Ex-Dar Commissioner who’d vowed to publish married men’s names on Govt. website misses CCM ticket for MP race

Former Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda will not fly Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) flag in Kigamboni parliamentary race slated for October 28, 2020.

Makonda, who resigned as Dar es Salaam regional boss in mid-July 2020 to run for the MP post, hoped he would ride on the CCM popularity wave to clinch the seat, but was trounced by former Health Assistant Minister Faustine Ndugulile in the July 20 nominations. Ndugulile got 199 votes, whereas Makonda, who came second, garnered 122 votes of the possible 399.

CCM’s final list of nominees for various posts submitted to Tanzania’s electoral board on Thursday did not have Makonda’s name.

Makonda has since taken to Instagram to say he hopes God will answer his prayers one day.

“I worship a living God. Even if He fails to answer my prayer today, He will still remain to be my God,” he wrote on Instagram on Thursday, August 20.

In August last year, Makonda, a then Dar es Salaam top government official, sparked online debate after saying he and the provincial top administration were mulling over an idea of publishing the identities of all married men to a website run by a State agency in a bid to stop deceitful married men from sexually preying on unsuspecting single women.

Makonda said the proposal, if adopted, would save many young women in Dar es Salaam from “unnecessary heartbreaks”.

“I have received a lot of complaints from young women. Many women from Dar es Salaam region have been deceived many times, and they have had enough. Men have been promising to marry them, then later, they [men] ditch the ladies. This is something that is humiliating,” Makonda said on August 12, 2019 at his office in the commercial capital.

“These cunning men have left many women nursing heartbreaks and emotional bruises. You’ll find a young man successfully wooing a woman, making her leave every other thing that she does, hoping that the man will marry her, not knowing that he is, indeed, conning her.

“If you look at the laws that we have in the country, there is a clause that protects women, who were promised marriages, only to be used and dumped. We want to use that clause to bring sanity in relationships.

“I cannot say I am a leader, when the people I look after are hurting.

“One of the ideas that we have is to have all the married people register their marital statuses with the region’s database agency. This will help young women promised marriages. It would be easy for them to access the database and find out whether the men who have promised to marry them are people’s husbands or not. In that database, all the marriages, including Christian, customary, Muslim, those filed at the registrar of marriages, will be registered.

“We want to reduce the cases of men conning women in the name of love and marriages.

“We are planning to meet the State agency in charge of the citizens’ database. Once that meeting is done, you, who lied to a woman that you will marry her, but ended up using and dumping her, be prepared, we are coming for you.”

He hogged media headlines again in March this year, when he said he would petition Tanzanian Parliament to introduce a bill that seeks to have 40 per cent of men’s monthly salaries deducted and credited to their wives’ bank accounts.

Makonda spoke at Viwanja vya Leaders in Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam on March 8, 2020 during the International Women’s Day celebrations.

“I will petition the National Assembly to introduce a law that will see 40 per cent of salaries of men in formal employment deducted and credited to the bank accounts of their spouses who are housewives,” said the then-regional commissioner.

Makonda said he did not want women to be frustrated due to lack of money. In early March, Makonda introduced a telephone contact (+255 682 009 009) that depressed women could call to seek help from his office. He said a caller won’t be charged for initiating the communication.

The regional commissioner further stated that stringent laws should be introduced to compel men to write on their Wills that their wives would be the sole custodians of their (men’s) property should they (men) die before their spouses.

Makonda said many widows had camped at his office seeking his intervention after they were disinherited by their in-laws upon the deaths of their husbands.

In his address, the RC urged single mothers to shun polarising their children against their deadbeat fathers, saying it impacts negatively on the lives of the young ones, especially girls.

“You’ll find a single mum talking so negatively about her deadbeat ex-partner. One thing the woman should know, is that the child wasn’t there when she and her partner first met. It is, therefore, wise to face your struggles alone, and don’t involve the children. Your toxic talk could have near-permanent impact on the children, especially the girls, who could shun getting into heterosexual relationships because — based on what their mothers told them — they (girls) might think that all men are heart-breakers,” said Makonda.