Samia: Politicians abusing freedoms
President Samia Suluhu Hassan speaks at a council of political parties stakeholders meeting in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
What you need to know:
- She told an audience at a political party conference in Dar es Salaam that she was now "not surprised" that the freedoms she had granted were now being turned into arenas for insulting the government.
Months after Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted a ban on political rallies, she says those who demanded the freedom have abused it.
The Tanzanian leader won praise earlier this year when she lifted a five-year ban on political rallies imposed by her predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli, who wanted the country to move forward together on development rather than make noise about political rallies.
But she told an audience at a political party conference in Dar es Salaam that she was now "not surprised" that the freedoms she had granted were now being turned into arenas for insulting the government.
She said on Monday that her political rivals, lacking an agenda, were constantly shifting blame or topics.
First they insulted her administration, then they demanded a constitutional review, then they demanded the cancellation of a controversial port deal she signed with an Emirati company. She said she had rebuffed them on all of them.
She was speaking after opposition leaders were detained on Sunday before being released on charges of illegal assembly.
Tundu Lissu, the deputy leader of the opposition Chadema party, later told a press conference in Arusha that they had been released on bail but would be charged with gathering without a police permit.
