Re: Rostam akabidhi vielelezo TAKUKURU
Statement made by Hon. Rostam Aziz at the Press Conference held on Sunday, 3 May 2009
My Colleagues Members of the Press,
Allow me to begin by thanking you all for having accepted my invitation to attend this press conference and also for coming to listen to me. I want to assure you that I greatly appreciate you for the honour that you have given me.
I have called this press conference following serious allegations, although I must say that they are ridiculous allegations, made by the Chairperson of IPP, Reginald Abraham Mengi, against me and other four businesspersons, with which he linked us with the term “grand corrupters”, which he made when he spoke to the Nation through his private television station, ITV, on April 23 2009.
Immediately after Mengi made his statements several media organisations called me, wanting my statement. I informed them that I did not want to quarrel with an old man, whose age is more than that of my father. However, after having had a chance to review the entire videotape of his statements, and recognizing the adverse effects of the malicious, poisonous allegations, I have seen the need to come before my fellow Tanzanians to inform them of the truth as it is now.
I understand that the Government and its various organs have already taken steps to warn Mr. Mengi about his statements. The Minister of State in charge of Good Governance, Hon. Sophia Simba, has warned Mr. Mengi that his action of misusing his media organisations to libel his competitors will not be tolerated. The Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Hon. George Mkuchika, has stated that his Ministry is investigating statements made by Mengi through the videotape, if determined that he is in violation of the law, due course will take its course. The Prime Minister, Hon. Mizengo Pinda, has warned against making accusations against people whose court cases are pending. The Police Force has indicated its doubts about why Mengi has chosen not only to present the so-called “evidence” to the police, but also stated that Mengi has made no new statements in the recent television broadcast other than to repeat what has already been taken care of or being taken care of by the relevant authorities. In addition to recognizing and appreciating the statements, which have embarrassed Mengi, I still believe that I am being held personally responsible to make an in-depth account regarding Mr. Mengi’s rants and raves.
First, let me make it clear that all charges levied against me by Mengi are untrue and completely ridiculous. The charges are the continuation of the same old song that he has been singing for a long time now; I had already clarified them in the past. When I made press conferences last year I clearly stated that I am not involved any way whatsoever with all the allegations levied against me and I challenged all those who were making the allegations to prove them, as our country follows the rule of law, they were supposed to present their evidence of my wrong-doing to the appropriate authorities in order for the law to take its course. Nobody did what I challenged them to do.
Even after Mengi repeated those allegations last week, I informed him through a press release that I issued on April 29, 2009, requesting him to present the evidence, within two (2) days to the law enforcement agencies, so that the allegations that I am corrupt and that I am the murderer who has been planning his assassination and the assassination of other people that he has called “those who have prepared themselves to fight against corruption” can be investigated. I stated that if he is unable to do so then he should apologise to me in public. I informed him that should he fail to take one of the two courses of action, I would have every right to expose him so that Tanzanians are made to understand the behaviour and motivation of this person. He took none of the two courses of action; he cannot do so because he understands that the statements he made are of his own fabrication. This is due to his being unable to present the so-called evidence against me, which is why I have decided to call this press conference in order to set the record straight.
I have contemplated for a long time the adverse effects that can fall upon our Nation if the trend of people like Mengi, who feel they have the right to publicly tarnish those who are their business competitors or opponents, will be allowed to continue with impunity, especially due to the hazardous poison that is unleashed in the fabricated and malicious statements that are made by Mengi and the targeted end results that are the basis for those statements. I feel that I will not be acting judiciously to the voters of my Constituency of Igunga, to my party of CCM and to my fellow Tanzanians, should I choose to remain silent.
Choosing to remain silent would lead my fellow Tanzanians to believe the mudslinging propaganda campaign initiated by Mengi, which have only the aim of imposing an evil and misleading influence upon our Nation. Thus, as a parent on one side and also as a Member of Parliament, Member of the National Executive Council and Member of the Central Committee of CCM, all which are positions whereby I was elected to hold by being trusted by the voters – by so many votes – I have the duty and responsibility to protest against the dirty games and smear campaigns that are being perpetrated by Mr. Mengi, upon whom many people are asking themselves where he has obtained the legal mandate to impose upon himself the title of “spokesperson of Tanzanians”, while he has never been elected to hold any public office, therefore he has not obtained their mandate.
