CCM reshuffles: A case of a leopard trying to change its spots

Simbarashe Msasanuri

(BongBlast)
The winds of change that currently swept across the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi's top echelon seems to be the dim light beginning to show at the end of a long and dark tunnel as it brings with it hope that sanity will at last be restored in the party that is said to have lost touch with the people who voted them into power.

Though for many, the changes are welcome and being considered a move towards the right direction, there is need to be cautious and let time vindicate the changes. The recent changes, everyone will agree with me, were not only necessary for the party to strengthen itself and regain wananchi's confidence, but also were long overdue.

The party made a bold decision by replacing old brooms with seemingly new ones, in a bid to sweep clean the party that was slowly moving towards political abyss that could have seen the party losing its relevance and subsequently dying a natural death. The move, hailed by many, should be used as a springboard for the revival of the party. The new leadership should live up to expectations if ever they will entertain any thoughts of reviving the party that is facing its strongest ever opposition in history.

And, with the newly appointed secretary-general, Mr Wilson Mukama, having immediately assumed office and promised fireworks, vowing to leave no stone unturned when it comes to tackling corruption, all hope seems not lost for the party and if the whole team adopts this vigor and vitality, fronting a no nonsense approach to corruption and other practices that are demeaning the party, then CCM will be invincible in no time.

Mukama warned the party members implicated in corruption scandals to either quit or be prepared to face the music. But, though this is a good stance as corruption is fast becoming one of the causes of the party's downfall, many questions remain unanswered. One of them being the kind of music the secretary-general is promising that the party hasn't played before.

Though simple as it might look, the problem has roots too deep to uproot. The crisis the party is facing can never be solved by a mere threat and requires action. The first mistake the party did was to allow corrupt individuals to manipulate the party structures to their advantage, to become powerful people who will become very difficult to get rid of.

The new broom that has been commission, without adequate support from senior party members, might find the going too tough and the dirty too heavy to sweep. They will obviously make a lot of noise when they are still new in office but mark my word, if they are not strong enough, their noise will quickly turn into silence, relegating them to being toothless bulldogs.

This is so because in the first place, the party should have made these changes long back by banning all tainted leaders from vying for parliamentary and other government and party seats. We have a lot of these corrupt leaders who are members of parliament. They were elected by the people due to their influence and financial muscles and it will be difficult to get rid of them. Neither will it be easy to tell them to voluntarily resign or relinquish their posts. This will be a non starter and Mukama knows that.

The same people have used their financial acumen to penetrate the structures of the party to such an extent that getting rid of them seems mission impossible. If the restructuring exercise had begun before last year's elections, then the party could have managed to get rid of corrupt individuals by now. I know this might have a backlash on the party where divisions are likely to emerge but, it is for the betterment of the party as in the long run it would emerge more powerful than before.

The party gains nothing by harbouring controversial and corrupt individuals, who in most cases taint its image. Let me give free advice to Mukama and his team that the battle has just began and they should brace for a long and gruesome battle as these corrupt individuals are no push overs. They have stood their ground and managed to stay not only in the party but as leaders in various portfolios in government so this will be more of a David and Goliath battle.

The problem here is that when rotten tomatoes are placed in the same basket with fresh ones, they tend to spoil the good ones. And, this scenario does not only depict rotten tomatoes that were put in the same tin with good ones but those that have been in the basked for a long time, making it difficult to distinguish the rotten ones from those that are still good. This is the puzzle Mukama is facing to such an extent that the influence of the rotten ones has spread like veld fire within the party.

The new secretariat team, to show that they are not taking things lying down, pledged a CCM nationwide “cleansing” drive, which according to the new publicity secretary, Mr Nape Nnauye, will see reshuffles being conducted from district to regional level across the country.

On paper, the announced steps seem good and if they are religiously followed, then a new CCM is in the offing. What continues to boggle many people's minds is whether the party will be able to transform itself and gain the confidence of the general public.

Some people believe that the new team is just building castles in the air and very soon they will join the squad. The truth of the matter is that they will either succeed and bring about the much-needed change into the party or they will be swallowed and join them. No one will fault them since it is written that “if you can't defeat them, then join them.”

The secretariat faces a daunting task and they should be prepared to tear the party apart in order to rebuild it so that it emerges stronger. The problem is that politics is a game of numbers and influence. It is against this that it will be difficult for CCM to take decisive measures on those with tainted hands because besides it having the potential to split the party, it also has the ability to weaken it at a time the opposition is gaining ground at an alarming rate.

The other problem is that most of these corrupt individuals wield a lot of power in the party and they have a lot of supporters of which if they are expelled from the party, will likely to go with their supporters. The job is not as easy as the Mukama team thinks. It will be an uphill task trying to get rid of unruly elements from the party structures.

I would bet my last shilling that because the aim of the secretariat is to revive and not to weaken the party, they are most likely going to apply emergency breaks whenever they find themselves taking steps that are likely to worsen the party's fragility. As long as we continue to have the corrupt leaders within the party structures and the political environment remaining as it is for the country's oldest political party, changing the face of the party will remain just but a pipe dream.

It will remain to be seen whether CCM ‘itaweza kujivua gamba bila kujidhuru’. Only time will tell and a good luck to the new brooms. God bless us.