Meghji family saga exciting enough to be a miniseries

An enterprising writer should quickly pen a multi-generational miniseries about the Meghji family.

Who, you ask, are the Meghjis?

They are the people who will begin building a 189-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel at the Edmonton International Airport next spring.

The next-to-the-planes, eight-storey hotel will be linked to the airport by a heated pedway and boast everything from a fitness spa and top-notch restaurant to banquet facilities and large presidential suites.

"You could say it's the icing on the cake for our family-owned Platinum Investments company," 37-year-old Rahim Meghji told me.

Rahim and his brother, Ali Meghji, 35, are the young face of the Ismaili Muslim family and are gradually taking over the business reins from their uncle, 64-year-old Amin Meghji.

Rather than icing on the cake, it's the natural ending to the first miniseries.

As for the beginning, it goes back more than a century to Gujarat in northwest India. "Our family lived in poverty; and led by my great-grandfather, they sailed across the Indian Ocean in a small boat in 1893," Amin says.

"The boat was so overloaded they threw everything they had overboard, including their shoes. They arrived in Zanzibar penniless."

Amin's father was nine at the time and went to live on a coconut farm. Later, his father bought the farm with help from his wife's family before moving to Dar es Salaam, then Tanzania's capital.

"My father and my two older brothers created a soap, glycerine and oil manufacturing business that did very well," Amin says. "But the government nationalized everything, including residential and commercial properties. We lost everything except some savings.

"My mother was paralyzed with shock at the loss of our empire, suffered a brain hemorrhage and died within the hour in 1972."

The family left for Kenya and rebuilt their business in Nairobi.

"Again we did very well, but the government began taking over businesses and we feared for our future," Amin says.

"My father died in 1975, but not before telling us to get out of the country. We sold our business for about half of what it was worth and came to Canada in 1976."

Finding themselves amid the Alberta oil boom at the end of the 1970s, the close-knit, extended Meghji family bought and expanded a 10-unit, west-end motel. That was followed by a 178-unit, $12-million downtown apartment building.

"We lost everything again in 1981 when the market crashed," Amin says. "The building was 70-per-cent vacant and we couldn't make mortgage payments at 21-per-cent (interest)."

The Meghjis rose again in 1998 and bought the Forum Inn near Rexall Place, renaming it Coliseum.

In 2004, the family opened the 160-room Hilton Garden Inn in the west end, followed two years later by the Hampton Inn and Suites.

"They are rated the top two city hotels by travellers on the Trip Advisor website," Rahim says.

"We hope our Marriott Courtyard opening soon in the west end, and our nearby Marriott Residence Inn, due to open next year, will be just as successful."

Amin is sad his older brother, Aladdin, the visionary of the family, died just before the Hilton opened.

This miniseries would end with Marriott Canada senior vice-president Michael Beckley saying at the airport Friday: "We see Platinum as a key partner in Alberta, Western Canada and beyond.

"Marriott is the fastest-growing hotel brand in North America and has gone from 12 hotels to 60 in Canada in the last 10 years."

Rahim quipped: " The airport hotel will be our flagship. If hotels in Canada are nationalized, the whole family will jump off the High Level Bridge."


Canada.com

After Zanzibar Referendum Comes Constitution Dilemma

The constitutional amendments in Zanzibar on Monday evening, which redefined its territory as a sovereign state within the United Republic of Tanzania, have reignited the controversy over the future of the Union.

Constitutional experts faulted the changes endorsed by the House of Representatives, which they charged, were "meant to neutralise the Union, if not to kill it systematically".

With the Constitution of the United Republic proclaiming Tanzania to be a country resulting from the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, as the one and only sovereign state, the experts were of the opinion that the recognition of Zanzibar as a state would "steal Tanzania's statehood". And they warned that this could herald the break-up of the United Republic of Tanzania.

An extraordinary session of the House of Representatives on Monday evening overwhelmingly passed 10 amendments, which also paved the way for the formation of a government of national unity in Zanzibar after October 31 General Election.

According to the amendments, Sections 1 and 2 of the Zanzibar Constitution, which previously identified Zanzibar as part of the United Republic of Tanzania, have been deleted.

The changes redefine Zanzibar is a state formerly known as the 'People's Republic of Zanzibar' with its territory composed of Unguja, Pemba and all the small surrounding islands, as it was before the 1964 merger with Tanganyika.

