Tanzanian Affairs

There have been two items of good news in the anti-corruption campaign during recent weeks.

Money recovered
Minister of Finance Mustafa Mkulo has announced that the government has recovered Shs 72 billion ($53 million) from the Shs 133 billion (98.5 billion) of the Bank of Tanzania’s External Payments Arrears account which was misappropriated.

Air Traffic Control System – RADAR
In the very long running Air Traffic Control System (Radar) case, (see earlier issues of TA) dramatic news came from the UK’s Senior Fraud Office (SFO) in January when Britain’s BAE Systems finally accepted responsibility in several corruption cases around the world including the one in Tanzania. It agreed to pay penalties in the US and the UK totaling several hundred million dollars to settle the cases against it.

Under the deal, BAE will pay $400m (£255m) in the US and $47m (£30m) in the UK, the latter being a penalty for over-pricing the cost of the air traffic control system it sold to Tanzania several years ago. Leading up to the deal, the SFO had named Minister Andrew Chenge, businessmen Sailesh Vithlani and Tanil Somaiya, and former Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania, Dr Idris Rashid as the key suspects. SFO investigators established that BAE Systems had secretly paid a $12m commission into the Swiss bank account of Sailesh Vithlani who was alleged to be the ‘middleman’.

According to details from the SFO’s investigation, the actual price of the military radar system sold to Tanzania was far less than the money paid by Tanzania which had to borrow from Barclays Bank to help it to pay. Under the new deal between the SFO and BAE Systems Tanzania will get a refund of some $28 million.

Legal issues
Before Tanzania can receive the money however, a number of legal issues have to be dealt with. According to ‘Africa Confidential’, British lobbyists ‘Corner House’ obtained an injunction on March 3 to freeze BAE’s plea-bargain deal with the SFO pending a decision on whether there should be a full judicial review. Africa Confidential reported that, if the deal were blocked, the SFO would probably proceed with a corruption case against BAE on some of its other contracts, followed by a prosecution over its contract for the air traffic control system in Tanzania.

The SFO had earlier indicated that some of the cash would become ‘an ex gratia payment for the benefit of the people of Tanzania’.
However, BAE was insisting that it would not pay the money to the government but that it would be given instead to local charities dealing with humanitarian aid in Tanzania. In Tanzania, Minister for Foreign Affairs Bernard Membe insisted that the compensation should be paid to the government.

Some legal are said to believe that BAE may be anxious to avoid any legal implications that might arise if Tanzania finally chose to arrest and prosecute the key suspects. By paying the billions to charity organisations, it would appear that the donation would be part of the company’s ‘corporate social responsibility’ funding.

Suzan Hawley of ‘Corruption Watch’, a UK based anti-corruption watchdog was quoted as saying that “This is a trick chosen by BAE to avoid being implicated directly by a third party, but it’s an old style that won’t get them off the hook.”

‘Corruption Watch has filed an application at a UK court seeking a review of the SFO and BAE settlement.

Director of Tanzania’s Prevention of Corruption Bureau Edward Hoseah has written to the SFO welcoming the promised payment and suggesting procedures to ensure that the repatriation of the funds would be done transparently.

It is understood that BAE’s plea-bargain deal in Britain would has no automatic effect on the Tanzanian government’s own investigations. These are continuing – (from the Guardian on Sunday, Nipashe various British and Tanzanian newspapers and other sources – Editor)

“We need a reaction” US Ambassador
In early March US ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso Lenhardt began to throw his weight behind the crusade against corruption when he challenged the government to step it up by ensuring that suspected or proven corrupt leaders are prosecuted. “For the monster of grand corruption to be eliminated”, he said “strong deterrent signals are required, including jail sentences for leaders found guilty along with confiscation of their ill-gotten wealth. Indeed, the government should not continue to beat around the bush on matters that are before the eyes of the public; we need a reaction and a system that will throw corrupt senior civil servants and politicians where they belong – behind bars.” The ambassador went on to say that it was heartening to note that there were already encouraging steps being taken to tackle corruption, “but more needs to be done” he said. “The vast majority of Tanzanians did not like to see leaders implicated in serious graft scandals being left scot-free, untouchable and unaccountable….studies conducted across the world have shown that bribery, fraud, favouritism, and cronyism all breed and deepen poverty in the society. That is why countries like Tanzania remained poor as their otherwise rich development resources were daily depleted through such corrupt practices

The Richmond Case
Investigations into the complicated Richmond electricity generation case (see earlier issues of TA) are continuing. According to Tanzania Daima, the company which took over from Richmond after it withdrew – Dowans – is understood to be indebted to the tune of $ 2.4 million for breach of the contract it entered into with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and which it had inherited from Richmond. Dowans apparently wanted to sell the generating plant it had constructed in Dar es Salaam but it was stopped by the court. The government is now demanding a penalty for failing to supply Tanzania with power.

