KIWIRA na MCHUCHUMA: A Campaign To Reclaim...

[RR]

Pia haitashangaza hata hizo mill. 700/- zilizolipwa ilikua ni mkopo uliodhaminiwa na serikali or something like that.

Pamoja na kwamba JK alisema tukianza kuwafuatafuata marais wastaafu tutasababisha waanze kung'ang'ania madaraka kwa kuogopa kushtakiwa.

So if you become the president of the URT at one time, no matter how much you screw up, you are guaranteed smooth enjoyemnt of your pension and whatever you may have taken using your position. A good move JK! as you are going, at one time, to retire!

 

[taffu69]

This is purely UFISADI. Mkapa ameidhoofisha Tanzania katika kila sekta. Mashirika ameuza/binafsisha, nyumba za Serikali wamejigawia, fedha wamejichotea billions kutoka BOT. Hii inanipa wasiwasi kuwa hata hizo milioni 700 walizotumia kununua Kiwira is among 133 billion fetched from BOT EPA and that's why JK is hesitating to mention their names publicly. Kwa ufisadi huu naona Mkapa amekosa sifa ya kulindwa na Katiba ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania hivyo ni shurti aburuzwe mahakamani kwa uovu aliolifanyia Taifa yeye binafsi na washirika wake.

 

[BAK]

How a president and his minister robbed the nation

-Using their powerful positions in government, Mkapa and Yona sold 4bn/- coal mine to their own company for just 700m/-

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

NEW documents have surfaced showing that ex-president Benjamin Mkapa and his energy and minerals minister, Daniel Yona, sold the formerly state-owned Kiwira Coal Mines Limited to their own private company for a mere 700m/- in 2005 while the mine was actually built at a cost of over 4bn/-.

According to official government records seen by THISDAY, Kiwira coal mine was built by the state in the 1980s with funding from the Chinese and Tanzanian governments at a construction cost of around 4.29bn/-.

An assessment made by Chinese geologists in the late 1970s established that the mine had economic coal reserves of up to 35.14 million tonnes, with proven coal reserves of 22.14 tonnes.

In the dubious privatisation of the coal mine, which was done in a manner most secretive, the government sold off a controlling stake in the lucrative mine to Tanpower Resources Company Limited, a private company personally set up by Mkapa, Yona and their close relatives.

Using their powerful positions in government at that time, both Mkapa and Yona are understood to have fast-tracked the privatisation of the mine to ensure it was very cheaply sold to their own private company.

The now-defunct Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission (PSRC) signed an agreement to this effect with Tanpower Resources on June 8, 2005, for the sale of at least 70 per cent of the shares in coal mine to the Mkapa/Yona company.

Tanpower Resources then quickly increased its stake in the mine to 85 per cent and in March 2006 signed a controversial, $271.8m (approx. 340bn/-) contract with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) for the supply of 200 megawatts of electricity to the national power grid.

The remaining 15 per cent shares in the Kiwira company are still formally held by the government of the day.

Official documents show that Mkapa and Yona personally took charge of the sale of the coal mine to Tanpower Resources for just 700m/-, with the company also given a generous payment schedule.

It has now been revealed that the company was asked to pay just 70m/- on the date of the signing of the agreement, with the remaining balance of 630m/- payable within six months from the date of signing of the agreement.

The contract for the privatisation of the coal mine was signed on behalf of the government by the former PSRC executive chairman, John Rubambe, and his senior legal counsel, M. Mahanyu.

On the other hand, the coal mine’s former general manager, Adam Salim Abdu, and his finance and administration manager, Ramadhan Idabu, signed the agreement on behalf of Kiwira Coal Mines Ltd.

Representing Tanpower Resources in the signing of the controversial deal were Evans Mapundi and Wilfred Malekia.

Mapundi and Malekia are directors of a company known as Universal Technologies Limited, which is also under the Tanpower Resources umbrella. They also sit on the six-member Kiwira board of directors.

Investigations by THISDAY supported by official documents from the Business Registration and Licensing Authority (BRELA) have revealed that Tanpower Resources was the joint brainchild of Mkapa and Yona, formed during the later stages of the third phase government when one was still serving as president of the United Republic and the other as minister for energy and minerals, respectively.

