Will the betrayal of the people ever end?
The shocking events in Tanzania’s recent general elections once again expose the tragic hollowness of regional and continental organizations that were supposed to safeguard democracy and human rights.
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What unfolded under President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s regime — where opposition candidates were jailed or disqualified, protests brutally crushed, and an estimated 800 citizens killed — is not just a Tanzanian tragedy.
It is a continental shame.
It is the story of Africa’s leaders and institutions turning their backs on their people, hiding behind the rhetoric of “sovereignty” while their citizens bleed for daring to demand justice.
The African Union’s Election Observation Mission, led by former Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, did something rare — it condemned the elections in unusually strong terms.
The mission’s report cited arrests of opposition leaders, disqualification of rivals, state control of the electoral body, media restrictions, an internet blackout, and widespread use of deadly force.
It concluded that the 2025 Tanzanian elections “did not comply with AU principles, normative frameworks, or international obligations for democratic elections.”
That should have been enough to trigger decisive regional action.
Yet, as experience has taught us, this will almost certainly end with words — words that fade as fast as they are read.
We have seen this pattern too many times to be fooled anymore.
After Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections, which SADC’s own observer mission condemned as failing to meet the bloc’s guidelines on free and fair polls, what happened?
Nothing.
The report was merely “received” by heads of state — and promptly buried.
No debate.
No censure.
No consequences.
Instead, regional leaders posed for photos at Emmerson Mnangagwa’s inauguration, congratulated him, and moved on as if the damning findings had never been written.
The same script is now unfolding in Tanzania.
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema — himself once a victim of political persecution — shamelessly attended Samia Hassan’s inauguration, while congratulatory messages poured in from across the continent, including from Zimbabwe.
This grotesque theatre of hypocrisy mocks the very ideals these organizations claim to defend.
It is tempting to single out the African Union and SADC for their chronic inaction, but the truth is more complex — and more disheartening.
Even the European Union, often held up as the gold standard of regional integration, has shown the same political paralysis.
Despite having far stronger legal mechanisms, the EU has done little more than wag a finger at member states like Hungary, where Viktor Orbán’s government has systematically dismantled democratic institutions, captured the judiciary, muzzled the press, and gerrymandered elections.
Hungary remains a full EU member, still drawing billions of euros from Brussels.
Poland, too, faced years of condemnation for judicial interference before any meaningful pressure was applied — and even then, the measures were half-hearted.
So yes, the African Union, SADC, and the European Union are all suffering from the same malaise: a failure of political will.
On paper, the AU and SADC have the Constitutive Act and democratic election charters; the EU has the Treaty on European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the Court of Justice.
Yet all these instruments are only as strong as the courage of those meant to enforce them.
And therein lies the problem — regional leaders protect each other, not their citizens.
Their solidarity lies in survival, not in principle.
They fear setting precedents that could one day be used against them.
That is why Mnangagwa congratulates Hassan, why Orbán shields Poland, and why the rest of Europe hesitates to act decisively.
But we must also ask a more fundamental question: why have these organizations failed to act before the damage is done?
The AU, for example, now laments that Tanzania lacks a framework to challenge presidential election results in court, and that its electoral commission is not independent.
But where were they before the elections?
These flaws did not appear overnight.
They were visible, documented, and known.
Yet, the AU and SADC waited until after blood had been spilled to “note with concern” what they should have prevented.
Their role should not be limited to issuing post-mortem reports on broken democracies.
They should be proactive — pushing for legal reforms, strengthening institutions, and providing early warnings before elections degenerate into violence.
Instead, they prefer to react with empty condemnations after the people have already paid the price.
The time has come to admit a painful truth: these regional and continental bodies are not serving the people; they are protecting the powerful.
Their summits are not forums for accountability but mutual insurance clubs for leaders afraid of scrutiny.
Their election observer missions are elaborate rituals designed to give legitimacy to rigged processes, occasionally interrupted by rare flashes of honesty — like the AU’s statement on Tanzania — which are quickly neutralized by silence from the top.
It is not enough to have beautifully worded charters and protocols.
What Africa and the wider world need are organizations that enforce them.
The AU should have clear, automatic sanctions for member states that violate democratic principles — including suspension from the Union, travel bans on offending leaders, and targeted financial restrictions.
SADC should make its election guidelines legally binding and empower its secretariat to investigate and act independently of heads of state.
The EU, for its part, should stop financing authoritarianism within its own house — no democracy should bankroll its own subversion.
If these institutions are to regain credibility, they must shift their allegiance from presidents to people.
Their legitimacy should flow from defending citizens’ rights, not from shielding regimes.
Because right now, they have become fortresses for impunity — places where leaders hide from accountability under the cover of consensus and diplomacy.
The Tanzanian tragedy is a mirror reflecting the broader decay of international moral authority.
The AU’s unusually bold condemnation is welcome but meaningless unless it leads to real action — investigations, sanctions, and reform.
Otherwise, it will join the long list of forgotten reports that gather dust while repression thrives.
The blood of those 800 Tanzanians will not just stain the hands of their government but also of every regional leader and institution that looked away.
The people of Africa — and indeed of the world — deserve better.
We deserve unions that have teeth, spines, and hearts; unions that fear betraying their citizens more than they fear offending their peers.
Until then, we will continue to live under the tyranny of the powerful, while those who were meant to protect us issue polite statements of concern and move on to the next summit.
TENDAI RUBEN MBOFANA - THE UN-OPPRESSED MIND! 