Prominent African leaders urge Tanzania to free opposition leader Tundu Lissu and unban his party

The Platform for African Democrats (PAD), a group of mostly opposition leaders from the continent, has written to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, urging her to release the opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is standing trial for treason and faces the death penalty.

The 42 prominent democrats also called on Hassan to unban Chadema, the opposition party that Lissu leads, to allow it to participate in Tanzania’s general elections next month. Hassan is running for the presidency for the first time after assuming office on the death in office of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021.

Failing the release of Lissu and the unbanning of Chadema, “these elections will be (and will be seen to be) nothing more than a sham, and will negatively come to define your presidency, which began with the promise of reform,” says the letter.

“There can be no free and fair election where the leader of the opposition is on trial and the party he leads is banned. Without a free and fair election, there will be questions about the entitlement of the party which wins the election to govern.”

The PAD is an initiative of the World Liberty Congress, led by exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It was supported by SA’s Brenthurst Foundation until that was closed recently.

Among the signatories of the letter to Hassan are former Botswana president Ian Khama; Adalberto Costa Jnr, president of Angola’s main opposition party, Unita; former Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti and Bulawayo mayor David Coltart, both members of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC); Venâncio Mondlane, a Mozambican presidential candidate; Moeketsi Majoro, a former prime minister of Lesotho; Alfonso Prat-Gay, a former finance minister of Argentina; and Lopez.

Lissu’s treason trial continues, although it became more difficult for the public to follow it on 18 August when the presiding magistrate banned live coverage of the proceedings on the grounds that it was jeopardising the safety of witnesses.

In an op-ed in Daily Maverick last week, Lissu wrote: “My treason trial is a death sentence for Tanzania’s democracy.”

He recounted how he had been persecuted — and in a 2017 attack shot 16 times — during the autocratic rule of Magufuli, but had expected much better of Hassan.

“She promised dialogue, reconciliation, ‘maridhiano’. She lifted the ban on rallies. She invited exiles to return. I met her in Brussels in 2022; she assured me of my safety. On that basis, I returned home.

“But promises proved hollow. Instead of reform, Samia perfected Magufuli’s methods: repression draped in softer language, persecution disguised as procedure. Where Magufuli ruled with brute force, Samia rules with legal subterfuge. The result is the same: opposition silenced, democracy strangled, the will of the people denied.”

Civil resistance call

Lissu said he had been charged with treason for publicly calling, on 3 April, for civil resistance against what he said would be rigged elections next month. He added, “There will be no legitimate election in 2025 without fundamental reforms to our broken electoral system.”

He said a high court judge had barred Chadema from participating in elections for five years because his party had refused to sign the “partisan ‘code of ethics’ of the so-called Independent Electoral Commission. This is not law. It is political assassination by other means.”

Meanwhile, the 42 signatories of the PAD letter to Hassan wrote, “The ‘SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections’ adopted in July 2015 commits all member-states to ‘undertake to implement interventions designed to promote democratic principles and practices’. This includes the responsibility to ‘guarantee and ensure a political environment that is conducive to the conduct of democratic elections’.

“There are no shortcuts. A nation draws its will principally from the example of its leaders; a lack of leadership will invariably plunge a country into a quagmire of indecision and self-doubt of a sort that will appear familiar to any student of contemporary politics. Success requires a clear political vision, a willingness to meet criticism with reasoned responses in open debate, an economy of force and time, as well as the stamina and patience to get the job done.

“Good leaders are more than good managers. They have to be able to motivate others by both reason and emotion in a manner that satisfies short-term interests but meets strategic needs. In this, there also has to be a moral dimension. The definition of good leaders has to involve more than having a vision or a cause and setting about its achievement. Good leaders have to not only make a difference, but do so in a manner that benefits a great number of people,” reads the letter.

“In forging a sense of national purpose, building a nation (or saving it), a good leader is one who rises to the challenge, not only aware of just knowing but actually doing the right thing.

“We trust that this letter will offer food for thought as you contemplate your options over the next several weeks, and the impact these will have on your legacy. The thunder of history reverberates in the footsteps of great leaders.” DM