Our Nation has gone through many periods of trials and tribulations, but it has remained a strong nation that is to be emulated by many in Africa. Tanzania is a country that its people are still struggling to fight against the major dilemmas of poverty, disease and ignorance, but it is praised all over the world for the unity and solidarity of its people, as well as the peace and stability that they have built and established. These have been achieved due to the strong foundations that were laid by the Founding Fathers of our Nation.
Today, when a person like Mengi comes up, due to his greed, lust, prejudice, discrimination and selfishness that has crossed all boundaries, daring to break apart the foundations of our Nation, I don’t believe that it would be right to continue to remain silent and to let him achieve his goals. We cannot remain silent because by doing so it will be at great and detrimental cost to our Nation.
Mr. Mengi’s history has shown him as a person who loves to start conflicts in matters that concern his vested interests, however, when one he encounters difficulties in those conflicts he runs to the “safety and shelter” of the Nation, by crying foul, in order to gain sympathy of the entire Nation. To achieve those objectives, Mengi has been using his media organisations to misinform the public so as to gain their sympathy, that he is being wronged, and that they should see him as the protector of their welfare and interests. He has clashed with people of various walks of life, from Priests to the comedy group Ze Comedy. This is Reginald Abraham Mengi.
1)He clashed with the former Minister of State for Good Governance, Hon. Wilson Masilingi, when his tender for the privatisation of Kilimanjaro Hotel – now Kilimanjaro Kempinski Hotel – was turned down. He wanted a clash of national proportions. To prove that he was a person driven by hatred and vengeance, since the launch of Kempinski, Mengi has refused to set foot inside the hotel and has refused to participate in any event that has taken place at the hotel.
2)He clashed with the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Hon. Shamim Khan, when he was ordered by the Ministry to remove the wording in the packaging of the mineral water (Kilimanjaro) manufactured and distributed by his company, that stated that the water was bottled from a natural mineral water spring, which was contrary to the truth. He also wanted this to become a conflict of national proportions.
3)He clashed with the former Minister for Environment, Hon. Edward Lowassa, who warned Mengi to refrain from using his position as the Chairperson of the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) to oppress his business competitors, by fabricating allegations of environmental pollution against them, locking down their factories. Again Mengi wanted this to become a national issue.
4)After the Former Minister of Finance, Hon. Basil Mramba, caught Mengi avoiding taxes when he was running the lottery business of BINGO, Mengi wanted this to become a national issue, literally wanting a “clash of titans” with Hon. Mramba, seeking sympathy from the public.
5)He clashed with Habari Corporation that was under the leadership of Jenerali Ulimwengu after the media institution published information of how Mengi bankrupted the National Bank of Commerce, again, Mengi cried foul, wanting national exposure.
6)He clashed with Yusuf Manji, a businessman, with whom they were fighting over the operations of a lottery game, later Mengi started a campaign of hatred over Manji simply because Manji was successful in solving the then looming conflict within the Young African Sports Club (one of Tanzania’s foremost soccer clubs), which Mengi could not solve. Again, Mengi cried foul, seeking national recognition.
7)He clashed with Hon. Adam Malima who made queried in Parliament; why/how Mengi was abusing his own media institutions by promoting news stories that were self-aggrandising even more than news stories that covered national leaders. Mengi wanted this to become a conflict of national proportions.
8)He clashed with Tanil Somaiya, a businessman, after he realised that this successful young man who had been his sales/business agent of products from his own companies (that Mengi destroyed by his own hand), had managed to strengthen his company and achieved even greater commercial success, greater than Mengi himself. Mengi wanted this to become a conflict of national proportions.
9)He clashed with the Minister for Home Affairs, Hon. Lawrence Masha, by making claims that he was the subject of a sabotage campaign led and initiated by the Minister, again wanting this to become a national issue. This list of conflicts is lengthy and continuous.
10)Now Mengi has started a battle with me, after having seen that I have also become his competitor in business, a major competitor in the ownership of media institutions in the country. He now wants this to become a clash of national proportions.
