Msekwa, former Zanzibar AG brief CA members on Union

By The guardian reporter

Former Speaker of the National Assembly Pius Msekwa addresses doubts raised over signatures in the Charter of the Union following claims of forgery by members of the Constitution Assembly.

Former speaker of the National Assembly Pius Msekwa and retired Zanzibar Attorney General, Othman Masoud Othman were yesterday called to provide clarifications on the Union as Constituent Assembly members worked on the draft constitution.


Briefing journalists here yesterday Chairman of Committee Number 2, Shamsi Vuai Nahodha said they called in the two former officials after some CA members demanded to be provided with the original Union Charter and the Act by which the Revolutionary Council approved the Union agreement.

They also wanted to know the whereabouts of the original Union agreement between the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who represented Tanganyika and Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume for Zanzibar.

He said the type of government structure stated in the Union Charter was also raised by the members, including how the name Tanzania came into being and the authenticity of the signatures in the Act approving the union agreement especially that of Pius Msekwa, then Clerk of the National Assembly.
“Following the request, we had to invite Msekwa and the
Zanzibar Attorney General, Othman Masoud Othman in today’s morning session so that they could give clarifications on the issues raised by the committee members,” he said.

He said when asked whether he had came across the Union agreement, Othman the Zanzibar Attorney General said he had never seen the document, but according to his expertise he had no doubt regarding the Union, because there were no legal reasons to seek for the document.

Nahodha said Othman also said that he has not seen the Act which was enacted by the Revolutionary Council to approve the Union Agreement, but the Schedule of Articles of the Union was attached to the Act which was passed by the Union Parliament.

On the government structure Msekwa said the Schedule of Articles of the Union contained in the Union Agreement states that there will be the Union government, the government of Zanzibar, Union Parliament and Revolutionary Council.

On his signature in the Act to approve the Union Agreement which was signed in April 1964, he said he had no doubt it was his.

Meanwhile, some of the twelve committees of the CA yesterday finished discussing Chapter One of the draft constitution and had the members cast their votes for or against the nine sections contained in it.

Briefing the media, Chairman of Committee number Five, Hamad Rashid Mohamed said his committee finished discussions on Chapter One and planned to start working on Chapter Six during yesterday’s evening session.

He said 35 of the committee’s 52 members gave contributions during the meetings, while at least 38 members suggested amendments of some sections of Chapter One. He said after finishing work on Chapter One, the committee members were voted on the nine sections contained in Chapter One.

Mohamed said through voting, some sections were approved and some were not. For instance he said section one, sub section one which contains the federation issue was not approved by two thirds of the delegates from the Zanzibar 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN