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Tanzania passes Bill to give leaders immunity
Monday June 22 2020
Tanzania's President John Magufuli. Parliament passed a Bill that will offer immunity to the president, vice-president, prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, and the chief justice. FILE PHOTO
Tanzania has
passed a Bill that will offer immunity to its top leaders against
prosecution for any action undertaken while in office.
Tanzania’s
Parliament on June 10 endorsed amendments to the Basic Rights and
Duties Enforcement Act, giving leaders of the three arms of government
protection from being sued in their individual capacities.
The
leaders cited in the Bill are the president, vice-president, prime
minister (representing the Executive); speaker and deputy speaker of the
National Assembly (Legislature); and the chief justice (Judiciary). Any
person aggrieved by their actions will only have the option of suing
the State through the Attorney General.
The new clauses
are included in the Written Laws Miscellaneous Amendments No 3 of 2020,
which were approved under a certificate of urgency before Parliament
was dissolved this week to pave the way for the October General
Election.
The Bill was rushed through Parliament
despite an outcry from civil society over its constitutional
compatibility. It now awaits formal assent by President John Magufuli.
In
a private write-up, prominent Tanzanian law professor, Issa Shivji,
described the new clauses as an attempt to “amend the Constitution
through the back door” by abolishing public interest litigation and
conferring sovereign immunity on top public officials.
“This has severe implications for the rights to life, livelihood
and dignity of the large majority of working people in villages and
urban areas who are the primary victims of unconstitutional and illegal
acts of the organs and officials of the state at different levels,” Prof
Shivji said.
He added that petitions brought against
the Attorney General on behalf of any of the cited officials were now
likely to be dismissed. “Under these new clauses it is virtually
impossible to sue the heads of the three branches of state even if they
are alleged to have breached the constitution or the law of the land in
the performance of their constitutional duties.”
In an
online petition, a coalition of Tanzanian civil society organisations
said the amendment was aimed at “instigating blatant violations of the
national constitution” and called for strong public support against the
Bill before it became law.
“This Bill is poisonous to
civil rights in this country. The proposed amendments are aimed at
denying citizens the opportunity to resort to the rule of law where they
feel their constitutional rights are being violated,” the CSOs said.
Their
online petition against the Bill had registered well over 3,000
signatures out of a targeted 5,000 by the time it was passed in
Parliament.
In this Nov. 5, 2015, file photo, Tanzania's President John Magufuli holds up a ceremonial spear and shield to signify the beginning of his presidency, shortly after swearing an oath during his inauguration ceremony at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (Credit: Khalfan Said/AP.)
In this Nov. 5, 2015, file photo, Tanzania's President John Magufuli holds up a ceremonial spear and shield to signify the beginning of his presidency, shortly after swearing an oath during his inauguration ceremony at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (Credit: Khalfan Said/AP.)
God has ‘removed’ coronavirus, Tanzania’s president claims
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) —
Tanzania’s president is again claiming the country is free of the
coronavirus because of the power of prayer — six weeks after his
government stopped publicly updating virus data.
“Corona in our
country has been removed by the powers of God,” President John Magufuli
declared at a church service on Sunday. He praised the congregation for
not wearing face masks, amid cheers from the faithful. He has warned
that masks not approved by the government could be infected with the
virus.
Tanzania’s number of
COVID-19 cases has been stuck at 509 for six weeks as health officials,
opposition figures and some neighboring countries worry that cases in
the East African nation continue to climb. Opposition figures have
estimated that cases could be in the tens of thousands.
While many
African countries have been praised for their response to the virus,
Tanzania’s Magufuli believes the pandemic has been greatly exaggerated
and is being used by unnamed forces to sabotage the economy.
The president
has questioned, even fired, health officials and refused to limit
people’s movements, and he has claimed his son was healed of COVID-19 by
drinking a mixture of ginger and lemonade.
“When I came to
power they said we have cases of the Zika virus and I fired the person
who announced that ... Since I fired him five years ago, Tanzania has
not had cases of Zika,” Magufuli said at a teachers’ conference Friday
in the capital, Dodoma.
“Then they said
we have Ebola knowing that tourists will not come to a country which has
Ebola and people will not work here if there is Ebola,” he said, adding
that no one had died of that virus.
“Now we have
corona. They said bodies will be lying on streets in Africa. But they
did not know God loves Tanzania,” Magufuli said. “We prayed for three
days and the coronavirus is finished.”
He said only four people are sick with COVID-19 in the country of nearly 60 million people.
The U.S. Embassy
last month released a security alert asserting that hospitals in the
commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, were overwhelmed with virus patients.
Opposition
politician Zitto Kabwe later asserted that Magufuli had de-congested
hospitals in an effort to show a low number of infections.