At the time of the company’s registration in 2004, its first listed directors were the then first lady, Mrs Anna Mkapa; minister Yona; Nicholas Mkapa (the president and Mrs Mkapa’s son); Joseph Mbuna (Nicholas Mkapa’s father-in-law); and Evans Mapundi.

As already previously reported by THISDAY, Yona and his son, Danny Yona, were also prominent shareholders of the renamed Kiwira Coal and Power Limited under the umbrella of Tanpower Resources Company Limited.

Yona and his son own shares in the high-powered Tanpower Resources through a private company called DEVCONSULT Limited, in which Yona senior owns 90 per cent of the shares while Yona junior holds the remaining 10 per cent.

Mkapa and the former first lady, Mrs Anna Mkapa, also have shares in the same Tanpower Resources company through their own private firm, ANBEM Limited, which was registered in 1999 with the couple as sole shareholders and directors while they were still at State House.

Apart from the shares held by ANBEM Limited, it has also been established that Mr and Mrs Mkapa’s son, Nicholas Mkapa, also has his own shares in the same Kiwira company through another company going by the name of Fosnik Enterprises Limited.

It is understood that Mkapa junior owns Fosnik Enterprises on a 50-50 basis with his wife, Ms Foster (Mbuna) Mkapa.

At the same time, Nicholas Mkapa’s father-in-law Joseph Mbuna has also been discovered to be one of the shareholders and major figures in Kiwira Coal and Power Limited, which is based in Mbeya Region.

Mbuna, whose stake in the company is under the name of Choice Industries Limited in which he is the majority shareholder, has been serving as chairman of the Kiwira Coal and Power Ltd board of directors.

Like ANBEM Limited, DEVCONSULT Limited and Fosnik Enterprises Limited, Choice Industries Limited also falls under the umbrella of Tanpower Resources.

Kiwira Coal and Power Ltd under the ownership of Tanpower Resources was later controversially given control of an additional area in Mbeya Region with lucrative coal deposits that was formerly owned by the government.

Insiders say the Kabulo Coal Prospect was wrestled away from the control of the State Mining Corporation (STAMICO), a government-owned agency, and then handed over to the new Kiwira owners.

Previous studies commissioned by the government itself have shown that the Kabulo area, which lies within the East African rift valley system in south-western Tanzania, has proven reserves of an additional 14 million tonnes of coal.

 

[RR]

Ukimwona mtu mzima anijisaidia haradhani bila woga, yaweza kukupa fikra kwamba ana matatizo fulani ya akili au anatekeleza maagizo ya mganga wa kienyeji.
Lakini pia huwa nawaza huyu mtu katika fikra zake kuna nini? Ubongo wake ukoje? Anawaza nini?
Katika mtiririko huo nawaza, Mkapa alipoamua kukaa kimya...kimya kabisa .. huwa anawaza nini? Kuna mtu anayeweza kufikiria ufanyajikazi wa akili ya BWM? BMW anafikiria nini kwa sasa?

 

[Zanaki]

Kila nikisoma issue kama hii nakumbuka wale watoto wadogo wanaosoma shule kule vijijini.

Siku kiongozi akiwa anakuja wanaambiwa wawe wasafi, na usafi wao ni shati ambalo halina vifungo, huku amejitahidi jinsi anavyoweza kumridhisha mwalimu wake kuwa yeye ni msafi tayari kwa mapokezi ya kiongozi mkuu wa nchi. Kwenye miguu hana viatu,huku kaamshwa saa kumi na moja asubuhi(wakati huyo kiongozi hajaamka hata huko Dar es Salaam) tayari kufanya usafi kwanza shule. Mwalimu anakuja na kuwakagua na kusema wako smart vya kutosha, tayari kwa kumpokea kiongozi mkuu wa nchi!

