Last Friday, the 26th of
April, 2019, was the 55nd anniversary of Union Day, which is the date on which the Union between
Tanganyika and Zanzibar was established, way back in 1964. In my article of last week, I
happily introduced my latest book titled “Historia
ya muungano wa Tanganyika na Zanzibar”, which was published by Educational
Publishers Ltd of Bukoba. Today’s article is a continuation of that
theme, but this will focus primarily on the events which followed after the establishment of the Union; namely,
the ratification of the Union Agreement; and the coming into force of that Agreement on 26th April,
1964.The
ratification of articles of Union.
Article (i)
of the “Articles of Union” between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, 1964, reads as
follows:
“The
Republic of Tanganyika and the Peoples’ Republic of Zanzibar shall, upon
Union Day, be united into one sovereign
Republic by the name of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar”. This being an international Treaty, it
required ratification by the respective Legislatures of the two countries. This was duly accomplished on Saturday, 25th
April, 1964. The provisions of the Articles of Union were conveniently reproduced
both in the “Ratification Act” of the Parliament of Tanganyika, (no. 22 of 1964), which was enacted by the
Tanganyika Parliament on 25th April,1964, and assented to by The
President of Tanganyika on that same day; and in “The Union of Zanzibar and
Tanganyika Law”, which was passed by the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council, also on 25th April, 1964, and
published in the Union Government Official Gazette of 1st May, 1964,
as Government Notice (GN) no. 243.
Implementation of the ratification statute. (a) The
appointment of two Union Vice-Presidents’
Section 6(2) of the Union
Acts had appointed Sheikh Abeid Amani Karue as the First Vice-President of the
United Republic and President of Zanzibar, hence only the Second Vice-President
needed to be appointed. This was done
very quickly on the next day after Union Day, when Rashid Mfaume Kawawa, former
Vice- President of Tanganyika, was appointed Second Vice-President of the
United Republic.
(b) The appointment
of representatives from Zanzibar to the Union Parliament. This was also done quickly on the day immediately following Union
Day, when the first group of members of the Union parliament was appointed and
took the oath of allegiance. Their
taking the oath of allegiance was done at the first meeting of the Union
Parliament, which had been summoned to meet on Monday, 27th April,
1964, the day after Union day itself.
(c) Crafting
the interim Constitution of the United Republic.
Article (ii) of the Articles of Union provided as follows: “During the
interim period, the Constitution of the United Republic shall be the
Constitution of Tanganyika so modified as to provide for-
(a) Union
Matters; (b) a separate government and Legislature for
Zanzibar; (c ) the appointment of two Union
Vice-Presidents; (d) the Representation
of Zanzibar in the Union Parliament;
(e) such other matters as may be
expedient or desirable to give effect to the Union and to the articles of Union
”.
This was
quickly implemented, when a document titled “The Interim Constitution of the
United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar” was published in the official
Government Gazette on 1st
May, 1964, as Government Notice (GN) no 246.
Article 8(2)
of the Acts of Union (i.e. the ratification laws) had given powers to the Union
President, during the Interim period, to issue Presidential Decrees in order to
make provision for the matters which were specified therein. In exercise of these powers, the President
issued the following Decrees, which were published in the same official gazette of 1st May, 1964.
These Decrees were deemed necessary in order ‘to give effect to the Union and
the articles of Union’. They were the following:
(i) “The
Transitional Provisions Decree, 1964”.
This Decree provided for the transfer of all persons who were holding
office in the service of the Republic of Tanganyika, to the corresponding
offices in the service of the United Republic.
By the same decree, the High Court of Tanganyika became the High Court
of the United Republic; and the Public Seal of the Republic of Tanganyika
became the Public Seal of the United Republic.
(ii) The Interim Constitution
Decree, 1964”. By the provisions of this Decree, the Constitution of Tanganyika
became the Constitution of the United Republic, appropriately amended in order
to provide for the matters specified above.
(iii) “The
Transitional Provision (no 2) Decree, 1964”.
By the provisions of this Decree, any reference to “Tanganyika” in all
the existing laws of Tanganyika were to read as references to the United
Republic. And references to ‘the government of Tanganyika, or to any matter or
thing in any way connected with the said government’ were to be read as
references to the Government of the United Republic. The total effect of these
enactments is that the country formerly known as “Tanganyika”, together with
its ‘Government of Tanganyika’, were decreed out of legal existence; or (colloquially),
“out of sight and out of mind”!
These Decrees were issue in order to implement the provisions of
article 4 of the Interim Constitution of the United Republic, which provided
for a separate Government and Legislature for Zanzibar, but no separate
Government or separate Legislature for Tanganyika. In other words, Tanganyika
was to be governed directly by the Union Government, and by the Union
Legislature. This provision was subsequently incorporated
in the Permanent Constitution of the United Republic, 1977, and is what is commonly referred to as the “two-Government
structure” of the Union (Muundo wa Serikali mbili), and has been the
subject of repeated challenges by certain stakeholders, in attempts
to re- establish a separate Government for Tanganyika or Tanzania
Mainland. We will come back to that
matter later.
In October, 1964, the Union Parliament enacted a law (Act no. 61 of
1964), which changed the country’s name from “The United Republic of Tanganyika
and Zanzibar” to the abbreviated name of “The United Republic of Tanzania”.
