PCCB continues holding Shamte
Dar es Salaam. Authorities continued to detain businessman Salum Shamte for the eighth day yesterday, even as his business colleagues moved to calm the market over his fate.
Mr Shamte is the chairman of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF). He was arrested on orders of Tanga Regional Commissioner Martine Shigela during a public meeting over a week ago.
Authorities claim that he is being investigated over a Sh54 billion loss involving sisal farmers’ payments, as well as public funds. Mr Shamte was arrested together with his wife-cum-co-director of Katani Company Limited, Fatma Diwani, as well as company’s managing director Juma Shamte, Finance director Fadhili Malima, and public relations officer Theodora Mtejeta.
Yesterday, TPSF issued a public statement via the mass media saying the organisation’s activities will continue unhindered despite the continued detention of its chairman.
According to the notice, Shamte’s deputy, Ms Angelina Ngalula, will act as chairman as investigations continue against Mr Shamte and his colleagues. The decision was made at an extraordinary meeting held on Wednesday.
“TPSF would like to assure all its members, the government, development partners and the private sector at large that this incident has not any adverse impact on delivery of services and soundness of the foundation,” said Ms Ngalula in the press release.
According to the statement, TPSF remains committed to the task of driving the private sector development agenda in Tanzania.
Yesterday, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) head for Tanga Region, Mr Christopher Mariba, said the Bureau will continue holding the suspects as investigations continue. However, he did not say if and when they would be released - or arraigned in court.
The law stipulates that authorities could only hold suspects for 48 hours within which they should produce them in a court of law.
“We are continuing with investigations regarding the allegations; it should be understood that we are also investigating other people who are accused of being involved - but who are yet to be arrested,” said Mr Mariba.
He insisted that the investigation regarding Mr Shamte and the other suspects may take long, if only because it involves many institutions.
Mr Shamte - who was only recently elected chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) Business Council - was arrested following directives of the Tanga Regional Commissioner Shigela.
However, Mr Shamte claimed that the arrest was made without involving the company’s management, which has all the details about how the funds were spent.
Speaking during the meeting to discuss an audit report presented by an auditor from the ministry of Finance and Planning on the conflict between farmers and Katani Limited, Mr Shamte had said that the company has all the records on the conflict. In the event, he called for a review of the audit documents to determine the truth.
“A report has been prepared with the purpose of tarnushing our reputation. We have served this nation with patriotism. There is no money which was stolen - and Katani Limited has very clean accounts,” he insisted.