The political implications
As indicate above, the Richmond scandal is now having repercussions on the political scene. The investigative journal ‘This Day’ has been looking into the matter. Extracts: ‘Whatever happens in the upcoming months of election year 2010, history will always show that prior to the Richmond affair, National Assembly Speaker Samuel Sitta and former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa were close political allies and both were key members of the powerful campaign machinery that delivered a landslide victory for President Jakaya Kikwete in 2005…it is because of this, that the new stand-off between the two (see above) is proving so damaging to the ruling CCM party’s aspirations to stay united…. Following the 2005 general election, Lowassa and other members of the pro-Kikwete campaign lobby better known as Mtandao (the network) backed Sitta’s candidature for the position of Speaker and, thanks in large part to active campaigning by senior Mtandao members, Sitta eventually won the speaker’s position by defeating the incumbent speaker, Pius Msekwa, in a tough contest. In December 2005 Lowassa was endorsed by parliament as Prime Minister….But then came the Richmond scandal. By 2008, Lowassa and Sitta were at loggerheads over the manner in which parliament – with Sitta’s backing – was handling the Richmond case as it grew in seriousness…. It was Lowassa who had supervised the process that led to the awarding of the dubious government power generation contract Richmond against expert opinion. TANESCO had reluctantly signed the contract with Richmond at night at the headquarters of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals….Richmond did not perform and a parliamentary team delivered a damning report on the deal which implicated Lowassa and others who promptly tendered their resignations.

The ‘Mramba’ case
The case of former Finance Minister Basil Mramba, and his counterpart Daniel Yona (following three years of investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau and the police into the suspicious hiring of Alex Stewart Corporation to audit gold production in Tanzania) has been adjourned again because the magistrate was away. The hearing of the case started in November 2009. Four prosecution witnesses have so far testified.

An Air Tanzania plane, which was carrying 45 passengers from Dar es Salaam, was heading to its final destination in Mwanza on the morning of March 2 when the captain reported trouble to ground control. Visibility was near zero and the captain said he couldn’t land safely and would go to the nearest alternative airport which was Kilimanjaro.

After ten minutes however he changed his mind and decided to land even though he could see a pool of water on the runway. When the plane hit the puddle, the left engine allegedly sucked in water and turned off suddenly, leading him to lose control of the aircraft. The plane then skidded off the runway, causing some panic among the passengers. The plane skidded for nearly a kilometre before coming to rest at around 7:45am. Fire fighters managed to evacuate all 45 passengers and seven crew members, none of whom suffered serious injuries.

The plane suffered serious technical damage that might rule out any possibility of flying again as a passenger aircraft – Guardian on Sunday.

The future of Air Tanzania
It is understood that the government is continuing to look for investors for part of Air Tanzania as it wishes to bring the airline back to full strength so that it can take advantage of growing markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi and China. In December 155 jobs were cut leaving only 182 on the pay role.

Talks between the government and Chinese company Sonangol International Holdings Ltd, which has a substantial business in the oil, gas and minerals industries and which has started construction of a third terminal at the JK Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, are said to be well advanced.

Air Tanzania Corporation was privatised in December 2002 in a deal in which South African Airways acquired 49 per cent of the shares but the agreement broke down.

The US firm Celtic Capital Corporation of Texas has also indicated that it would be ready to take over the operations of Air Tanzania. Five firms based in the US, UK and the United Arab Emirates have also shown an interest – The East African.

The Guardian, in article dated February 27 revealed that Tanzanian and American scientists have finally identified the remains of a 7.5-metre-long man-eating crocodile in the Olduvai Gorge. They estimate its age to be 1.8 million years which could make it the largest predator ancient humans in the region could ever have encountered.

Dr Fidelis Masao, a researcher in the Gorge, said that the remains would be returned to Tanzania some three years from now after they have been analysed in America, “unlike our dinosaur skeletons that were taken to Germany but have not been returned. The dinosaurs were not brought back mainly following legal complications because Tanzania was under German colonial rule when they were discovered. The researcher explained that the discovery was proof that in the environment of those ancient times such creatures could survive, although that might be very difficult now.

Chris Brochu, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Iowa was quoted as saying that he would not guarantee that the crocodiles in question killed ancient humans “only that they were certainly biting them”. Ancient hominid bones discovered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the same sediments bear distinct bite marks likely to have been inflicted by large crocodiles. Yet, most researchers have assumed that the gashes were delivered by the same species of crocodiles that prowls the banks of the Nile today.

