New Constitution to Further Strengthen the Union

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Correspondent Andy Cons

25 April 2011

The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar which took place on the 26th April 1964 remains one of the greatest wanders in the African political landscape. Many attempts on similar unions came to naught or have failed miserably.

The first attempt on a political union was that of the Union of the African States or UAS. This union was coined by the fathers of Pan-Africanism Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Sekou Toure of Guinea Conakry. The UAS started with a political union between Ghana and Guinea on the 23rd November 1958. The union flag was similar to the Ghanaian flag with two black flags symbolizing the two unitary states.

In 1961 Mali joined the union and the number of black stars was increased to three, to accommodate Mali. But the union, which was expected to bear 53 stars by our time, fell apart in 1961 when Guinea started reaching out to the United States of America instead of the USSR, which was the union’s traditional partner and supporter. In the same year several African nations assembled in Moroccan city of Casablanca and agreed on an African common market and one military command.

In addition to the Casablanca Group, a group of twelve French speaking nations agreed on a political federation by the name of Union Africaine et Malgache which later became known as Organization Commune Africaine et Mauriciene or OCAM. While the French speaking nations were agreeing on the OCAM set up, another group of African nations were also meeting in Monrovia almost with an identical objective. The Monrovia group set up what was referred to as Organization of Inter-African and Malagasy States.

Instead of a political union, the two groups, Casablanca and Monrovia, came together to form the Organization of African Union (OAU), the predecessor of what is today the African Union (AU).

It may also be recalled that in Central Africa, a similar union was being set up or contemplated between what was then Rhodesia and Nyasaland and in East Africa’ Uganda, Tanganyika and Kenya were supposed to gain independence as a single entity, and the former German, and later Belgian, colonies of Rwanda and Burundi were supposed to emerge as one nation, and so it goes.

Thus when Tanganyika and Zanzibar came together nearly everyone expected a similar fate to befall them, something short-lived. What are the reasons behind this union’s success? The answer to this is simple: the success of the union is grounded on the legal backing given to it by the union’s founding fathers.

While the other short lived unions based themselves on mere political statements and charters, the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union based itself on solid legal ground. The agreement on the union or the Articles of Union signed by the union’s founding fathers, Dr Julius Nyerere and Abeid Karume, in Zanzibar on the 22nd April 1964 was immediately followed by Act number 22 of 1964, or the Act of Union.

This was also an endorsement of the union by the people of the new state, Tanzania, through their elected representatives, or respective parliaments. The Act of Union, endorsed by both the Tanganyika and the Zanzibar parliaments, clearly set out the areas of union which were to be run by the central or union government such as immigration, defence, and foreign affairs, and so on while leaving out certain areas such as agriculture, employment, youth matters, and natural resources, and so forth to the local governments.

Another unique legal feature in this union is that the law has always tried to catch up with the dynamics of the politics governing such a union. In 1964 it was necessary to form a union around 11 main issues such as defence, immigration, foreign affairs, emergency, police, citizenship, external trade and borrowing, the public service, taxes, ports and telecommunication but by the 1977 11 more matters such as Court of Appeal, currency, higher education and others were added to the initial list making it a total of 22 items.

Further amendments, necessitated by the birth of multiparty democracy in 1992, had to be done. Thus Act 34 of 1994 was as a result of this new development in the political scene. This amendment was followed by many others including the 2000 amendment, popularly known as the 13th amendment, which amongst others introduced the method of simple majority in the presidential elections instead of the earlier requirement that a presidential candidate ought to win at least 50 per cent of the votes. This amendment further allowed the president to nominate up to 10 members to parliament. The other notable aspect of this amendment was that special women seats in parliament were increased to 20 per cent.

It must be noted that the current proposal for the amendment or the 14th amendment is again a product of this political dynamics. The most notable being its unambiguous confirmation that Tanzania is a secular state without any learning to or favour to any religious denomination. The 14th amendment further confers right of information to everyone in Tanzania.

Currently under Article 30 of the Union Constitution this right is a preserve of the citizen of Tanzania. The latest amendment also gives right to associate without reference to any other laws as well as the right for one to participate in all functions of government. It further increases women representation in parliament to 30per cent of the total MPs.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this amendment and which should be of much interest to the Zanzibaris is that the Vice-President instead of the Speaker of Parliament or the Chief Justice takes priority in the presidential succession in case of incapacity or infirmity of the incumbent.

The Vice-President acts for the rest of the remaining presidential term. The new amendment further allows any person holding legal qualifications for 15 years to be appointed chair of the Electoral Commission of Tanzania. If enacted, the post will no longer be a preserve of former judges or practising advocates. It is believed that the 14th amendment, if adopted, will strengthen the union even further.

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