This is Reginald Abraham Mengi.
As Mengi is driven by hatred and vengeance, when he starts a battle with people, he makes sure that news and information regarding those persons are not publicised in any way in his media organs. If any news are ever publicised regarding those persons are to make personal attacks, belittling and tarnishing their names. Why should I continue to tolerate a person such as this? Why is it when there are problems of a personal nature between himself and those he view as his enemies – in business or even politically – does he always want the matters to become national issues?
I decided to call this press conference in order to inform, and through you – Members of the Press – open the eyes of Tanzanians, in order for them to understand Reginald Abraham Mengi in his true face and his malicious objectives, so as to identify him as a “whale” of corruption in this country. I decided to undress the sheepskin that Mengi has worn so that Tanzanians are able to clearly see his true face, that of a wild fox, that he has desperately tried to hide. I am doing this to prevent the Nation from falling where Mengi wants it to fall.
Reginald Abraham Mengi, the whale of corruption, started corrupting this country by participating in corrupt practices that contributed towards the bankrupting of the former National Bank of Commerce (NBC), which is the property of Tanzanians, eventually leading to the privatisation of the bank at giveaway prices. Using his company, Anche Mwedu Limited (AML), Mengi took a loan during the early 1980s, of billions of shillings that he has refused – even today – to return, forcing the matter to be taken to the Courts.
The first loan was obtained through Account Number 65430000020 (released through Overdraft Agreements) that reached the total sum of Tanzanian Shillings 3,255429,100.75, which until January 1996 had gained the interest amount of Tanzanian Shillings 1,737,862,471,75. The second loan under the same company (through Loan Agreements) was obtained through Account Number 10430000008 was for the total amount of Tanzanian Shillings 386,746,631.06 as of January 1996.
The third loan was obtained through Account Number 654300584 (through the process of Government Guarantee) was of the total sum of Tanzanian Shillings 1,803,137,210 as of January 1996. The fourth and last loan, obtained through the Heading Interest on Jotter/Suspense Account, was of the total sum of Tanzanian Shillings 417,689,254.10 as of January 2996. The total amount of money taken from NBC that if Mengi would be held liable, through his company of Anche Mwedu Limited (AML), as of January 1996, reached the staggering sum of Tanzanian Shillings 5,863,001,196.45. These funds, until today (2009), including the total compounded interest, reach the sum of Tanzanian Shillings 28 billion!
This is how Mengi contributed towards the demise of NBC, the bank of poor citizens of Tanzania. The funds taken by Mengi, 28 billion shillings, can build 100 secondary schools that would have benefitted children of poor peasants of Tanzania. Apart from NBC, Mengi wants to be regarded as a “clean” person to the extent of daring to belittle and accuse others as being corrupt people, while he also took a substantial amount of money through the “Commodity Import Support Scheme” (CIS), which he never returned until today. These are funds that were set aside, as loans, in order to assist businesspersons to import commodities from overseas, and when returned, they were meant to empower people to implement developmental projects in the country such as the construction of schools and clinics. Many of us businesspersons took these loans, we returned them and we are continuing to return them. But Mengi, who claims to be a true patriotic son of the Nation, and who has the interests of the poor citizens of Tanzania interests at heart, has continued to make them poorer by drawing from the Scheme and later claiming no knowledge whatsoever, refusing to repay the loans until today. Among the funds that Mengi loaned include:
Fund
Company
Amount Taken
Norway CIS 1988/89
IPP – Anche Mwedu
NOK (M) 6.00
Norway CIS 1989/90
IPP – Anche Mwedu
NOK (M) 4.00
EEC CIS 1988/90
Bonite Bottlers
EEU (M) 0.5199
Japan CIS 1991/92
Bonite Bottlers
JY (M) 160.00
Japan CIS 1991/92
Medicare
JY (M) 115.00
Canada CIS 1988/89
Anche Mwedu
C$ (M) 0.5
Italy CIS 1988/89
Anche Mwedu
LIRA (M) 1,774.50
Japan CIS NPG-9-1997
Anche Mwedu
JY (M) 20,000,000
Japan CIS NPG-5-1994
Anche Mwedu
JY (M) 160,000,000
These funds are in different foreign currencies, which when converted to Tanzanian Shillings and compounded with their interest for all the years taken until today reach staggering sums of billions of shillings. And these are just one portion of funds that he took that we have managed to obtain their records after other records being lost of misplaced in mysterious circumstances. Instead of returning these loans that Mengi took nearly a quarter of a century ago, he used them to become a rich person.
