Tanzanian ruling party leader vows to remove corrupt members

Chairman of Tanzania's ruling party -- Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), President John Magufuli on Tuesday vowed to cleanse the party of corrupt members.

"There is a lot of corruption within the party, especially during elections to pick our leaders. We should now say enough is enough," said Magufuli.

He told his first meeting of the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam that the crackdown on corrupt members will begin during next year's elections for leaders of the party.

President Magufuli was elected CCM chairman in July, this year, eight months after he was elected president of the east African nation, the second largest economy in the region.

Magufuli replaced retired President Jakaya Kikwete at the end of his two term five-year presidency.

He said that CCM's top organs will not hesitate to annul election results if leaders are found to be elected through corrupt means.

Magufuli said CCM will follow its elections regulations and the party's constitution in making sure that the party elected good leaders.

He said the thrust was to have a ruling party that belonged to all members and "not a single powerful member who dictates each and everything".

Magufuli said: "When you have a powerful member calling all the shots, then the whole party will swing into his ways, and the party will become his property and not the property of all members."

CCM'S NEC elected Humphrey Polepole the party's new Secretary for Ideology and Publicity, replacing Christopher Ole Sendeka who was recently appointed by President Magufuli Njombe Regional Commissioner.

Speaking in July shortly after he had assumed the party's chair, Magufuli said: "I will not let anyone within CCM buy leadership. I want those elections that are based on qualifications regardless of religion, tribe or gender of that particular person."

He urged every CCM member qualified to vie in next year's party elections to come out promising that money will not be exchanged for leadership.

Magufuli said CCM had lost direction and became a party for the rich, noting that getting leadership position for those without money was like a 'camel going through the eye of a needle,' vowing to trample out such behaviour within the ruling party. Enditem