Moving the Constitutional Amendment Bill, the State Minister (Constitution and Good Governance), Mr Ramadhani Abdallah Shaaban, said: "The new clause stipulates that Zanzibar is among the two countries that form the United Republic of Tanzania."

But a senior law lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Sengondo Mvungi, described the amendment as the biggest threat ever to the existence of the United Republic of Tanzania. He explained that the House of Representatives had disregarded the laid-down procedure by altering constitutional provisions touching on the Articles of the Union.

Dr Mvungi cited Article 98 (b) of the Union Constitution. Under the article, any Bill for an Act to alter any provisions of the Constitution or any provision of any law relating to any of the matters specified in List Two of the second schedule to the Constitution shall be passed only if it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all Members of Parliament from Tanzania Mainland and not less than two-thirds of all MPs from Tanzania Zanzibar.

And the matters specified in List Two, which require to be supported by two-thirds of all MPs from Mainland Tanzania and two-thirds of all MPs from Zanzibar, include the existence of the United Republic of Tanzania.

"This article of the Constitution cannot be altered by the Zanzibar House of Representatives alone. They have totally no mandate or authority on this issue," Dr Mvungi said.


He also pointed out that the fact that President Jakaya Kikwete had already dissolved Parliament in readiness for this year's elections, meant there was no room to initiate such changes.

Contacted for comment last evening, State Minister Shaaban strongly defended the amendments, saying they were meant to emphasize Zanzibar's position as a partner state in the United Republic and not a part of the Union Government.

"The United Republic is nation. The amendment means that Zanzibar is a second country forming the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar. What we have done is to confirm our state boundaries," he said.

For his part, Dr Mvungi said that declaring Zanzibar one of the two countries that form the United Republic of Tanzania was to change the structure of the Union to form a confederal authority between the people to Zanzibar and Tanganyika.

"This means that Tanganyika retains its sovereignty and statehood and so does Zanzibar. So you form a confederation. The statehood automatically moves out of that the United Republic of Tanzania and goes to Zanzibar and Tanganyika," he explained.

If the amendments are implemented there is not going to be a united republic of Tanzania. The nation has broken up," he said in a conversation with The Citizen on Monday before the Zanzibar approved.

Zanzibar's Attorney General could not be reached for comment yesterday, but a senior official in his Chambers said the amendments were the 10th on the Zanzibar Constitution. The changes, he clarified, only affected the Zanzibar Constitution and had nothing to do with the Union.

When The Citizen pointed out that the amendment of Union matters needed approval by two-thirds of the MPs from both Tanzania Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania, Mr Saleh Mbarouk, said: "The interpretation of the changes will be given by the Attorney General. What I know is that members of the House of Representatives are not forbidden to pass such amendments."

But the Union Government's Deputy Attorney General, Mr George Masaju, contacted in Dar es Salaam to comment on the developments, said he had not seen the final draft of the Bill passed in Zanzibar on Monday.
"I'm hesitant to address this matter, as I have not seen the final draft. Give me time to find out what exactly has been passed by the House of Representatives in order to comment on the issue," he said.

Another lawyer, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the changes had violated the Constitution. He said Article 98 (b) of the Union Constitution stipulated the procedure for effecting amendments touching on the existence of the United Republic.

"Strictly speaking, such changes do not any value in the eyes of the law. They actually do not exist. They are unconstitutional," he said.

The president of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), Mr Felix Kibodya, speaking in his personal capacity, said although he strongly supported the reconciliation process that had culminated in the constitutional changes, the declaration that "Zanzibar is a state has gone beyond the aim of bringing Zanzibaris together".

He said that for the changes to have any legal authority, they must be endorsed by the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania, as specified in Article 98 (b).

"My understanding is that for the amendments making Zanzibar a state to have legal effect, they must have the blessings of parliamentarians from both sides through a procedure stipulated in our constitution," he said.

He added: "How can Zanzibar be a state without a commander-in-chief of the armed forces? How can it be a country without defence minister, Inspector General of Police or a foreign minister?"

He said though it was crucial to bring about peace and unity in the Isles, this should not come at the expense of the Union. "Zanzibar is a part of the United Republic of Tanzania," he insisted.