In order to demonstrate how he has become a veteran practitioner in corruption, Mengi conspired with a Treasury officer to fabricate official documents, showing that he had already remitted those loans, whose records we were able to obtain, with full knowledge that he had not paid back a single cent. If an independent audit is conducted even today it will be proven that he did not pay the loans and if he denies this, I want him to agree to an independent audit to be conducted, that will be free and fair. Any normal person would be surprised at how Mengi has accumulated such wealth that he now has, in such a short span of time, but these records now give us a clear account of the source of such wealth.
Leaving aside that corrupt chapter, Mengi, by virtue of his position as Chairperson of the Investment Committee, which has only three (3) members, within NICOL (National Investments Company Limited), which was established to enable Tanzanians to invest in the large commercial and industrial sectors of Tanzania, has been engaged in the grand corruption by contravening the ethics of standard commercial practices, when he forced NICOL to purchase shares of Interchem Pharma Limited (a pharmaceutical manufacturing company), which is owned by Mengi’s family, while he had the full knowledge that the factory was on its way to bankruptcy.
While knowing the bad financial standing of the pharmaceutical company, Mengi used his position to “burn” Tanzanian Shillings 2,558 billion, property of poor Tanzanians who are not less than 22,000 who hold shares in NICOL, forcing NICOL to buy fifty-one (51%) percent shares, thus becoming a majority shareholder. The factory owned by Interchem Pharma Limited, now by NICOL as majority shareholder, has now been put under receivership in order to be liquidated, only one year after Mengi forced NICOL to “burn” the funds of NICOL’s shareholders, poor Tanzanians.
Any normal businessperson, who observes, adheres to and respects business ethics cannot be involved in such grand corruption and embezzlement within a company of serious investors, who gave him the mandate to oversee the investment of their funds. Being an Accountant and a businessperson, Mengi knew that his factory was on its deathbed, but he used trickery and deceit, weaving a web to entangle NICOL in the loss-making transaction in order to save his family. The source of this truth has been published in the Prospectus book of NICOL of October 2007. If he has any trace of shame left in him, Mengi must return the funds of NICOL’s shareholder – if he is to save his face from further humiliation!
Another grand corruption engaged by Mengi took place when he entered into a joint venture with the Government in the ownership and management of the factory of TANPACK Tissue Industries Limited. Without informing his joint venture partner – the Government – Mengi secretly used the guarantee held through TANPACK to borrow Tanzanian Shillings 600 million from NBC, utilising the same in ways known only to himself. When NBC became bold and demanded the repayment of the loan, Mengi wanted the repayment be conducted through TANPACK, but the Government, as a joint venture partner refused to recognise that loan because it had no such prior knowledge of its existence. The conclusion of the grand corruption engaged by Mengi became the receivership and eventual liquidation and winding-up of TANPACK!
This is how Reginald Abraham Mengi, the whale of corruption, is in his true face. He sabotages the poor while claiming sympathy for them. An ethical person cannot state that he wishes only the best for the poor while behind their back he commits only evils against them, making their lives even more difficult.
But apart from these, allow me to entertain by accounting to you on how this person has become seasoned in the arts of concocting campaigns hatred and malice against others, by claiming to be the protector and defender of those whom he calls “indigenous”, while his real motives being to personally gain from those smear campaigns that he instigates. In 1994, Mengi made malicious and poisonous statements, which had the intention of instigating a wave of hatred, when he claimed that, a large section of the Dar es Salaam City Centre was being held for residential purposes by Tanzanians of Asian origin and that “indigenous” Tanzanians are not residents of those areas. The President during that time, Mzee Ali Hassan Mwinyi, instructed the then Minister in charge of land matters, Hon. Edward Lowassa, to allocate to Mengi a large portion of land within the City Centre, which is located adjacent to International House. However, immediately after Mengi was allocated that portion of land he sold it to Fida Hussein, a Tanzanian businessman of Asian origin. This is the Reginald Abraham Mengi, the whale of corruption.