The
interim period extended. Article (vii)
of the Articles of Union had made provision for a “Commission to be appointed
which will make proposals for a permanent Constitution of the United Republic;
and to summon a Constituent Assembly composed of representatives from
Tanganyika and from Zanzibar, to meet
within one year of the commencement of the Union, to adopt a permanent
Constitution for the United Republic”. However,
this was NOT to be. One month before the expiry of the one-year period, in March
1965, the Union Parliament enacted a law which postponed the implementation of
the said article, “until such time as shall be deemed convenient by the two
Principals, namely Union President Nyerere, and Zanzibar President Karume”. That is what explains the delay of thirteen
years before the appointment of the said Commission, “to make proposals for a
permanent Constitution, and the convening of a Constituent Assembly to consider
those proposals and to enact such permanent Constitution”, which was eventually
done in 1977.
The
reasons for this delay.
It was
subsequently revealed by Mwalimu Nyerere, in meetings of the National Executive
Committee of his Party, (CCM); that during their talks on the unification of
their two countries, President Karume had shown clear preference for a ‘one-Government’
structure. Mwalimu Nyerere disclosed
that when he asked for President Karume’s views on the structure of the Union. President Karume had replied thus: “Maoni
yangu mimi ni Muungano wa Serikali moja. Mwalimu
wewe utakuwa Rais, mimi nitakuwa Makamu wako” . He
disclosed further that it was him (Mwalimu Nyerere) who had initially opposed that idea, out of a
genuine fear that a ‘One-Government’ structure at that
stage would create the misleading impression that Tanganyika had ‘swallowed’ Zanzibar;
but he was hopeful that given sufficient
time, this fear would disappear, and thus make it possible to adopt the
desired ‘One-Government’ structure.
Additional
evidence is to be found in the Articles of Union themselves which, with the
exception of only article (i) all the remaining articles were designed to
operate only during the interim period. Article (ii) states as follows: “During the
Interim period from the commencement of the Union until the Constituent Assembly provided for
in article (vii) shall have met and
adopted a Constitution for the United Republic, (herein after referred to as
the interim period) the United Republic
shall be governed in accordance with the provisions of articles (iii) to (vi ”).
Article (iii)
is what provides for a separate Government and Legislature for Zanzibar. It
must therefore presumably have been the intention of the Union founding
fathers, (the signatories to the said Articles of Union) that the permanent
Constitution would do away with the ‘two-government’ structure, and substitute
for it a one-Government structure.
However, this objective was not achieved, as the permanent Constitution
which was enacted in 1977 simply retained the two-Government structure of the
Union, in its article 34.
The
challenges to the two-government structure of the Union.
In a document
titled “Asili ya Muungano wa Serikali Mbili” which President Nyerere himself wrote
in order to explain the reasons why the Union founding fathers had opted for a
two-government structure of the Union. He said the following in Kiswahili: “Nchi mbili zinapoungana na kuwa nchi
moja, mifumo ya kawaida ya muundo wa Serikali huwa ni miwili. Ama muundo wa
Serikali moja, au Shirikisho la Serikali tatu.
Kwa mfumo wa kwanza wa Serikali moja, kila nchi iliyoingia kwenye
Muungano huo itafuta Serikali yake iliyokuwapo, na nchi mpya inayozaliwa
itakuwa ni nchi moja yenye Serikali moja. Katika mfumo wa pili, wa Shirikisho, kila nchi
itajivua madaraka fulani, na kuyakabidhi kwa Serikali ya Shirikisho,
lakini itaendelea kuwa na Serikali yake ambayo itashughulikia yale mambo mengine
yaliyobaki, yaani ambayo hayakukabidhiwa kwa Serikali ya Shirikisho. . .
Tanganyika na Zanzibar tulipoungana na kuwa nchi moja, tungeweza kufuata mojawapo ya mifumo hiyo ya
kawaida, lakini tulishindwa kufanya hivyo kwa sababu ya udogo wa Zanzibar, na
ukubwa wa Tanganyika. Zanzibar wakati
huo ilkuwa na watu laki tatu; wakati Tanganyika ilikuwa na watu million kumi na
mbili. Muungano wa Serikali moja ungefanya ionekane kwamba Tanganyika imeimeza
Zanzibar. . . Kwa sababu hiyo, mimi
nilipinga mfumo wa Serikali moja”.
But despite
this clear and elaborate explanation, the challenges to the ‘two-Government’
structure have been expressed repeatedly, starting with that of the then
Zanzibar President Aboud Jumbe in 1984, which led to his forced
resignation. This was subsequently
followed by the Nyalali Commission in 1991. The challenge was attempted again
by the group of 55 members of Parliament (G55) in 1993; and by the Kisanga
Commission in 1998; and finally (so far) by the Warioba Commission in
2014. All these attempts have so far
failed to achieve their desired objective of re-establishing a separate
Government of Tanganyika. And just as well, because the ‘two-government’
structure, which gives Zanzibar complete autonomy over their ‘internal
affairs’, i.e. the non-Union matters, is what has saved us from serious
problems such as those currently afflicting the Federal Republic of Cameroon in
West Africa.
All these
challenges are discussed in great detail in my latest book mentioned above.
They are reproduced here in summary form, for the benefit of our readers who
might be unable to access the said book.
Source: Daily News and courtesy of Cde Msekwa today.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
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