This is not so claims Brochu, who re-analysed numerous incomplete fossils, the most recent of which was unearthed in 2007 by among others Jackson Njau of the Natural History Museum in Arusha. Though roughly the same size as the reptilian denizens of the Nile, the Olduvai crocodiles had thinner, more flared snouts and large horns more characteristic of Madagascan crocodiles that went extinct in the past few thousand years. “The discovery of C. anthropophagus points to far more diversity in African crocodiles in the past 2.5 million years than was thought,” argues Brochu. He says his team has not found many fossils belonging to C. anthropophagus, but none is complete, “so it’s impossible to determine its precise relationship to the modern Nile crocodiles. But, Brochu has little doubt that C. anthropophagus threatened the ancient hominids who called Olduvai Gorge home. According to the palaeontologists, larger crocodiles would have been capable of consuming hominids completely, leaving no trace.

In January the Guardian reported that serious discussions were still underway between the government and the Indian investor-RITES – on the possibilities of amending some sections of the contract governing the operations of Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL). The government was also considering whether the contract between the two shareholders should continue or not. The government was still topping up workers’ salaries at a cost of about Shs 522 million monthly, these sums being loans to the company. The government expected that they would be repaid when the firm started operating efficiently.

TRL has been experiencing differences on policy with the Indian company and the workers have been on a number of strikes since the new management took over operations of the central railway line three years ago.

Also in January the Guardian published a strange story about the other main railway – the Tanzania Zambia Railways (TAZARA).
Extracts: ‘The Managing Director of TAZARA, who went missing since last November, has spoken from his hideout, saying that the tense situation in the company had left him with only one option – to leave the country. He said that his hasty departure was prompted by leaked information that the police were pursuing him to face some charges in court. He said he could not withstand ‘the heat’ bearing in mind that he had never been in court before, even to bail out someone. The charges he was facing included contempt of court. He feared the charges were economically motivated following stringent measures he had imposed after assuming office. He accused “some people” of ….cheating on the volume of cargo ferried; others siphoned diesel and lubricant from locomotives while others worked day and night to deny haulage to the firm, making connections with private lorry owners instead. He was also quoted as saying that the one year he had been in office was the time of rebuilding, including repairing locomotive engines and wagons and the infrastructure to reduce accidents that occurred frequently. “Unfortunately, after June 2009 the world economic meltdown hit TAZARA…There was very little traffic as copper from Zambia dropped from 15,000 tonnes to just 5,000 tonnes.’

The Guardian also reported that Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Shukuru Kawambwa had said that his office was aware of the disappearance of the MD, and that deliberations on the matter would be held at a joint meeting involving concerned ministers from Tanzania and Zambia. Kawambwa also said that the Chinese government was set to lend Tanzania and Zambia $ 39 million as part of new a strategy to bailout the jointly-owned railway line. The Chinese government was also going to send management and technical staff to support the existing management. In an editorial, the Guardian proposed that a major management, manpower and financial audit be conducted so as to bring to the fore all underlying issues and durable solutions recommended. Furthermore, the system of appointment of the Chief Executive should be reviewed.

A new report exposed continued large-scale illegal ivory trading in Tanzania and Zambia on the eve of the opening of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Qatar in late March. However, the governments of the two countries proposed to CITES that they should be allowed to sell $15 million worth of tusks.

The report, ‘The Burgeoning Illegal Ivory Trade in Tanzania and Zambia’, by the ‘Environmental Investigation Agency’ (EIA), a non-profit group based in Washington, DC and London, quoted in This Day, said that undercover investigators had found evidence of a flourishing trade in illegal ivory in both countries. It said that Tanzania’s elephant population had declined by more than 30,000 elephants between 2006 and 2009, primarily from poaching to supply black-market ivory to Asia. This was said to be concentrated around the Selous Game Reserve, where 40% of the country’s elephants are found.

A seemingly innocent proposal by the government to sell 90 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles worth $15 million to provide much needed revenue came under severe criticism. There was strong opposition from the tourist business in Tanzania. Chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI) Mohammed Simai said that the campaign would impede Tanzania’s efforts to promote tourism, including game viewing in prominent national reserves like Selous, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. He urged President Kikwete to intervene and stop the proposed sale and added that the $15 million was a drop in the sea compared to potential losses from tourism. Tanzania earned Shs 1.6 trillion in 2008 from 640,000 tourists accounting for some 17% of GDP. Zanzibar would lose heavily because 30% of foreigners who came to Zanzibar had been game viewing tourists on the mainland.