Hawa ni watu ambao hawasomi tunayoyasoma sisi huku kwenye mitandao na magazeti, to them that is a luxury they cannot afford. Umeme kwao ni ndoto,na hata ukiwapa utatumika kwenye taa tuu, sio kwamba watakuwa na majiko ya umeme au air conditioners etc. Leo hii wewe na mimi tukiwa hatuna umeme nyumbani,hakukaliki kwa sababu ni joto na pia we cant watch TV. That its easy for us kumchukia mtu kama Lowassa na Karamagi kwa 'kutuongezea' bei ya umeme. Sasa imagine kuna mtu ambaye huo umeme hana, probably kwake yeye hajawahi hata kuuona, then hao viongozi wao wanaowasubiri kwa hamu kuwaona wakija kuwatembelea vijijini kwao, wanagawana the very resource ambayo ingeweza kuwafanya wao wakawa na angalau na balbu badala ya chemli.

Imagine at how bitter we are, because we are privileged to have access to this sort information and we actually have the chance of putting our grievance in here and actually have debate on it. But those people out there do not know at all whats going on in their country. Mwalimu aliwaambia kuwa rasilimali kama Kiwira ni kwa manufaa yao wote,leo hii wanasikia kuwa wale viongozi ambao walipewa jukumu kuhakikisha hilo wamegawana hio Kiwira!

 

[Mume Wenu]

Swali ambalo mimi naamini na watanzania wenzangu wengi tunajiuliza ni kuwa je tume mature enough kuweza kupata ujasiri wa kumshtaki rais mstaafu? Na kama tukifanya hivyo namuona mkapa segerea akilima na wafungwa wenzie aliowanyima msamaha kipindi yuko rais.

Its a dream of course it will never happen. Rais hawezi kushtakiwa na akishtakiwa hawezi kufungwa.

 

[BAK]

DUBIOUS PRIVATISATION OF KIWIRA COAL MINE:
Mr Clean played `uzawa` trick to silence critics

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

FORMER president Benjamin Mkapa and his energy and minerals minister, Daniel Yona, played the ’indigenization’ card (Uzawa in Kiswahili) to sell the state-owned Kiwira coal mine in 2005 to a locally-registered private company jointly formed with members of their immediate families, THISDAY can reveal today.

At a time when there was a political storm over the privatisation of state-owned assets to foreign investors, the ex-president and his minister tactfully used these public sentiments at their own advantage by selling the lucrative coal mine to their own firm, Tanpower Resources Company Limited, at a ridiculously cheap price.

While the coal mine and its vast infrastructure were constructed at an estimated cost of 4.29bn/- in the 1980s, the Mkapa-Yona company bought the entire assets currently worth tens of billions of shillings for a mere 700m/- in 2005.

The ex-president and his minister did not publicly declare their personal business interests in Tanpower Resources -- an obvious violation of public leadership ethics -- and went on to award the privatisation of the government coal mine to their private company.

Latest THISDAY findings reveal that Tanpower Resources Company Ltd deliberately touted itself as a private business entity ’’formed by indigenous Tanzanians’’, apparently to silence would-be critics of the sale of the mine at such a remarkably low price.

Mkapa, who had built up a reputation as ’Mr Clean’ over his ten-year administration (1995-2005), had quietly teamed up with his then energy and minerals minister in 2004 to form Tanpower Resources Company Ltd.

With a clear intention to take over Kiwira mine from the outset, Mkapa, Yona and other owners of Tanpower Resources licensed the company to ’’deal with coal mining in order to generate electricity for consumption and sale; to generate power generators, transmitters and general distributors; and to provide power and general projects management, project appraisers and consultants.’’

On December 15, 2004, Evans Mapundi, who co-owns Tanpower Resources with Mkapa, Yona and others, wrote a letter to Yona as the then energy and minerals minister requesting permission to visit Kiwira mine in Mbeya Region for an assessment of the mine’s economic potential.

After being granted permission by Yona to visit Kiwira, Tanpower Resources wrote another letter to its shareholder-cum-energy and minerals minister on January 4, 2005, making a formal offer to buy 70 per cent of the government’s shares in the mine for just 700m/-.

Just two months later, Yona as a government minister wrote to his own company jointly owned with Mkapa and others (Tanpower), informing them that the government had ’’agreed to go into joint venture partnership’’ with the company in running the mine.

In the same March 24, 2005, letter, Yona announced that the government had formed a four-member team chaired by Treasury Registrar Agnes Bukuku to fast-track the privatisation of the coal mine to the privately-owned company.

