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Govt pledges action against errant TPDF soldiers
2008-02-26 09:46:45
By Correspondent Gadiosa Lamtey
The government has promised to take action against Tanzania People`s Defence Forces soldiers responsible for assaulting five workers of the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (Dawasco) last week.
Home Affairs deputy minister Hamis Kagasheki told The Guardian in an interview yesterday in Dar es Salaam that beating up of civilians and detaining them was a violation of human rights.
``Soldiers have a duty to protect and not to beat up civilians. It is unethical for soldiers to assault civilians in their course of duty to bring development to the society.
We are carrying out an investigation and will take action immediately to remind other army personnel that it is not wise to take law in their own hands,`` noted Kagasheki.
He said it was both illegal and unethical to ambush people and then force them to provide service as desired by the army officers, saying that was a violation of human rights and rule of law.
``The government will not remain quiet but will listen to views from the community,`` stressed the deputy minister.
Dawasco public relations officer Badra Masoud said that the management had reported the issue to the police and hoped that the suspects would be taken to court soon.
``The ruthless assault carried out by the TPDF soldiers can never scare us. Disconnecting water is part of our work and it is an order from higher authorities.
The exercise to disconnect water supply to customers or organisations who fail to pay their bills is still on,`` Masoud said.
Dawasco has promised to restore water to the TPDF after they had cleared the utility bill amounting to 276m/-.
Members of the TPDF recently beat up and detained five Dawasco workers after they cut off water supply to army camps and facilities for default to pay their bills. They also impounded a photojournalist`s camera.
However, in a statement issued last week, TPDF stated that it had all along cooperated with Dawasco in settling its bills and had paid more than 600m/- between July last year and January, this year.
In a display of dissatisfaction over the way the matter had been handled, the soldiers detained the water utility employees at Lugalo barracks in the city for almost four hours and seized their mobile phones.
The incident took place at Makongo Juu Dawasco station in Dar es Salaam.
It all started when more than six soldiers queried water technicians as to why their management had cut off water supply to the army barracks.
A photojournalist who was taking photos had his camera snatched by the irate soldiers. A senior Dawasco official, Raymond Mndolwa, named the detained employees as Josephine Komba, Samwel Massawe, Mariki Rajabu, Charles Memba and Zuhura Salim.
Mndolwa said that on Thursday afternoon, another group of five Dawasco technicians was arrested by TPDF soldiers as they conducted a water disconnection exercise.
The latest developments come as a result of the water utility firm`s ongoing extensive water disconnection campaign directed against defaulting consumers, which officials have said will spare no one.
Before disconnecting the water supply, Dawasco had served TPDF with three notices reminding them to settle more than 200m/- in debt accumulated since August, last year.
TPDF alleged that it had failed to pay the accumulated debts amounting to 287m/- because the Treasury had failed to allocate the required funding as stated in the proposed budget, saying that it had released only 1.285,917,708/- out of 2,019,178,555/- set aside for the army in the current financial year.
The TPDF also blamed Dawasco for issuing inflated bills and hiking tariffs in mid year, ignoring the fact that the army depended on government funding as it was difficult to get additional money before the end of a particular financial year.
Due to the disconnection, TPDF said, the lives of patients at the army hospital and Lugalo Barracks residents amounting to 5,000 people were at risk, with the possibility of disease outbreak.
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