OPENING SPEECH BY THE CHAIRMAN OF CHAMA CHA MAPINDUZI (CCM), HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT BENJAMIN WILLIAM MKAPA, AT THE SIXTH ORDINARY CCM NATIONAL CONGRESS, CHIMWAGA – DODOMA, 29 OCTOBER 2002 Your Excellency Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of the Republic of Mozambique and Chairman of FRELIMO; Your Excellency Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Retired President and CCM Chairman; Honourable John Samwel Malecela, MP, CCM Vice-Chairman; Honourable Dr. Salmin Amour, CCM Vice-Chairman; Honourable Armando Guebuza, FRELIMO Secretary-General; Honourable Philip Mangula, CCM Secretary-General; Honourable Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa, Retired CCM Secretary-General; Honourable Mama Maria Nyerere; Honourable Mama Fatma Karume; Honourable Members of the Central Committee and National Executive Committee of CCM; Honourable Comrade Delegates; Our Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen. I welcome all Delegates to the Sixth Ordinary National Congress of the Ruling Party – Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). Your presence here is illustrative of CCM’s democratic credentials. For, you did not just decide to come to Chimwaga. You have been sent here by those who own this party – namely all CCM members – to come and make important decisions on their behalf, in pursuit of national interests. You went through a rigorous democratic electoral process in all corners of our country, and you emerged victorious. I congratulate you. I trust that you have all been received well, that you found a good place to sleep, that you are being provided with all essential services, and that you are all, therefore, ready for the important work that brought us here. It is a great honour to be entrusted with this work; we must live up to what is expected of us. As I survey this hall, I see everywhere excitement that is almost palpable. It is my hope that we will all direct our excitement to those basic issues for the sustenance and development of our Party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and our Nation. On your behalf, I want to thank our hosts, the people of Dodoma, and the Party Secretariat, for the work they have done to prepare for this Congress. I know some of the people of Dodoma had to work round the clock to ensure the preparatory work is concluded, and all delegates and guests are well received. It is not an easy task; but those are the responsibilities that come with being the national capital. On behalf of all the delegates, I thank you for what you have done. I should like to recognise the good work done by engineers, technicians and our young people who worked hard, day and night, to ensure this building, and the hall we are in, are properly spruced up. Their good work is evident to all, and we thank them for what they have done. I especially welcome our elders and retired leaders of TANU, ASP and CCM. I am pleased that the retired Chairman, Mzee Ali Hassan Mwinyi, and the retired Secretary-General, Mzee Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa, are both here. They have continued to be our fortress, and a fountain of wisdom for the leaders of today. And they have kept the fountain open for us to access their wisdom as and when we so desire. The challenge before us is to learn from their example of self-less dedication to serving others. You all know that Mzee Kawawa has done more than his fair share of service to this country. He has every right to rest. Yet, in view of his great love for the Party, he did not let his ill-health stand in the way of his coming here to support and encourage us. I thank our elders for coming. At a personal level, I thank them for always being a ready source of advice and encouragement in the difficult task of leading the Party and the Government. I am gratified that we shall today honour the founders of our Party in different ways. We shall honour the co-founder of the Tanzania Nation, and first Chairman of ASP, the late Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume. We will hand over to the family of the late Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the Party’s No. 1 Card. We shall also launch a book on the life of Mzee Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa. It is right that we do these things; but it is even more important that this should be a learning experience for us – that we should honour them by walking in their footsteps, by being true nationalists, leaders of integrity, selflessly serving others, and loving our nation and our fellow Tanzanians. Our Vice-Chairman (Zanzibar), Dr. Salmin Amour, has decided not to stand for re-election to this post. On your behalf, I want to thank him very much for all he did during his leadership. He has served the Party, and our two Governments, for many years, and with a zeal that left the Opposition in disarray. He paid due attention to the interests of the Party and his fellow Tanzanians; and I am sure he will continue to do so for the rest of his life. We thank you, Dr. Salmin Amour, for that dedicated service to the Party and our Governments, and for the good example you have shown by passing on the tongs of leadership under the most pleasant circumstances. We are sure to continue drawing on your experience and wisdom in the affairs of the Party and our two Governments. I thank you. Honourable Comrade Delegates, On your behalf, I thank all our guests for accepting our invitation to this National Congress. I especially thank you, Comrade Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of the Republic of Mozambique and Chairman of FRELIMO, the ruling party, for agreeing to come. And we appreciate the fact that you came with such a strong delegation that truly reflects the strength of the sentiments of friendship and blood relations between our two countries and peoples, and between CCM and FRELIMO. Among others, you came with FRELIMO’s Secretary-General, Comrade Armando Guebuza. He is not a stranger to our country; he is a fellow revolutionary and an ardent advocate of the freedom and rights of African people. On behalf of Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and in the presence of all delegates to this Congress, I congratulate you, Comrade Guebuza, for your election as Secretary-General of FRELIMO at the last Congress of your Party, on 13 – 14 June 2002, to which Congress you were kind enough to invite us. Such close relations are an illustration of a long history of friendship, comradeship, co-operation and solidarity, in both good and bad times. But they are especially useful in passing on to our youth, in both countries, these sentiments. They need to know where we came from, and where we need to direct our efforts so as to further strengthen relations between our two countries, and our two parties. We must bequeath to our youth our deep friendship and our multifaceted relations. We, in CCM, are proud of what FRELIMO has achieved in Mozambique. Not only did you liberate your country – by the sweat of your brows and the blood of your combatants – but also you have now liberated it from insecurity, and are rightly focussing on economic growth. Under your able leadership, President Chissano, Mozambique is now peaceful and stable—politically and in terms of security. In addition, Mozambique continues to make impressive gains in economic growth and poverty reduction. We congratulate you, President Chissano, and the FRELIMO Secretary-General, Comrade Guebuza, for the successes you attained in restoring peace and stability in your country. The United Nations estimates that in the 16 years of civil war in your country, more than 40 percent of all schools were destroyed or closed; more than 40 percent of health facilities were destroyed or closed; and many industries were destroyed such that at the end of the war, industrial production was only 20 – 40 percent of what it was before the war. It is further estimated that the total cost of the war on the Mozambican economy was USD 15 billion, or several times the country’s GDP before the war. Your success in ending the war through negotiations has two important lessons for all Africans. First, civil war fuels poverty, and it has no benefit to the average citizen. Second, we learn that when there is political will among the leadership of the belligerents, it is possible to end war pretty quickly. This is a lesson that countries in the Great Lakes region have to learn from your experience. We also congratulate you on your economic successes. Last year, you attained an average growth rate in excess of 9.2 percent, compared to a continental average of only 4.4 percent. We congratulate you. In politics, I want to especially commend you for enhancing the position of women in the political decision-making levels of your Government. We have agreed in SADC that women must occupy at least 30 percent of all the seats in our Parliaments. You have already attained this goal, and I want to congratulate you before this National Congress. I want our delegates to understand why I am so determined that we should also reach that target before I leave office in 2005. Honourable Comrade Delegates, As I said, this is an Ordinary Session of the National Congress. Section 74(2) of the Party Constitution states that, ―The National Congress of CCM shall be the highest organ of CCM, and it shall have the final say and authority on all Party matters.‖ In exercise of that authority, we shall, among other things, do two main things. First, we shall receive and discuss a report on the Party’s activities over the last 5 years.