Business has its own ethics and a business proceeding can demonstrate to what extent someone follows or does not follow ethics or has no ethics. Some matters that are being outlined hereafter will serve to illustrate how to better understand Mengi:
1)It is a well-known fact that all the wealth of Mengi has been obtained in a period of eight years, from 1984 to 2992. Tanzanians are duty bound to ask how he has amassed such a great amount of wealth in such a short span of time. However, even after having amassed such wealth, Mengi’s businesses today are in poor standing and many have collapsed. How can one go completely wrong to such an extent? For anyone who understands the principles of business will immediately realise that Mengi has no ability to conduct any business. His wealth was obtained after pilfering money through cleverly contrived plans and through loan defaulting. These transactions were carried out while their records were misplaced or lost under mysterious circumstances, such as the burning of buildings and loss of documents. Mengi profited from the funds and they are now depleted. He is now crying foul and is carrying out a smear and hatred campaign to settle the score with those who he realises have become more successful than him in the same line of business. What he doesn’t understand is that some of us did not just wake up and become rich, but our source of wealth has come from families with records of hard work and being engaged in business since 1852 in Tabora.
2)Another indication of the corruption of Mengi is his record of destroying his companies. It should be well understood that a serious businessperson and who manages his businesses couldn’t destroy or liquidate a company. A businessperson will only destroy a company with the aim of evading taxes, or evading to pay back loans, or that he has failed to run the company successfully, therefore being unable to operate it as previously. Mengi has liquidated many companies, which including Tanzania Kalamu Industries Limited, Anche Mwedu Limited, TANPACK Tissue Industries Limited, Chemical Industries Limited, Bodycare Limited and Medicare Limited. Please ask yourself why Mengi is destroying his companies and then goes on a witch-hunt among those who have become successful? Without a doubt he has liquidated those companies with the aim of evading taxation or the repayment of loans, things that can only be classified as grand corruption. Personally, I don’t indulge in these kinds of games.
3)A patriotic businessperson is also measured by their willingness to pay taxes and to provide stable employment to his fellow citizens. If you really wish well for others and are the defender of poor people such as Mengi wants to be seen, then you will provide permanent and stable employment, and you will pay taxes as the aim of paying taxes is to enable the Government to provide social services to these poor people by providing them with medicines and treatment at their hospitals, providing their children with better and beneficial education, construction of infrastructure and the provision of food in times of hunger especially when the nation experiences drought which leads to lack of food. If you sabotage poor people by failing to provide them with stable and permanent employment, instead employing them as casual labourers, if you are evading taxes, how can you claim that you are helping the poor? Mengi is well known for firing his employees frequently as well as refusing to pay them their terminal benefits claiming that his companies are running at perpetual losses. This is embezzlement and fraud because if those companies are running at losses, where does he get the millions of shillings that he donates on a regular basis? In continuation of his fraud and embezzlement, insulting the intelligence of Tanzanians, Mengi has been evading paying taxes that would have been utilised to alleviate many problems being faced by the majority of Tanzanians, instead he has come up with the style of inviting physically handicapped and mentally challenged people to luncheons which he organises, thereafter using his media organisations in the style of Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, of being praised and publicised in special features, that are printed in his newspapers. He has literally been frying Tanzanians in their own oil. Personally I am proud of my record that companies that are owned by my family provide permanent and stable employment to approximately 6,000 Tanzanians, also paying the appropriate taxes to the Government. I am proud to state that our companies are recognised even by the Tanzania Revenue Authorities (TRA) as being among the leading tax paying companies in Tanzania. This is the measure of one’s patriotism to one’s country, not that of wanting to be felt sorry for by the people for instigating false and malicious charges through your media organisations against others, and using the same organisations to self-aggrandise while maligning others!
