DURING his 2015 campaign for the second five-year term, President Ali Mohamed Shein pledged to continue finding solutions to several challenges such as unemployment, poor health services, and water blues, among others, facing the Islands.
He vowed before thousands of electorates
in both Unguja and Pemba to have reforms including accountability in
public offices, initiate exploration of oil and gas, improve
agriculture, infrastructure and attract investors in order to move
Zanzibar closer to a middle income country.
Dr Shein promised to build a prosperous
“new Zanzibar” with sustainable and inclusive economic growth and to
promote unity and peace in the clove-rich islands. Most Zanzibaris who
followed the campaign trail, especially supporters of the ruling Chama
Cha Mapinduzi -- mainly the youth -- were excited hoping that their
lives would be better.
Leaders of the opposition Civic United
Front (CUF) expressed doubt, saying “Dr Shein cannot change Zanzibar as
he forced himself into power after unconstitutionally nullifying the
2015 October General Elections and that development partners had
sidelined the Islands because of the poll results.”
CUF Deputy Secretary General (Zanzibar),
Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, claimed that Dr Shein would fail in his endeavour
to move the country forward economically and socially after the donors
cut aid because of the nullification of the 2015 General Elections
results.
However, one year on in his second term
in office, President Shein has succeeded in fulfilling in his pledges to
turn Zanzibar into a prosperous nation. Most Zanzibaris are beginning
to understand that Dr Shein is on the right track in fulfilling his
pledges.
A glaring success story is the provision
of free education and health services, the increase of government
employee basic salary from 150,000/- to 300,000/- per month and the
availability of medicines in all hospitals.
The president has also won accolades on
improvement of infrastructures -- roads, airports and seaports, and
plans to purchase another passenger/cargo ship and oil-tanker.
During a meeting with journalists last
week at the State House to mark his one-year in office, Dr Shein said
that he has recorded success in the past year using funds collected from
the internal sources of revenue. He said good revenue collection of
more than 504bn/- in eleven months has enabled the government to settle a
debt of 38.2bn/- owed to 2,739 pensioners.
He said Zanzibar’s economy is projected to grow by 6.6 per cent while inflation remains at 5.7 percent.
He appealed to Zanzibaris to work hard
in every sector of human activity to resuscitate the economy. Dr Shein
said foreign and local investors such as the Azam Group of Companies
have been working on big projects -- housing, first class hotels,
recreation centres, roads and light industries which are opportunities
for employing the youth.
He said construction of nine modern
schools is underway with a loan from the World Bank, adding that Japan,
China and India have approved millions of dollars for water projects.
Other areas of improvement are the public media ZBC-Radio, TV, and the
Zanzibar-Leo newspaper.
The president said that Zanzibar has
been performing well as the economy looks to have a bright future. Dr
Shein’s first five-year term started in 2010 to 2015 and the second term
began in 2016 after fresh general elections.
The March 20, 2016, repeat elections
were held following the nullification of the 2015 October polls due to
massive fraud and irregularities according to the Zanzibar Electoral
Commission (ZEC). The president won the rerun polls by 91 percent and
was sworn-in for his second fiveterm.
The main opposition party boycotted the
repeat elections. “Surely, Zanzibar is on track in achieving its
development goals. We have recorded good performance in the past year
with improved social services,” Dr Shein told journalists. He thanked
the public and security agencies for maintaining peace as a prerequisite
for development.
Incidents of torture by security forces,
abuse of the children and women, corruption, theft of farms proudest
and livestock and poor performance in schools are some of the challenges
that President Shein has to tackle during his second term in office.
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