Unwittingly, Tanzania police just walked into Tundu Lissu’s political trap and cannot extricate itself without abandoning those frivolous and vexatious treason and incitement charges. Last week, Chadema’s top brass announced that all who support her political cause of a just Tanzania should flock to the Kisutu resident magistrates courts where Tundu Lissu was supposed to be brought in a criminal court appearance. The police instinctively knew they had just created a political martyr in Tundu Lissu with powerful moral tenets to boot.
With alacrity rarely seen, the police banned the court attendance from the general public! That police ban is illegal under Tanzanian law, leaving all and sundry wondering under which legal framework the Tanzanian police operate in.
This article revisits the aftermath of Tundu Lissu arrest, and how it is now galvanizing the nation to clamour for social, economic and political justice for all. Interestingly, Tundu Lissu is now our own, the titan Nelson Mandela reincarnated before our own stunned eyes!
CCM political strategy to contain Chadema was dead on arrival. It was a copycat playbook from the colonial era, and is so familiar that to disentangle it is so easy. CCM unleashed the police against the opposition bellwether, Tundu Lissu in a twisted hope fear rather than wisdom will prevail. They were dead wrong!
Fear had its reckoning moments in the last 63 years of independence, but now, having been forced to choose between the hopes shrouded in freedoms and capitulation to poverty out of fear, Tanzanians are increasingly opting for the former. Police teargas now don’t have the foreboding effect they once had: scattering the audiences to submissions. These days the audience stays put, exchanging slurs with their tormentors. So, it no longer has the bludgeoning effect it once had: intimidation as a means to quell the defiance.
The arrest of the vice chairperson of Chadema, John Heche, was pointless. His audience came to his rescue from the clutches of the police. They would have none of the police threats of violence. They even attempted to obstruct the police from arresting him, beckoning the contentions that can only grow to precipitous heights. This is now a live, ticking bomb.
Tundu Lissu had a court date on 24th April 2025 to answer charges of implicating President Samia Suluhu Hassan as the one who had engineered the alleged Tamisemi disqualifications of most Chadema candidates throughout the country. The police designated those social media postings as incitement. The problem for the police is those fabricated charges upend public accountability and don’t fall into the realm of incitement! So the police’s goose is already cooked without a bonfire!
The buck stops with the president and since what Tundu Lissu was alleging was true, the president has to bear full responsibility because Tamisemi falls under her orbit. She cannot hide herself under the shrubbery of false charges of incitement and treason.
At least five Chadema senior leaders, an undisclosed number of personal bodyguards, assistants and diehards were severely clubbed by the police and some were dragged to waiting police pickups for defying the police order of not attending the Tundu Lissu appointment at Kisutu magistrates courts. The whereabouts of those taken by the police remains unclear. I have seen a number of videos online of the victims of police brutality being circulated. They impressed me as genuine, just too legit to ignore.
Most of the victims cannot walk on their own and had to be carried on the shoulders of their well-wishers. It was unclear what weapons were used to neutralize them were clubs or brunt objects. Some had blood oozing from their knees and while others were lying down in trauma. Chadema top leaders have also confirmed brutal beatings of their fellow leaders and supporters and at keast one murder in the hands of the police. These are police extrajudicial violence afflicted on innocent citizens.
Chadema claimed one person who was not quickly identified had died from police brutality. I could not independently verify this claim, and the police are yet to give a press statement on what really had transpired there by the time I was preparing this article. Some of the Chadema leaders like vice chairperson John Heche and secretary general John Mnyika were reportedly apprehended by the police on their way to Kisutu magistrates courts. The deputy secretary general of Chadema Amani Gogulwa has issued a three hour ultimatum for their unconditional and immediate release.
Martha Karua of Kenya has joined the local and international campaign to release Tundu Lissu unconditionally. She came from Nairobi Kenya to attend Tundu Lissu’s court appearance which didn’t happen for reasons appended much earlier in this article. Strangely, Raila Amollo Odinga the kingpin of Kenyan opposition is yet to issue a statement on this confounding friend and foe in equal footing.
The more the police are squeezing Chadema the more it confirms our worst fears: we are back under an occupation rule. After the arrest of Tundu Lissu, the Heritage Foundation downgraded Tanzania ranking from “partly free” to “totally not free.” A country which isn’t free always has its freedom fighters and Chadema sumptuously fits this bill.
