CHADEMA national chairman Freeman Mbowe has cautioned against despair or desperation at the party approaches its national leadership elections.

Launching new party offices for Kinondoni District in Dar es Salaam yesterday, he said that party members need to remain hopeful and maintain a spirit of courage and resilience.

 In his eagerly awaited remarks, he emphasized that challenges facing the party should not be a source of discouragement for members as power struggles in any organisation or setting are a natural part of life.

Every institution must go through such difficulties, he said, underlining that political activities should not lead to despair. “Let us not allow feelings of hopelessness to take over; instead, let us remain courageous and determined. If we allow despair to dominate, we begin to seek shortcuts and we should not be looking for shortcuts,” he remarked.

He called on the party leaders and members to uphold discipline within the organization. "We must build a cohesive family, and a family cannot be run if insults keep being heard,” he said.

At the Kinondoni meeting, the party leader emphasised on party members to keep faith in the party and to focus on their shared goals, cautioning that there was a danger for party unity to break down. 

“If we disagree on ideas, let us not view those who think differently as enemies,’ he said, vowing to keep building, strengthening, helping and guiding one another, “to ensure that the party emerges stronger tomorrow than it was yesterday." 

Chadema has evolved over time and members need to keep developing it while remaining united, he said, affirming that the party was once for just a few people, but it has become a national party. 

Some of its followers are Chadema members and others are not, but they all see Chadema as the last hope for this nation, he said, projecting a situation where the party grow stronger and the other onlookers join it.

“Ultimately, we will form a powerful movement greater than anything imaginable and that is when our dream of leading this nation will begin to come true,” he told the gathering.

Observers saw the remark as directed at vice chairman (Mainland) Tundu Lissu, that his energetic and confrontational drive to seek power could rob the party of a chance to realise its dream of becoming powerful and capable of winning elections.

John Mnyika, the party's secretary general, used the function to announce the process and timetable for the party's top leadership elections and to various wings or councils.

Prospective candidates can begin collecting and submitting nomination forms for various positions right up to January 5.

The key positions are national chairman, vice-chairman (Mainland) and vice-chairman (Zanzibar), secretary-general and for the elders’ council (Mainland). Others are deputy secretary general (Mainland), deputy secretary general (Zanzibar), and treasurer.

There are also five membership positions to the central committee (four from the Mainland and one from Zanzibar), as well as 20 members to the national congress (15 from the Mainland and five from Zanzibar).

He largely dismissed allegations made by the declared chairmanship contender on a decline in integrity within the party, demanding that the claims “be formally submitted to his office for investigation.”