Just
a day before President Jakaya Kikwete chairs a private sector meeting
today, IPP Limited chairman Reginald Mengi has hit back at the minister
for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo.
Dr
Mengi, who is also the chairman of the Tanzania Private Sector
Foundation (TPSF), but who spoke on his capacity as a businessman,
yesterday came out in self-defence over allegations of greed and
selfishness that Prof Muhongo levelled against him, in a bid to clear
the air before today’s meeting. Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam
yesterday, Mr Mengi said there was a problem in a statement given by
Prof Muhongo about him.
“I
would like to clarify the matter so that I don’t go to the meeting
tomorrow (today) with statements made by Prof Muhongo uncorrected,” he
said. “The truth is that I am not selfish, secondly I have never asked
for any favour to be given blocks of natural gas, but I fight for
Tanzanians in general,” he said.
During
a public symposium held at University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Prof
Muhongo, who was among the presenters, highlighted some data that showed
number of Tanzanians who own big areas of investments in mining sector,
whereby he noted that Mr Mengi was holding a third position by having a
site with a size three times Dar es Salaam city.
“However,
he is doing nothing to benefit Tanzanians, instead, he is enriching
himself,” Prof Muhongo said. But, yesterday Mr Mengi reacted to the
allegations, saying Prof Muhongo gave wrong statistics and data about
his ownership of mining site.
“The
truth is that I own the sites under shareholding with my fellow
Tanzanians; one mining site fo tanzanite with a size of less than one
square kilomitre, and not three times the size of Dar es Salaam as he
said,” he opposed.
He
added: “I would like to insist that I have personally got big
opportunity to develop in business, and now what I fight for is to
extend opportunities so that many Tanzanians can participate as it is
stated in National Economic Empowerment Act,2004, which provides special
priority to citizens on their natural resources.”
He
was optimistic that today’s stakeholders meeting of private sector
would enable acquiring resolution on how the private sector would
empower Tanzanians in various economic spheres.