party prepares itself for the nomination process ahead of the October poll.
" First I have not seen the document in the internet nor have I read reports in the newspapers but what I think is that some people have just crafted the document for ill-motives best known to themselves," he said.
News about the surfacing of the faction comes at the time when the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi struggles to iron out some differences among its Members of Parliament that emerged in 2007 when the Parliament formed its Select Committee to investigate the circumstances under which Richmond Development Company Ltd acquired a multi billion deal to generate emergency power when the nation was hit by drought in 2006.
The Mwinyi-led committee, to a larger extent, has succeeded to harmonise the state of affairs in CCM after presenting its report in the NEC meeting held mid last month in Dodoma.
However, the meeting gave the committee more time to finalise the reconciliation process between some CCM heavyweights who still seem to hold grudges against one another.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY