TPSF chairman, two co-accused charged with unbailable offences

Former Katani Limited managing director Salum Shamte (centre), current managing director Juma Shamte and board member Fatma Diwani await their arraignment at the Tanga Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of economic sabotage and causing small-scale sisal growers a Sh1.4 billion loss. PHOTO | CORRESPONDENT

Tanga. The chairman of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Mr Salum Shamte, and two officials of Katani Limited, yesterday appeared before the Tanga Resident Magistrate’s Court where they were charged with three counts of economic sabotage offences.

This comes after the accused spent two weeks in custody.

Mr Shamte, who recently became chairman of the Business Council of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), is facing three economic sabotage charges.

The former managing director of Katani Limited and the other co-accused were charged with economic sabotage, money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime, which caused a loss of Sh1.14 billion to Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (Amcos) of the sisal sub-sector.

Other respondents who were charged together with Mr Shamte are: Mr Juma Shamte, the current managing director of Katani Limited, and Ms Fatma Diwani, who serves as a member of the company’s board.

The charges were read in court by a state attorney from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mr Peter Maugo. Also present in court for the prosecution were Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) attorneys Barry Galinoma and Winlucky Mangowi. Presiding in court as resident magistrate was Mr Desidery Kamugisha.

The prosecution alleged that, between January 2008 and August 2018 in different areas in Tanga City, the accused conspired to commit the crimes they are charged with.

In the second count, the accused are alleged to have caused a loss amounting to Sh1.14 billion to five Amcos, while the third count involves money laundering amounting Sh1.14 billion.

After reading out the charges, Magistrate Kamugisha told the accused and their defence counsels, namely, Mr Okare Emesu and Warehema Kibaha, that they were not to plead to the charges because the Resident Magistrates Court has no jurisdiction to hear economic crime cases. The accused remained in custody as prosecution said the investigations were not yet completed. In the event, the case was adjourned until November 13, this year.

Apart from his roles at TPSF and at Sadc Business Council, as well as being the founder-cum-owner of Katani Limited, Mr Shamte also serves as board member of the Amana Bank.

He previously served as chairman of Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT); chairman of the Tanzania Sisal Authority (TSA); director of the Tanzania Sisal Marketing Association; board chairman of the National Ranching Company, and as chairman of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot).

Mr Shamte was elected the new TPSF chairman in August, 2018 succeeding from Reginald Mengi who had served two two-year terms in that capacity.

In his first interview with The Citizen in October last year, Shamte listed five major issues that he was going to focus on during his first two-year term at TPSF. He said he would work to ensure that the recently-adopted ‘Blueprint’ for the improvement of Tanzania’s business climate was implemented while also strengthening dialogue between the public and private sectors.

He also promised to work at finalizing the establishment of a National Private Sector Development Policy and Strategy.

Nurturing the growth of small and medium sized companies, as well as building good governance in the private sector, were stated to be his fourth and fifth priorities respectively.