John Malecela Biography
John Malecela (John Samuel Malecela) was born on 19th April 1934 in Dodoma, Tanzania. He is a Tanzanian politician and the former prime minister of Tanzania (November 1990 to December 1994).
In October 1993 he headed the Tanzanian delegation which participated in the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
Education Background
1977: He received his Ph.D. Honoris Causa (Humanities) at the University of Texas.
1961 – 1962: Post Graduate Studies at Cambridge University.
1958 – 1959: Undergraduate studies at Bombay University undertaking Bachelor of Commerce.
1957 – 1958: Secondary school student at Minaki Secondary School.
John Malecela Political Positions
1964 – 1968: Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations
1967: Tanzanian Ambassador to Ethiopia and the OAU
1972 – 1973: Minister of Foreign Affairs
1973 – 1974: Communication and Transport
1975: Mineral Resources and Agriculture
1975 – 1976: Minister in the East African Community
1980 -1984: Regional Commissioner of Iringa
John Malecela
1985: Member of the Group of Eminent Persons of the Commonwealth on South African situation
1989 – 1990: Tanzanian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
1990 – 2010: Member of Parliament for Mtera
1990 -1994: Prime Minister and First Vice President
1995 – 2007: Vice Chairman of the ruling Party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM)
John Malecela Wife
His wife is Anne Malecela a Tanzanian belonging to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) politician and a former member of Parliament for Same East Constituency. They have one child Mwelecele Malecela.
John Samuel Malecela
Background
John Malecela was born on 19, 1934, at Mvumi in Dodoma in the centre of the country.
Education
He was educated at a local mission school and at St Andrew’s College at Minaki, one of East Africa’s oldest schools, near Dar es Salaam, before going to Bombay University in India, where he got a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1959. He then studied administration at Cambridge in 1961-2.
Career
He was appointed consul to the United States and secretary to the Tanganyika Mission to the UN, where his abilities were spotted and he was made Tanzania’s Ambassador to the UN from 1964 to 1968. John was elected vice-president, and later chairman, of the UN Committee on Decolonisation. He also became chairman of the International Seminar on Apartheid and Colonialism in South Africa, held in Kitwe, Zambia, in 1967.
In May 1968 he was transferred to Addis Ababa as Ambassador and, in January 1969, Minister for Research and Social Services in the East African Community, and later the Minister for Finance and Administration in the Community at its Arusha headquarters. Here he became involved in the Community crisis between Tanzania and Uganda and had to improvise when the Community’s budgets were not approved.
His appointment as Foreign Minister in February 1972 is important, as it is the first time that President Nyerere has relinquished direct control of foreign Affairs and given a minister the responsiblity. There were no immediate indications of any change of I anzania s overall foreign policy under his ministry, as he has always been a leading proponent of his leader’s views on Rhodesia, the uneasy relationship with Britain and friendship with China.
Personality
Once a fiery, militant anti-colonialist, the scourge of Britain’s southern African policies in the United Nations, his years in the UN and East African Community have given him a smooth diplomatic polish which led to his fast rise to Foreign Minister. Still a student abroad in the days of the pre-colonial struggle, he is not one of the old guard party politicians, but rather a new-style international diplomatist, who has risen to the top by his inborn abilities. As a nominated member, he has no tested political power base.
Connections
- spouse:
- Anne Malecela