5.4 A Prickly "Union Matter"?

The proposed law also introduces provisions which are likely to breed conflict between the Zanzibari and Union Governments regarding the Union's authority¹. Under the proposed law, registration and regulation of NGOs become a Union matter.² This would entail the scrapping of the separate legal and institutional structures for registration and regulation of NGOs in Zanzibar created by the latter's Societies Act, 1995.³ Whether this move, whose effect is further erosion of Zanzibari autonomy, is likely to be welcomed there is, of course, a different matter. This provision appears completely contradictory to the various proposals in the final draft policy which provide for dual and parallel institutional structures for both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.⁴

1. The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar has increasingly been strained since the early 1980s. For the legal and constitutional foundations and its inherent problems see Shivji (1990b).
2. Draft NGO Bill, cl. 1(3).
3. Act No. 16 of 1995.
4. See, for instance, the provisions for proposed National NGO Coordination Boards (NSC, ibid., 10, para. 6.2); Office of the Registrar (ibid., 11, para. 6.2.3); NGO Networks and Fora (ibid., 11, para. 6.3); and key players for implementation of the policy (ibid., 18, para. 11.1).