Apart from all these, the very same Reginald Mengi who has instigated charges against me and others that we hold overseas bank accounts, where we store our money, claiming that to be unpatriotic, he – Mengi – has foreign currency bank accounts both inside and outside the country. I challenge him to deny that he has no such bank account outside of Tanzania. Mengi is also accusing us of using our funds to start newspapers with a view of smearing him and “those who are helping President Jakaya Kikwete to fight against corruption”. Mengi is making this claim while he is leading in the process of starting (and closing) newspapers, while others are being plainly viewed as having been started in order to fight against certain people who are his opponents or enemies, whether in business or politics. He has already started The Guardian, ThisDay, Nipashe, Kulikoni, Sema Usikike, Taifa Letu, Alasiri, Lete Raha, Kasheshe, Acha Umbea and many others that he is funding through the back door. Where has he obtained all that money to start all these newspapers?
For a very long time I was under the impression that Mengi is the person behind the smear campaign to belittle and slander some of us. He has always denied this to me, but he has now exposed himself and proved to be the ringleader behind that dirty campaign. At a certain time, last year, when he was airborne at about 35,000 feet above sea level, he told the people with whom he was that on the following Wednesday “… we will finish Rostam Aziz through MWANAHALISI.” When I received the news I called him and he vehemently denied having made such statements. I believed him, however, when the following Wednesday arrived, as truly foretold, MWANAHALISI published an article that aimed at slandering me as had promised Mengi.
During the past one year, I received information that Mengi was the person conducting the campaign to slander, libel and mudsling me through the media, but fabricating and spreading any malicious information that was aimed at tarnishing me. When I met him I spoke about the malicious charges, not only did he categorically deny having anything to do with them, he also swore in his mother’s name, wife’s name and the name of his children, that he was not involved with the smear campaign, and that he is also worried about the campaign. By coming forward one week ago with malicious allegations against me that have neither basis nor evidence whatsoever has now exposed everything in public, that he is the ringleader in the smear campaign that has the singular objective of creating hatred and conflict in our country. I know he will deny this because he is a seasoned complainer, that he is wronged, believing that he has the God-given right to wrong others.
From a different perspective, his behaviour and conduct does not surprise me very much. He seems to be confused. When a 70-year-old man reaches a stage of calling others to be killers without any evidence, and repeating the claims that he is under persecution and assassination plans are being made against him – on a regular basis – is a clear sign of mental depression. He is a paranoid old man!
It is proper that Tanzanians must understand that whenever Mengi is faced with difficulties or when he engages in evil doings, his first point of refuge is to seek sympathy from Tanzanians, wanting to be seen as having been wronged, that is one among them, that he is being wronged as punishment for defending them. The truth of the matter is that he has been so doing in order to find refuge and protection, while he knows that he has committed many wrongs.
In short, Reginald Abraham Mengi is the ringleader behind the misinformation campaign that has confused the people, to the extent that it has even attempted to disrupt the Government’s plans in serving the people of Tanzania, fulfilling promises made to them. How this person has the audacity to claim that he supports President Jakaya Kikwete is truly amazing! He has created conflict wherever his nose touched; every day, his major activities have been the fabrication of misinformation and conflicts, wasting time that would have been utilised to develop the nation and its people.
I should say that contrary to him, he has ended up releasing his tales without providing a single shred of evidence to the appropriate law-enforcement agencies, while delivering his empty allegations to media. I am only giving you here just a small portion of the evidence of corrupt practices engaged by Mengi, which I also plan to present to the law enforcement agencies in order for them to begin official investigations against Mengi, taking the necessary measures. On the other hand, I have instructed my lawyers to work on the false and malicious allegations made by Mengi and to take the appropriate legal measures against him.
I conclude by stating that Reginald Abraham Mengi has no moral authority to finger-point others by calling them corrupt, claiming to be a warrior or hero in the war against corruption. We all agree that the war against corruption is necessary, but those who are engaged in the battle must also themselves be clean. Information contained in this Press Release clearly demonstrates that Mengi has neither the right nor the authority to carry on such a battle, but also, he is a whale when it comes to being corrupt; he is a corrupt whale, who is trying to hide his corruption by mudslinging others. Tanzanians are not foolish as he so thinks. They know the difference between rice and thrash!
Thank you for listening. Thank you
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30th April 2009, 09:11 AM
30th April 2009, 09:11 AM
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