Yona copied the letter to then Finance Minister Basil Mramba, Planning and Privatisation Minister Abdallah Kigoda, Attorney General Andrew Chenge, Chief Secretary Marten Lumbanga, PSRC Executive Chairman John Rubambe and Kiwira coal mine board chairman Rumisha Mambo.

Other members of the Kiwira fast-track privatisation team were Omar Chambo, the then Acting Commissioner for Minerals, J.J. Ngelime, a senior consultant with the now defunct Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission (PSRC) and B. Sahel, a state attorney from the AG’s chambers.

Chambo currently serves as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development.

Insiders say when the Treasury Registrar and her team were ordered by Yona to speed up the sale of Kiwira mine to Tanpower Resources, little did they know that the company had such high-powered owners including then president Mkapa, First Lady Anna Mkapa, Yona himself and their immediate family members.

Thanks to the fast-tracked privatisation of Kiwira personally pushed by Mkapa and Yona using their powerful positions in government, PSRC signed an agreement with Tanpower Resources on June 8, 2005, for the sale of 70 per cent of the shares in the state-owned coal mine to the private company.

Tanpower Resources then quickly increased its stake in the mine to 85 per cent and in March 2006 signed a controversial $271.8m (approx. 340bn/-) contract with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) for the supply of 200 megawatts of electricity to the national power grid.

The remaining 15 per cent shares in the Kiwira company are still formally held by the government of the day.

Official documents show that Tanpower Resources was asked to pay just 70m/- on the date of the signing of the agreement, with the remaining balance of 630m/- payable within six months from the date of signing of the agreement.

It remains unclear if the Mkapa-Yona company has paid up the outstanding balance to date.

Investigations by THISDAY have established that at the time of the registration of Tanpower Resources in 2004, its first listed directors were the then first lady, Mrs Anna Mkapa; minister Yona; Nicholas Mkapa (the president and Mrs Mkapa’s son); Joseph Mbuna (Nicholas Mkapa’s father-in-law); and Evans Mapundi.

Yona and his son, Danny Yona, are also prominent shareholders of Tanpower Resources through a private company called DEVCONSULT Limited, in which Yona senior owns 90 per cent of the shares while Yona junior holds the remaining 10 per cent.

Mkapa and the former first lady also have shares in the same Tanpower Resources company through their own private firm, ANBEM Limited, which was registered in 1999 while the couple was still at State House.

Apart from the shares held by ANBEM Limited, Mr and Mrs Mkapa’s son, Nicholas Mkapa, has his own shares in Tanpower Resources and hence Kiwira through another company going by the name of Fosnik Enterprises Limited.

The ex-president’s son owns Fosnik Enterprises on a 50-50 basis with his wife, Ms Foster (Mbuna) Mkapa.

At the same time, Nicholas Mkapa’s father-in-law Joseph Mbuna, is also one of the shareholders and major figures in the renamed Kiwira Coal and Power Limited.

Mbuna’s stake in the company is under the name of Choice Industries Limited in which he is the majority shareholder.

An assessment made by Chinese geologists in the late 1970s established that the mine had economic coal reserves of up to 35.14 million tonnes, with proven coal reserves of 22.14 tonnes.

Tanpower Resources had pledged to invest more than 46bn/- in the coal mine and power plant when it bought a controlling stake on the cheap but has reportedly been struggling to raise funds.

 

[Mpita Njia]

Nashangaa kwa nini bingwa wa kutengua mikataba, aka Ed Lowassa, alikaa ofisini kwa miaka miwili bila kutengua mktaba huu!
Ngeleja, ebu amka na uwe mzalendo angalau kidogo tu, nenda kwa mzee Pinda akaupindishe huu mkataba na kuuvunjilia mbali. Tunataka mali yetu

 

[a.9784]

Mkataba huu kama unachunguzwa labda Mwakyembe awe m/kiti akisaidiwa na Anna Kilango.Hawa wanaweza wakatuletea kitu cha kueleweka.

