Namibia’s official opposition party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), has condemned the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for its silence regarding the systematic repression of political opposition in Tanzania.
IPC leader of opposition Imms Nashinge said this in a statement on Thursday.
His response comes after reports of protests breaking out in Tanzania’s major cities on Thursday, following elections marred by clashes between opposition supporters and the police, the BBC reports.
Protesters have accused the government of undermining democracy, as the main opposition leader is in jail and another opposition figure was disqualified from the presidential election, bolstering Tazanian president Samia Hassan’s chances of winning.
“We are dismayed at the deafening silence of SADC, an inaction that amounts to complicity in the erosion of the very freedoms our region fought so hard to attain,” Nashinge says.
He says Tanzanians deserve freedom, not fear, and the people of SADC deserve
a community that defends its principles.
“We stand in solidarity with Chadema and the people of Tanzania in their struggle for a truly
democratic future,” he says.
Under the administration of Hassan and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, Nashinge says Tanzania is witnessing a dangerous return to the repressive tactics of the past.
He says the arrest of opposition leader Tundu Lissu on trumped-up treason charges and the banning of the main opposition party Chadema from participating in elections signal a state apparatus intent on consolidating power rather than safeguarding democratic participation.
Nashinge has called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Lissu, and for the reinstatement of Chadema’s right to participate in the political process.
He also calls for the SADC organ on politics, defence and security to publicly condemn the anti-democratic actions of the Tanzanian government and dispatch a high-level delegation to demand the immediate restoration of democratic norms.
These institutions, he says, were born from the struggle against oppression and colonialism.
To now stand by quietly as a fellow member state jails its opposition, bans political parties, and systematically dismantles democratic checks and balances, Nashinge says, is to spit on the graves of the heroes who fought for regional liberty.
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