Next, there was a visit to Tanzania by a delegation from CITES to assess if the country deserved a stockpile trade window. The government argued that its elephant population was safe and on the rise.

However, at the CITES conference in Qatar, issues of poaching were high on the agenda and Tanzania’s proposal attracted opposition from East Africa Community partners Kenya and Rwanda, and angered several other western countries and conservation groups. Britain’s Environmental Secretary Hilary Benn declared that the UK would vote no. The London Times had declared that Tanzania had established itself as the leading country for the illegal slaughter and export of ivory. Up to 50 elephants were killed every month at Selous it wrote and the authorities were torching the carcasses as a cover up. Other countries that called for a 20-year included Mali, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Government of Southern Sudan. Zambia was the only African country to support Tanzania.

Tanzania’s proposal was eventually rejected by CITES.

And in the Philippines
In the Philippines, a wildlife officer has been suspected of stealing at least part of 700 kilos of elephant tusks worth $2 million which had been smuggled into the country from Tanzania. According to the Director the country’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, the ivory – valued at $65,000 – had been part of a 4,000-kilo shipment of tusks impounded at Manila airport in July 2009. The seals on some of the boxes had been broken and some of the original tusks had been replaced by replicas made of PVC pipes covered with plaster. She went on: “This is really embarrassing because we should be among the proactive countries protecting such internationally-important species.

In a related development, 23 African countries told the European Union to support protection of the continent’s elephants and that, in return, they would help the EU to protect bluefin tuna. However, if the EU did not back their case, they threatened to oppose Europe’s proposal to ban trade in the giant fish. At the CITES meeting in March the proposed ban on fishing for blue tuna was overwhelmingly defeated after considerable lobbying by Japan which consumes large quantities.

Dr Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary General of the UN and Executive Director of UN Habitat, has been given the ‘Goteborg Award for Sustainable Development’ which is widely considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize for the environment. It is awarded by the City of Goteborg in Sweden. In accepting the award, which comes with a cash prize of $147,000, she spoke in Swedish and said that the money would be channnelled to the UN Habitat’s support for young people living in slums. This provoked mirth among the Tanzanian government delegation, who vehemently shook their heads in mock disappointment. “How dare she? We cannot come all the way to this cold country and not be rewarded even with a cup of tea” one of them joked loudly.

In Stockholm she launched her book ‘Building Prosperity: and Economic Development’.

And, in Tanzania, US Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt has presented the 2010 ‘Tanzanian Woman of Courage Award’ to Ananilea Nkya, Executive Director of the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) for her efforts to promote equality, opportunity and justice for Tanzanian women and girls. The Ambassador stressed that education will enhance women’s participation in the country’s economic activities and free them from early marriages, pregnancy and HIV/Aids. “For a bird to fly straight and high, both wings must be equally strong and developed. Both men and women must fully possess social and political rights and have equal opportunity to go for higher education”, he said. He said Nkya was given the award due to her efforts in using the mass media to raise awareness, speak out on gender-based violence, train women journalists and help repeal laws that limit women’s rights. He said that Nkya had designed a media campaign against a Zanzibar law which made pregnancy out of wedlock a crime and managed to spearhead amendments to the Marriage Act which currently allows girls younger than 18 to be married. He said that Nkya trained women politicians in 2005 aiming to increase their numbers in politics. As a result there were 1, 500 women candidates compared to 200 in previous elections. He said that through TAMWA, the government passed the ‘Sexual Offences Special Provision Act of 1998′ which criminalized FGM and increased the punishment of rapists to 30 years in jail.

Nkya is the third recipient of the Tanzania Woman of Courage Award since the US Embassy initiated it. The other recipients are Helen Kijo-Bisimba, Executive Director of the ‘Legal and Human Rights Centre’ in 2008 and Anne Malecela, MP for Same East in 2009 – Guardian.

FISH – LUCRATIVE DEAL
Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Dr. John Magufuli has stated that, after he had landed a lucrative deal for investment in the fishing industry, Tanzania’s deep sea is no longer a free harvest zone. The agreement with Japan’s Tuna Co-operatives Association (JTCA)is expected to earn the country over Shs 200 billion in licence fees and tax revenues annually. The contract provides for 30 fishing vessels from Japan to harvest tuna from the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone – Tanzania Daima.

