Both Lissu and Besigye have been repeatedly targeted and arrested by the government with Lissu narrowly surviving an assassination attempt in which he was shot 16 times allegedly at the behest of late President John Magufuli in 2017...
Mbowe has led the party for over 20 years and Lissu's most potent line of attack – though hotly denied by Mbowe who was jailed by former President John Magufuli on trumped up terrorism charges – was that he had been far too conciliatory towards a CCM machine that has been in power since independence (AC Vol 46 No 19 Kikwete opts for continuity)...
DISPATCHES
Hassan has sought to position herself as a reformer ending a ban on political rallies releasing Mbowe from prison and repealing repressive laws against the media imposed by her predecessor John Magufuli...
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The arrests of hundreds of opposition leaders and activists planning to attend rallies marking International Youth Day suggests that the spirit of former President John Magufuli lives on despite the lip service paid to democracy by his successor President Samia Suluhu Hassan...
In the 2015 elections Lowassa won 39% of the presidential vote against the CCM's compromise candidate John Pombe Magufuli which is the closest run for the presidency the CCM has ever had despite Lowassa's campaign being affected by his obvious ill-health (AC Vol 56 No 15 CCM springs surprise)...
Critics say the sad saga of inept power sector management continued with the late President John Magufuli's commissioning of the Julius Nyerere Hydroelectric Dam on the Rufiji river...
The outspoken Paul Makonda who has just been appointed to a key ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) post is fast emerging as the leader of a new dawn for resurgent loyalists of the late 'bulldozer' President John Magufuli and the Lake Zone regions especially Geita and Mwanza from which they hail (see Box Paul Makonda another bulldozer in the making)...
Makonda warned 'that anyone who opposes President Samia Suluhu Hassan will be opposed to the late John Magufuli…' A powerful ethno-regional bloc based on gold-rich Mwanza in the Lake Zone was Magufuli's power base...
In 2016 President John Magufuli promoted Makonda to Regional Commissioner for Dar es Salaam where he threw his weight around...
DISPATCHES
Lissu the former Chadema party leader who returned to Tanzania in January after several years of recovering in Belgium from an assassination attempt by former President John Magufuli's security services has been holding political rallies across the country (Dispatches 1/2/23 Tundu Lissu's return prompts first opposition rallies for seven years)...
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DISPATCHES
On 13 August Willibrod Slaa a former MP for the opposition Chadema party who later served as Tanzania's ambassador to Sweden and Finland under former president John Magufuli became the latest high-profile figure to be arrested for criticising the deal...
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A key part of the political identity of late President John Magufuli was to promote massive infrastructural projects to boost industrialisation and bring prosperity...
It confirmed her growing confidence as a leader and the strengthening of her independent political base as she dismantles the legacy of her late predecessor President John Magufuli...
Looking back on a turbulent transition President Samia Suluhu Hassan's matronly hijab-wearing image projecting little charisma was just right for the elders of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) when they picked her to act as a foil to President John Magufuli's populist 'bulldozer' persona as the vice-presidential candidate on his ticket in 2015 (AC Vol 62 No 6 After Magufuli a difficult transition)...