The Zanzibar Declaration
Although there had been debates within the CCM regarding the Leadership Code in the late 1980s, it was not until the beginning of the 1990s that internal party differences finally forced the CCM to back down from its ban on second incomes. The code had become an albatross on the backs of many leaders, argue Max Mmuya and Amon Chaligha. Many public officials no longer were involved only in small sideline projects, they had moved on to become large-scale entrepreneurs in the hotel and restaurant business, in the import and export business, in the transport, clearing, and forwarding of traded goods, in retail and wholesale trade, and in manufacturing. The debates over second incomes were part of broader discussions that took place behind closed doors over the continuance of Tanzania's ujamaa orientation, the future of parastatals, whether to allow party members to employ workers, property ownership, and other such issues that had been at the heart of the Arusha Declaration (Mmuya and Chaligha 1992, 44, 129).
Finally, in Zanzibar in February 1991, the National Executive Committee of the CCM revised the Arusha Declaration, stating that a party member could draw more than one salary, rent out houses in order to pay back the mortgage, and acquire shares in a private company. The committee's statement, which came to be known as the Zanzibar Declaration, stressed that party members were encouraged to keep livestock, farm, fish, and carry out petty trade. A CCM member could also be employed as a director in a private firm on a full-time basis, and that same person could earn more than one salary if he or she held more than one job.[29]
Ibid., 17 February 1991.
Although it was presented as a "clarification" of the Arusha Declaration rather thana revision of it and as an "adaptation to new social and economic conditions," there is little doubt that the policy change represented a significant shift in ideological orientation. The Zanzibar Declaration was an attempt by the CCM to gain popularity at a time when the debate over multiparty politics was in full force and the future of the CCM was increasingly coming into question.
The Arusha Declaration had been designed to check self-aggrandizement among party ranks at a time when people could buy food and save part of their earnings, the president said in a February 1991 speech. He pointed out that "due to prevailing economic difficulties in the country, the government could not afford to give civil servants, parastatal employees and party leaders adequate pay." Therefore, according to the president, it was illogical to restrict people who engaged in income-generating activities after their official working time.
The public debate that followed the abandonment of the Leadership Code indicated that there were still significant forces in the party that did not approve of the changes and believed that this new orientation would lead to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor in Tanzania. Many felt that it was tantamount to the dismantling of the Arusha Declaration. Others welcomed the move and called on the party to apologize to people who had been removed from leadership for opposing the declaration.[30]
Ibid., 8 March 1991, 18 February 1991.
For the most part, however, it was simply a matter of legitimating what had already been going on for years and of doing away with the hypocrisy.Apart from merely legalizing activities that were already widespread, the rejection of the Leadership Code also paved the way for the taxation of second incomes that previously could not be reported because people were hiding their businesses to avoid losing their formal jobs. Soon after the Leadership Code was dropped, new measures were taken to curb tax evaders. But most importantly, the Zanzibar Declaration represented a clear ideological retreat and helped lay the basis for the move toward multiparty politics.