Seif Sharif Hamad
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Seif Sharif Hamad (22 October 1943 – 17 February 2021) was a Tanzanian
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
who served as the First Vice President of Zanzibar and as Party Chairman of ACT Wazalendo. He was the secretary-general of the opposition
Civic United Front The Civic United Front (CUF; sw, Chama Cha Wananchi, ) is a liberal party in Tanzania. Although nationally based, most of the CUF's support comes from the Zanzibar islands of Unguja and Pemba. The party is a member of Liberal International. ...
(CUF) party and First Vice President of Zanzibar until 18 March 2019 when he announced his resignation from CUF and joined
Alliance for Change and Transparency The Alliance for Change and Transparency (), sometimes known as the ACT–Wazalendo, is the third-largest political party in Tanzania. It received its permanent registration in May 2014. Background The party was founded in 2014. The party fielde ...
. He was given an ACT Wazalendo card number One, and he also won the party nomination for the 2020 presidential candidate for Zanzibar.


Early life and career

1950–1957: Hamad attended Primary School at Uondwe and Wete Boys School, in
Pemba Pemba may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Pemba Island, in Tanzania * Pemba, Mozambique Pemba is a port city and district in Mozambique. It is the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado and lies on a peninsula in Pemba Bay. The town was found ...
. He started his secondary education from 1958–1961, at King George VI Memorial Secondary School, in Zanzibar Town, Zanzibar. Hamad goes on to attend High school education at the same school from 1962–1963. After completing high school in December 1963, for the next nine years (1964–1972), he was prevented from pursuing University Education because he was required to fill in one of the vacancies in the civil service caused by the mass departure of British officials in 1964, after being asked to do so by the new Zanzibar Revolutionary Government. He was posted to teach in Secondary Schools, before joining
University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in ...
in 1972–1975, and graduated with B.A. (Honors) in Political Science, Public Administration and International Relations. On 31 January 2021, it was announced that he had contracted
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
and was in hospital in Zanzibar.


