By Patrick Nimisi –
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday announced changes in government leadership as she marked one year of being in office.
She appointed ruling party CCM former spokesman Humphrey Polepole as Tanzania’s new High Commissioner to Malawi in a move seen as designed to mute dissent within the party.
Mr Polepole was a close confidante of former president John Magufuli but lost his seat at the CCM high table after President Samia took over in March last year. He then shifted to a backbencher role as a nominated member of parliament.
His latest transfer to a foreign posting spelled the end of a period during which he became an increasingly vocal critic of various policy positions adopted by the Samia administration, including Covid-19 protocols shunned by Magufuli.
President Samia named Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, a former chief minister of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, as a nominated MP in Mr Polepole’s place.
She also reinstated Nehemiah Msechu as director-general of the state-run National Housing Corporation (NHC) four years after he was sacked by Magufuli. He also replaced Waziri Kindamba with Peter Ulanga as chief executive officer of the Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), another key public utility.
Mr Kindamba becomes Njombe Regional Commissioner while Mr Msechu’s predecessor at NHC, Dr Maulid Banyani, will be “assigned other duties”, presidential spokesperson Zuhura Yunus said in a statement.
Mr Msechu won many plaudits for transforming NHC from a bureaucratic government organ to a commercially-viable real estate industry player during his earlier eight-year-stint as DG, from April 2010 to June 2018.
He was removed by President Magufuli along with the NHC board of directors over allegations of managerial misconduct and financial impropriety.
