President Jakaya Kikwete's presence at Commonwealth Business Forum at end of October is inappropriate - Sarah Hermitage.
Mr Sharma was asked by Ms Hermitage to
take up the case of Silverdale Farm with Mr Reginald Mengi when he
attends the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth together with President
Kikwete at the end of this month. The forum takes place during this
year’s Commonwealth Heads of State and Government (CHOGM) meeting in
Perth. She said Mr Mengi has used his media empire in Tanzania to attack
the couple with defamatory publications in high profile English and
Swahili newspapers. “All the publications are couched in a language of
suspicion and unqualified accusations of guilt against our staff and
us,” she said, adding: “They attack our investor status in Tanzania,
accuse us of criminality in the face of clear evidence to the contrary
and have damaged our commercial interests and personal reputations.”
High profile British politicians and business leaders have raised the
Silverdale Farm case with President Kikwete. These include former
Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett and former Foreign Office Minister
Lord George Mark Malloch-Brown. The wife of former Prime Minister Tony
Blair, Cherie Booth QC has also tried to help the couple.
Silverdale Farm’s case has led to
British Secretary of State for International Development and Member of
Parliament for Sutton Coldfield Mr Andrew Mitchell to reduce the United
Kingdom’s budget support to Tanzania by 30 per cent. In a letter to Lord
MacGregor (formerly John MacGregor) Chairman of the Lord’s Economic
Affairs Committee, Mr Mitchell said: “The Silverdale Farm experience
informs the assessments of the UK and other donors on the quality of the
legal environment in Tanzania. UK Ministers have been very clear in
discussions with the Government of Tanzania that it must significantly
reform the business environment as the route out of poverty.” He said
the reduction in Tanzania’s budget support showed the UK was taking
concerns about Tanzania’s weak progress very seriously.
Ms Hermitage told the Commonwealth
Secretary General that Tanzania was keen to portray their case as a
commercial dispute. “It is not,” she said. “It is simply the failure of
the Tanzanian Government to recognise our legal status in Tanzania.”
Hermitage went on to add that the fundamental issue in their case was
‘corruption and abuse of law’. “Our issue was and remains a simple
choice facing the Tanzanian Government, i.e., to support the rule of law
and protect the lawful interests of bona-fide investors or the criminal
interests of a Tanzanian. So far, it has chosen the latter.”
She told the Secretary General that
former British High Commissioner to Tanzania Mr Andrew Pocock had
described their case as ‘a continuing outrage’. “We were driven from the
country (Tanzania) by violence and abuse of power at the highest level.
I respectfully ask you to consider this and the fact that we were
bona-fide investors in Tanzania and complied fully with the laws of the
country.” Ms Hermitage added that although theirs was on a small scale,
they had the opportunity to provide ‘truly sustainable development’ and
improve the lives of the poor. “We and our Tanzanian staff were abused,
arrested and eventually driven from the country like dogs. The
destruction of our investment compromised civil society and the rule of
law and is an indictment on President Kikwete personally and on his
government.”
Imeandikwa kwa Msaada wa hii Blogs. editor@thelondoneveningpost.com
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