The whole tragedy is beginning to reminisce what the martyr Nelson Mandela braved during the Apartheid era. Here is a recollection of what really happened.
Nelson Mandela incarceration inspired the South Africa nation, and the whole world.
Nelson Mandela’s court appearances during the apartheid era were pivotal moments in his fight against racial oppression and his journey to becoming a global symbol of resistance. Below is a detailed overview of his key trials and their significance:
- 1952 Defiance Campaign Trial.
Charges
Mandela and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for organizing the Defiance Campaign, a nonviolent protest against apartheid laws like passbooks and segregation.
Outcome:
All were convicted and sentenced to nine months’ hard labor, suspended for two years. This trial marked Mandela’s emergence as a national leader and his first major confrontation with apartheid laws.
Impact:
The campaign galvanized mass resistance and solidified Mandela’s role in the ANC Youth League. He later co-founded South Africa’s first Black law firm with Oliver Tambo, providing legal aid to apartheid victims.
- 1956–1961 Treason Trial.
Charges:
Mandela and 155 others (including Walter Sisulu) were accused of “high treason” for advocating a nonracial democratic state. The trial dragged on for four years.
Key Moment:
Mandela’s testimony emphasized the ANC’s commitment to nonviolence and highlighted systemic racial inequality. He famously stated, The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it ever condemned capitalist society.
Outcome:
All defendants were acquitted in 1961 due to insufficient evidence. The trial exposed the apartheid regime’s brutality and drew international attention.
- 1962 Incitement Trial.
Charges:
Arrested after returning from military training abroad, Mandela faced charges of leaving the country illegally and inciting a workers’ strike.
Strategy:
Mandela turned the trial into a political platform, wearing traditional Xhosa attire and delivering his Black Man in a White Man’s Court speech. He argued that apartheid laws rendered his actions morally justified.
Outcome:
Sentenced to five years in prison. This trial marked his shift from nonviolence to supporting sabotage campaigns through Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s armed wing.
- 1963–1964 Rivonia Trial.
Context:
After a police raid on MK’s secret headquarters in Rivonia, Mandela and 10 others were charged with sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government—a capital offence.
The Speech:
Mandela’s three-hour I Am Prepared to Die speech from the dock became legendary. He admitted to planning sabotage but framed it as a last resort against apartheid’s violence:
“During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. […] It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
The speech humanized Black South Africans and rallied global support.
Outcome:
Mandela and seven co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964. He spent 27 years in prison, primarily on Robben Island, before his 1990 release.
- Legacy of Mandela’s Trials.
Legal Strategy:
Mandela used courtrooms to expose apartheid’s injustices, blending legal defense with moral indictment. His speeches redefined the narrative of resistance.
International Solidarity:
The Rivonia Trial, in particular, sparked global condemnation of apartheid. Protests erupted worldwide, and the UN imposed sanctions on South Africa.
Symbol of Resilience:
Mandela’s unyielding stance, even in the face of execution, transformed him into a global icon of freedom and reconciliation.
Post-Apartheid Reflections.
Decades later, Mandela’s trials remain central to South Africa’s reckoning with its past. Recent efforts, such as the 2025 trial of apartheid-era police officers, underscore the enduring quest for justice that Mandela’s activism inspired. His legacy also influenced rulings like the 2019 restriction of the apartheid-era flag as hate speech , reinforcing his vision of a unified nation.
Concluding remarks.
Tundu Lissu is now the embodiment of Tanzania’s resistance against state-sponsored oppression, and he is a beacon for social, economic and political reforms that CCM cannot sabotage any more. The police can only accelerate but not defeat an idea that has fully matured: getting CCM off our backs. Now, the world fully knows that Tanzania’s democracy was dead even before it was reintroduced. The whole Tanzanian democratic sham was built in quicksand, now it is raining cats and dogs, the typhoon has hit it hard and the Noah floods are sweeping the delusions away. Nobody is now capable of turning the tide that has come at the right moment and to a generation hungry for meaningful change to better their lives.
The relationship between CCM and her neo-colonial masters will change to capture the harsh realities on the ground.
Read more analysis by Rutashubanyuma Nestory