“THEY PREFER TANZANIA”
The Guardian reports an announcement by the Immigration Department that of the 1,528 illegal migrants caught in 2009, 985 had appeared in court and had been repatriated between January and October 2009. A spokesman said that they preferred living in Tanzania rather than in other much less stable countries where life was unbearable. The majority of the immigrants who were caught came from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya. These were classified in different groups, depending on the seriousness of their offence as some were discovered to have genuine cases but failed to follow laid down regulations. Of the 106 who came from Somalia, 75 appeared in court and were returned home while the rest were advised to follow legal procedures to acquire citizenship. Of the 486 from Ethiopia, 351 were repatriated and from the DRC 532 out of 578 were sent home.

President Kikwete hails Cote d`Ivoire

The Ivory Coast football team was in Tanzania at the beginning of the year playing against ‘Taifa Stars’. Football fan President Kikwete presented the team’s skipper Didier Drogba with a Taifa Stars coloured jersey bearing his name and expressed his sincere appreciation to the team for honouring the invitation to tour Tanzania and play two friendly internationals against the Stars and Rwanda.

The President, who hosted a luncheon for the three teams and the host side, said that the presence of the West African side in Dar es Salaam had given the Stars a level of international coverage they had probably never received before. He said the Cote d’Ivoire’s skipper Didier Drogba’s trademark glancing header that separated the two teams during the match was followed by huge publicity across the soccer fraternity worldwide. “Thank you very much for the tour; you have played a big role in elevating the standard of our own team” he said. Despite the slim win by the visitors, the host side had gained massive applause from the fans not only in Tanzania but also across the globe – Guardian .

And a victory of sorts
Then on March 27, Taifa Stars won an international match in the lead up to next years African Nations Championship (CHAN) to be held in Sudan. They won by a score of 6 -0 to qualify for the next stage which will see them play against Rwanda. But in this football match the unhappy opposing team was from war-torn Somalia, who had already forfeited the return match being unable to host a second stage competition match because of the state of affairs at home.

Tanzania in the final

At the end of March the final of a ‘Deloitte Street Child Football World Cup’ was held at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. Among the many sponsors were David Beckham, Gary Lineker and Theo Walcott (who supported Ukraine). The Tanzanian team in this seven-a-side competition did very well. It reached the final against India and was defeated by only one goal.
Thank you Peter Park for alerting us to this story – Editor.

The 25-year $31 million contract agreement signed in 2007 between the government and Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd (Rites) under which Rites took over the majority 51% share of Tanzania Railways and agreed to manage it, has gone sour. Details of earlier developments were given in TA No 94.

Apparently, according to the East African, in an effort to improve railway services, TRL hired 23 passenger coaches from Rites. Inspectors from Tanzania visited the firm in India which was manufacturing them in 2008 and recommended changes. The coaches arrived in Tanzania in September 2008 and, after testing and further modifications, they started operating in January 2009. Unfortunately, in March, a passenger train collided with a goods train near Gulwe station. After an inspection, the government recommended that the coaches be suspended from operations pending an in-depth investigation. TRL stopped using the coaches on September 10.

In mid October the workers laid down their tools for eight hours because they claimed that the coaches ‘didn’t deserve to be used for carrying passengers and therefore there was no need to inspect them again.’ The Guardian then reported that Rites had issued a 60-day ultimatum to the government stating that, if it did not pay some $30 million for hiring the locomotives, Rites would leave the country.

Addressing TRL workers in mid-November Minister of Infrastructure Dr Shukuru Kawambwa said the government, though unhappy with TRL, could not immediately terminate the contract for fear of plunging the country into a deeper crisis and it could be taken to The Hague. The Minister said that the government had been using taxpayer’s money to pay salaries for TRL workers since March 2008, hoping that once the business picked up, the company would run on its own, but that had not been the case.

Meanwhile a promised loan of $44 million from the World Bank for TRL to undertake a massive rehabilitation of the railway system including the supply of 90 locomotives 1, 280 freight wagons and 110 passenger coaches was being held up.
According to Tanzania Daima, President Kikwete spent some time discussing the 60-day notice given to the government and then instructed the Minister to make a decision.

As this issue of TA went to press in December the Guardian reported that the Central Line had been paralyzed after workers downed tools over delay in paying salaries. A group of them stormed the company’s headquarters in an attempt to force the foreign and other senior management staff out of their offices, but the police stopped them.

All refugee camps in Kagera Region were officially closed on September 30 in a ceremony in Ngara witnessed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The buildings and other facilities were handed over to the respective local authorities for use as they wished. Only an estimated 100,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees now remain in Tanzania in two camps in Kigoma Region. Since 1995 the UNHCR has extended more than $5m in support of the refugees in Ngara District alone. The UN agency commended the Tanzanian government for its role in accommodating more than 600,000 Burundi and Rwandese refugees and also contributed $20 million for rehabilitation of the camps for future use – The Guardian.