PRIME Minister Mizengo Pinda on Thursday accused Chadema leaders of lack of political will to bring to an end tension and regular spats among politicians in Arusha Municipality.
Mr Pinda expressed deep concern over what he described as "propaganda and continued incitement" leading to unnecessary demonstrations instead of resolving differences on the mayoral saga between the party and CCM amicably.
Speaking in the National Assembly during the routine Thursday PM's questions and answers session, he urged Chadema leaders and their counterparts in the ruling party to sit together and address dispute.
"Chadema leaders need to come down and put the national interest above everything else. If we are serious enough, I see no problem for both parties to sit together and discuss disputed matters critically," he said.
However, Mr Pinda warned that under the current situation where political will was lacking, it would be unrealistic for the problem to be solved amicably.
"The current situation where you wake up in the morning everyday ... the first thing you hear is about "people's power." It is really disturbing to us in the government and I believe this does not help us in any way," he said.
The premier also refuted suggestion by Mr John Mnyika (Ubungo - CHADEMA) that the unsolved problems in Arusha have spread confrontations to other parts of the country.
"It is not true that the problem has now escalated country-wide," Premier Pinda told the National Assembly here on Thursday when answering to a question from Mr Mnyika, that the way opposition party was handling the Arusha saga hardly shows "good faith" to solve the problem.
Mr Myinka told the House that the PM had promised to solve the mayor's saga in Arusha and he wrote a letter to the Registrar of Political Parties ordering him to convene the two parties, but the order has not been put into practice to-date.
He said this has led to confrontations to continue in Arusha and the problem was now spreading to other parts of the country.
"We respect the court of law but the problem in Arusha arises from Regional Commissioner's interference with the court proceedings," Mr Mnyika said.
He said CHADEMA agreed to halt the planned country wide demonstrations and wanted to sit on the discussion table with the Arusha Regional leadership and CCM.
He queried if the PM was ready to support the process in the same spirit of finding the lasting solution to the problems in Arusha.
Responding, Mr Pinda said: "Perhaps (Mr) Mnyika has information that I don't have. I was not aware that CHADEMA leaders agreed with Arusha Regional leadership to sit together and solve the problem."
Mr Pinda further said that he had a copy of the letter from CCM that clearly said that they have nothing to discuss about, but said if CHADEMA have issues to discuss they can still go ahead and submit them to the Registrar.
He insisted that it is important for both parties to sit together and discuss the issue.
Mr Steven Ngonyani (Korogwe Rural - CCM) also asked Premier Pinda why events in Arusha have recurred recently, saying it threatened tourism business in the Northern circuit.
He also queried why the government has refused to release on bail the Arusha Urban law maker Mr Godbless Lema.
Mr Pinda said it was not true that the court denied Mr Lema bail, saying it was the legislator who refused to be admitted to bail when the opportunity arose on October 31, for his own reasons.
Mr Pinda said when the case came for another mention on November 7, before the Resident Magistrate's court, the defence applied for bail and the court said that matter would be ruled on November 14.
On October 28, Mr Lema and 19 other people were charged in the Arusha Resident Magistrates' Court with unlawful assembly, disobeying lawful police orders and taking part in an illegal demonstration. The MP was also charged with another count of mobilizing his supporters to commit a crime.
Mr Pinda said he believed that Arusha was still calm and business including tourism was going on as usual. However, he said it was important for all people in the country including political parties to strive to keep peace.
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