Under the newly amended Zanzibar Constitution, the Isles' President has been given powers to mark the territory's borders without consulting the Union Government.

According to the laws enacted by the House of Representatives, for effective implementation of government responsibilities, the Zanzibar leader is also empowered to divide the Isles into regions, districts and other areas.



AllAfrica.com

Why Zanzibar Referendum Outcome Left CCM More Bruised

Zanzibar made history last Saturday by overwhelmingly endorsing constitutional changes in a referendum that will pave the way for the formation of a government of national unity later this year.

Such a government will be the first ever in the country since the armed revolution that rooted out the Arab Sultan rulers in the early sixties, and also in the modern times following the introduction of multiparty politics in Tanzania in 1992.


The momentous verdict was issued by 188,705 voters who participated in the exercise at 66.4 per cent against 95,613 at 33.6 per cent of those who were not in favour of the outcome that will now significantly alter the way politics is played in Zanzibar.

Political leaders, representatives of the donor community and even the common man on the streets have immediately welcomed the referendum outcome, with a majority saying it would finally guarantee peace and tranquillity in the Isles that had hitherto remained perilous every election year.

But as the dust settles, different interest groups will take stock of what transpired on the campaign trail and what the final result would mean for their role in the future of Zanzibar. Some are not entirely ruling out new political realignments prior to and after the October 31 General Election.


"It was a positive vote for unity by the people but as observers we could not fail to notice that deep antagonism, mainly within the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi remained," explained Dr Benson Bana, the Chairman of Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee and also head of the University of Dar es Salaam's Research for Democracy and Education in Tanzania (Redet).

That voters on Pemba Island regions gave an emphatic 'Yes' vote and are still the more enthusiastic of the new political order than their colleagues in Unguja Island may have not been entirely surprising. As in the past elections, Pemba has tended to vote for the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) to the last man standing and in the referendum sided with their leaders who campaigned for 'Yes'.

The opposition's supremacy in the referendum results showed that the people of Mtambwe District in North Pemba Region, the home town of Mr Seif Hamad, the CUF leader, had the highest Yes votes, with 95.1 per cent of the 5324 people who cast their votes. Mr Hamad is CUF's secretary general and will run for the presidency under the party in the October 31 general election.

"The people in Pemba voted the way they did because they know this was their only chance to end decades long feeling of alienation from government. They are the ones who have suffered more and paid the huge cost of a system of winner takes all despite the fact that polling results divided Zanzibar into two, almost equal parts," said businessman Said Mohammed said.

Mr Hamad has already been nominated by his party to run for the Presidency in what would be his fourth attempt. Having served as Chief Minister in the CCM government, the opposition leader has not shied from admitting that deliberately skewed government planning have consigned Pemba to poverty due to past political rivalry.

For the sake of this huge constituency, Mr Hamad, who alongside President Amani Abeid Karume engineered the final and significant push for reconciliation and tagged alongside the President to campaign for 'Yes', was at hand to welcome the victory last Saturday.

He declared; "This is a win for Zanzibar, its people and the united republic of Tanzania." President Karume whose extra energy to drive through the vote was pleased with the voters who have given him what political commentators say would be one of his presidency's most important legacy.

While this task is almost done, the remaining few days could prove trickier if divisions within CCM that played out ahead of the referendum are anything to go by. In Zanzibar today, it was expected that Karume could after all now have reason to whip those in CCM's inner circles and in government who gave lukewarm support for the referendum.

A District Commissioner in the seat of government was last week sent packing in a move linked more to his remarks critical of the government's campaigning for a 'Yes' vote. "I will not be surprised if that did happen but what is dangerous for CCM will be what kind of realignments that could follow if he was to sack ministers in the last days in office," a senior party official who requested to remain anonymous said.

All Africa

Hamad Masauni aibuka kidedea Kikwajuni

Aliyekuwa Mwenyekiti wa Umoja wa Vijana CCM, Hamad Masauni Yusuf, ameshinda katika kura za kugombea nafasi ya ubunge kwa tiketi ya CCM katika jimbo la Kikwajuni kwa kura 990.

Hamad ameweza kumshinda Naib Katibu Mkuu wa CCM Saleh Ramadhani Feruzi ambae aliweza kupata kura 155 na kushika nafasi ya tatu chini ya Ahmed Mohamed aliyepata kura 511.