 

[Mwafrika wa Kike]

Nashangaa kwa nini bingwa wa kutengua mikataba, aka Ed Lowassa, alikaa ofisini kwa miaka miwili bila kutengua mktaba huu!
Ngeleja, ebu amka na uwe mzalendo angalau kidogo tu, nenda kwa mzee Pinda akaupindishe huu mkataba na kuuvunjilia mbali. Tunataka mali yetu

Huyu Pinda naye naona wanambatiza taratibu kwenye bwawa la kifisadi na hizi safari za nje walizoanza kumpangia za kuonana na Kichaka.... Sinclair yuko makini anasubiria the right time ya kustrike like a cobra.. shiiisssssssssssshiiissssssss

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

This now has gotten on my last nerve..!! We need to deal with this.. this is the new mission, a mission that we will have to succeed.

 

[DawaKali]

Official documents show that Tanpower Resources was asked to pay just 70m/- on the date of the signing of the agreement, with the remaining balance of 630m/- payable within six months from the date of signing of the agreement.

It remains unclear if the Mkapa-Yona company has paid up the outstanding balance to date.

Du, tuseme wame tumia 70m/- tu kununua hule mgodi? Ata nyumba ya maana Dar at that time aija jengwa kwa kiasi hicho. Jamani hii Tanzania ni impossible country! This kind of robbery can only compare to what foreign companies are taking from us of our mineral wealth.

 

[Rufiji]

Mkapa ,

Should be prosecuted as soon as possible; the evidence against him are Overwhelming so soon or later Segerea will be his place of residence. This guy has done insurmountable amount of damage to our beloved country. For how long are we going to sit down and watch these so called FISADIS ripping of our country? Enough is enough; we should speak now or forever hold our peace. Let us use Mkapa as a classic example to other Fisadis ....in reminding them we are going to hold them responsible for everything they have done over the course of their tenure.

 

[BAK]

TANESCO workers to stage demos over Richmond, Kiwira

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

WORKERS of the state-run Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) are to stage demonstrations in Dar es Salaam tomorrow to protest dubious power generation contracts that have left the public utility in a crippling financial crisis.

The controversial deals include the recent, 172.9bn/- Richmond scandal and the $271.8m (approx. 340bn/-) contract between TANESCO and the Kiwira coal-fired power project, which is owned by a private company set up by ex-president Benjamin Mkapa and former cabinet minister Daniel Yona when they were both still in public office.

TANESCO trade union leaders announced yesterday that the weekend demonstrations would involve hundreds of TANESCO workers from all three districts of Dar es Salaam - Ilala, Temeke and Kinondoni.

One of the union leaders, Abdul Mkama, told THISDAY that the peaceful demos were aimed at highlighting the effects of such dubious deals on the overall operations of the key public utility.

He said police have been informed about the planned street protest marches, and have given the workers the go-ahead to proceed.

Mkama said the demos will start from TANESCO’s Ubungo headquarters to the Jangwani grounds in Magomeni.

Several union leaders, including Trade Union Confederation of Tanzania (TUCTA) president Omar Ayubu, are expected to address the TANESCO workers at Jangwani.

’’We are holding peaceful demonstrations to show members of the public how this burden of bad power generation contracts is ultimately passed on to them in terms of higher power tariffs,’’ said Mkama.

TANESCO workers lamented at a highly-charged meeting in the city recently that more than two-thirds of the company’s revenue is eaten up by monthly capacity and energy charges to the private power companies, thanks to the dubious contracts.

Workers of the public utility have particularly been critical of ex-president Mkapa for plunging TANESCO into deep financial crisis by previously granting a management contract to South Africa’s NetGroup Solutions to run the power company.

The workers described the Richmond corruption scandal, in which former prime minister Edward Lowassa and ex-energy and minerals ministers Nazir Karamagi and Dr Ibrahim Msabaha were deeply implicated, as ’’the final nail in TANESCO’s coffin.’’

Apart from demanding cancellation of the Kiwira contract, TANESCO workers have also urged the government to swiftly halt all payments being made to Dowans Holdings SA of the United Arab Emirates, which inherited the Richmond contract.

The government currently pays a daily fee of 152m/- to Dowans as capacity charges, which is due regardless of whether or not the company actually delivers electricity to the national power grid.

According to the workers, TANESCO currently pays around 547bn/- annually in energy and capacity charges to various independent power producers, including Richmond/Dowans, IPTL and Songas.