Political career

Hamad served as a Member of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council and Zanzibar Minister of Education (1977–1980), founding member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives (1980–1989) and Member of Tanzanian Parliament (1977), Member of the Central Committee and National Executive Committee of Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) - Tanzania's Ruling Party (1977–1987), Head of the Economic and Planning Department of the CCM (1982–1987) and
Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...
of
Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...
from 6 February 1984 to 22 January 1988. Soon after his dismissal, he was expelled from the sole legal party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), after disputes with party officials. From May 1989 - November, 1991 he was imprisoned as a prisoner of conscience. When Tanzania adopted a
multiparty In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
political system in 1992, Hamad along with other former CCM members founded the
Civic United Front The Civic United Front (CUF; sw, Chama Cha Wananchi, ) is a liberal party in Tanzania. Although nationally based, most of the CUF's support comes from the Zanzibar islands of Unguja and Pemba. The party is a member of Liberal International. ...
party. The first multiparty elections took place in 1995 and Hamad was the CUF's candidate for the Presidency of Zanzibar. He was narrowly defeated by CCM candidate
Salmin Amour Salmin Amour (born 1942) is a Tanzanian politician who served as President of Zanzibar from 25 October 1990 to 8 November 2000. He was elected in 1990 as the sole candidate and received 98 percent of the votes. In Tanzania's first multi-party el ...
, winning 49.76% of the vote to Amour's 50.24%. Observers noted serious irregularities in the poll and the CUF rejected the result as rigged. Hamad was again defeated in the 2000 elections by CCM candidate Amani Abeid Karume. He received 32.96% of the vote to Karume's 67.04%. Observers condemned the poll citing widespread irregularities and instances of
intimidation Intimidation is to "make timid or make fearful"; or to induce fear. This includes intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort such as humiliation, embarrassment, inferiority, limited freedom, etc and the victi ...
of opposition supporters by the security forces. The
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...
team described the election as a 'shambles'. On 26 and 27 January 2001, more than forty five CUF supporters were gunned down by Tanzanian Security Forces in peaceful demonstration called to protest the imposition of Zanzibar Government against the will of the people. This led to the ruling CCM party and opposition CUF to have a dialogue that resulted in signing MUAFAKA II, a peace accord designed to ensure electoral and constitutional reforms. Most of the planned reforms were not implemented by the government, including, crucially, an agreed credible voters' register prior to the elections of October 2005. In the 30 October 2005 election, according to official results, Hamad was again defeated by Amani Abeid Karume, winning 46.07% of the vote to Karume's 53.18%. CUF disputed the election and refused to recognise Karume as President. International observers, such as the Commonwealth, and National Democratic Institute again noted serious concerns with the fairness of the poll, and the United States boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of Abeid Karume as President. The union elections in December 2005 followed a similar pattern on Zanzibar with CUF carrying Pemba but not Unguja. On 31 October 2010, Tanzanians voted to elect President of Tanzania and Zanzibar and Hamad ran for election, alongside Dr
Ali Mohamed Shein Ali Mohamed Shein (born 13 March 1948) was the 7th President of Zanzibar, from 2010 to 2020. He was previously Vice President of Tanzania from 2001 to 2010. Shein is originally from the island of Pemba, and he is a member of the ruling Chama ...
of the ruling party CCM who was declared the winner on Monday, 1 November 2010, scooping 179,809 votes against 175,338 votes of Hamad. Dr Shein's victory is equal to 50.1 per cent of all the 364,924 votes cast while Hamad garnered 49.1 per cent. In October 2015 Hamad won the election by 25,000 votes against Incumbent Ali Mohamed Shein but the election commission canceled the election results. Hamad became the first ever
Vice President of Zanzibar The vice president of Zanzibar ( Swahili: Makamu wa Rais wa Zanzibar) is a political position in Zanzibar. The vice presidency was created by the 2010 amendments made to the Zanzibar Constitution. First Vice President is supposed to come from a p ...
when Dr. Shein was sworn in as
president of Zanzibar The President of Zanzibar ( sw, Rais wa Zanzibar) is the head of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, which is a semi-autonomous government within Tanzania. The current president is Hussein Mwinyi. The president is also the chairman of th ...
. In March 2016, Hamad refused to participate in the rerun of the election which brought Dr Shein to power again illegally. On 18 March 2019 Hamad resigned from CUF and joined another political Party ACT Wazalendo. On 8 December 2020, Maalim Seif was sworn in as the First Vice President of Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar for a five year term.


Political victimisation

In January 1988, he was unceremoniously dropped from the Revolutionary Council and removed as the Chief Minister of Zanzibar and in May 1988 he was expelled from the ruling CCM with six colleagues and automatically lost his parliamentary seat in the Zanzibar House of Representatives. In May 1989, he was arrested and taken to court to face (politically motivated) trumped up charges of allegedly being found with government secret documents. From 1989–1991 he was remanded in the Zanzibar Central Prison. In April 2000, he was arrested and charged with trumped up charges of allegedly attacking members of the police and robbing them with a gun (the charges were finally dropped by the Zanzibar Magistrate’s Court in November 2003).


Death

Hamad was hospitalised on 29 January 20021, after his party said he, his wife, and aides had tested positive for
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania The COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Tanzania in Marc ...
. Tanzania's government had not reported any official cases since April 2020, despite reports of deaths being attributed to "acute pneumonia." Hamad died at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam on 17 February 2021. He was 77 years old. After his death, Tanzanian President
John Magufuli John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 October 1959 – 17 March 2021) was the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and w ...
declared three days of mourning.Rais Magufuli amuomboleza Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamad, Seif Sharif 1943 births 2021 deaths Tanzanian Muslims Vice presidents of Zanzibar Chief Ministers of Zanzibar Government ministers of Zanzibar Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Tanzania Members of the National Assembly (Tanzania) Zanzibari politicians University of Dar es Salaam alumni Members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives Tanzanian prisoners and detainees Heads of government who were later imprisoned Alliance for Change and Transparency politicians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania