Ali Hassan Mwinyi

In 1986, Mwinyi made an agreement with the IMF to receive a $78 million standby loan, which was Tanzania's first foreign loan in over six years.[6] Bilateral donors approved this austerity plan, and agreed to reschedule Tanzania's debt payments.[10] They agreed to do so for a period of five years, requiring that Tanzania pay only 2.5% of their debts in the meantime.[11] In an interview, Mwinyi urged donor countries to use Canada as an example and write off Tanzania's debts all together.[11] If this request wasn't possible, he asked instead for a minimum of ten years to pay off loans, but said that twenty to twenty-five years was a more ideal range.[11] He predicted that by this time, the country's economy would be recovered and they would be in a position to repay their debts without it hurting them.[11] In the same interview, he also asked aid donors for lower interest rates.[11]

Mwinyi claimed that his negotiations with the IMF were on behalf of the people: for example, he agreed to the Fund's request that he decrease the number of public institutions, but only when doing so was necessary and could be done gradually.[10] Furthermore, he declined their recommendation to freeze pay raises within the government and to cut free public services.[10]

The following year, Mwinyi negotiated Tanzania's first structural adjustment facility (SAF) with the IMF, followed by subsequent agreements in 1988 and again in 1990.[10] In addition to these developments, the World Bank provided structural adjustment credits for reforms in the agricultural, industrial, and financial sectors.[10] in 1989, President Mwinyi began the second phases of his reform program with the intention of reforming social sectors, specifically by increasing government spending on education.

In 1991, the first stages of the transition towards multipartyism began when Mwinyi appointed Chief Justice Francis Nyalali to lead a commission to gage the amount of popular support for the current single-party system.[10] This commission submitted their report to the President in 1992, recommending that the government transition into a multi-party system.[10] They made this recommendation despite the fact that only twenty-one percent out of the 36,299 Tanzanians who were interviewed favored this change.[10] However, fifty-five percent of the seventy-seven percent who supported the current system were in favor of some sort of reform.[10] Justice Nyalali pointed to twenty specific laws that were in need of revision in order to comply with the requirements of a multi-party system.[12] Mwinyi supported their recommendation and the CCM Extraordinary National Party Conference ratified changes through constitutional amendments in February 1992.[10] However, not all twenty of these laws were revised, including the controversial Preventative Detention Act that was leftover from colonial times.[12]

During the years of Julius Nyerere's presidency, corruption was viewed as a sort of oppression that undermined Tanzania's egalitarian values.[13] But, reports of corruption increased along with the state's economic influence.[13] Under Mwinyi's presidency, corrupt practices worsened despite his more economically liberal policies.[13] It became so endemic that some donors froze aid in 1994 in response.[13] During the first multi-party election in 1995, the opposition parties used the people's resentments towards the ongoing corruption as political fuel.[13] However, the CCM candidate Benjamin Mapka was also able to use corruption in his favor, as he was viewed as untainted by any of the corruption scandals that marred the Mwinyi administration.[13]

Brothers and well known businessmen V.G. Chavda and P.G. Chavda received a $3.5 million loan from a debt conversion program (DCP) in 1993.[13] They promised to use these funds to revamp rundown plantations in Tanga.[13] This included upgrading worker housing, repairing old machines, and replanting farmland.[13] They claimed their projects would create 1,400 jobs and would generate $42 million in foreign exchange money.[13] In reality, they had diverted the funds outside of the country through the purchase of fake machines and parts.[13] It was later uncovered that high ranking politicians had covered for them, including the Minister for Home Affairs, Augustine Mrema.[13] They were able to evade prosecution.[13]

In early 1995, the well known company Mohamed Enterprises was accused of allegedly distributing food that was unfit for consumption.[13] Mrema claimed he would punish the company, but was demoted to Minister of Youth and Culture before he could take action.[13] He criticized Mwinyi's administration for tolerating high levels of corruption and being complicit about anti-corruption enforcement.[13] He was then removed from the cabinet, and later became a candidate for one of the opposition parties, NCCR-Mageuzi.[13]

In a 1988 interview when asked about his views regarding Apartheid, Mwinyi advocated for tough, comprehensive sanctions to be carried out against South Africa.[11] He also called for Western nations to assist "frontline states" in dealing with any destabilization attempts made by the South African government against those who oppose them.[11] Mwinyi said that practicing these measures concurrently would help to dismantle Apartheid.[11] He called the Reagan administration's hesitance to enact tougher sanctions a "stumbling block," and expressed his hope that future American leaders would take more action against South Africa's regime.[11]

• Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, one of the major roads in Dar es Salaam
• Ali Hassan Mwinyi Stadium, Tabora
• Schools:
  • The Ali Hassan Mwinyi Islamic Secondary School in Tabora Region
  • The Mwinyi Secondary School in Pwani Region