On the Richmond scandal, the workers called for the swift prosecution of all individuals implicated in the report findings of the parliamentary probe committee chaired by Dr Harrison Mwakyembe.

They also demanded seizure of assets of all suspects behind the corruption scandal.

The Kiwira company signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with TANESCO in March 2006, whereby the company was awarded a lucrative contract to supply a total of 200MW of power to the national power grid in three phases.

Investigations by THISDAY have since established that Kiwira was dubiously sold in 2005 to Tanpower Resources Limited, a private company owned by Mkapa, his former energy and minerals minister Yona, and various close relatives of both, including wives, children and in-laws.

 

[Power to the People]

Ingekuwa vyema kama wafanyakazi wote wa TANESCO kote nchini wangefanya amaandamano yao. Dawa ni kuhakikisha wananchi hawasahau hii habari hata kama viongozi wanajaribu kila njia kutusahaulisha. I hope everything goes ok in Dar na hakuna FFU kumwagwa.

Mi nilidhani baada ya report ya Mwakyembe malipo yangesimama kumbe ndio kumekucha! Halafu watu watasemaje hawajui Richmond ni ya nani?

Nchi hii na watu wake tunahitaji sala.

 

[DMussa]

The government currently pays a daily fee of 152m/- to Dowans as capacity charges, which is due regardless of whether or not the company actually delivers electricity to the national power grid.

According to the workers, TANESCO currently pays around 547bn/- annually in energy and capacity charges to various independent power producers, including Richmond/Dowans, IPTL and Songas

Who's paying now?????? the Gov't or Tanesco?? and WHY????

Anway mbona hawa TANESCO hawakuwahi kufanya hizi demo long time ago ndo waje leo shirika likiwa limekufa??? Do they want to tell us that they didn't know what was going on until recently yalipoibuka makubwa ya UFISADI???

Mimi napinga gharama hizi kwa 100% maana 547bn inatosha kabisa kuiimarisha Tanesco kibiashara!! Imagine mwishoni mwa mwaka 2007 Tanesco ilipata mkopo wa 300bn kutoka mabenki mbalimbali ili kuipa nguvu je nguvu zenyewe zilikuwa ni kulipa annual energy & capacity charges??
Its nice Tanesco guys have waken up!! We need more +ve changes!!!

 

[BAK]

Ingekuwa vyema kama wafanyakazi wote wa TANESCO kote nchini wangefanya amaandamano yao. Dawa ni kuhakikisha wananchi hawasahau hii habari hata kama viongozi wanajaribu kila njia kutusahaulisha. I hope everything goes ok in Dar na hakuna FFU kumwagwa.

Mi nilidhani baada ya report ya Mwakyembe malipo yangesimama kumbe ndio kumekucha! Halafu watu watasemaje hawajui Richmond ni ya nani?

Nchi hii na watu wake tunahitaji sala.

Haya Maandamano inabidi yawe ya Watanzania wote na siyo ya wafanyakazi wa TANESCO pekee yao, maana yanatugusa wote kwa ufisadi uliofanywa katika sakata la Richmond na Kiwira.

 

[mzazi]

mwanakijiji mimi binafsi unanifurahisha sana kwani hili swala nimelikubali kwamba inabidi tuwanyanganye kwani hawa ni watanzania wenzetu kwanini wawe kama wazungu inabidi kukomaaaa sana ikiwezekana maaaaaaaaaaaaandamano yaanze

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Sawa.. kwa vile wamesema Mkapa hana hata senti moja Kiwira so hatuwezi kumnyang'anya tena. Sasa mmiliki wa Kiwira hasa ni nani?

 

[BAK]

Sawa.. kwa vile wamesema Mkapa hana hata senti moja Kiwira so hatuwezi kumnyang'anya tena. Sasa mmiliki wa Kiwira hasa ni nani?

Yale yale ya kutojulikana mmiliki wa Meremeta, Tangold, Buhemba n.k. n.k. Mafisadi wa Bongo wakali sana lakini hili la Kiwira fisadi Mkapa alichelewa kuchomoa sasa anataka kuchomoa when it is too late!!!! Hana ujanja mpaka kieleweke!!!