The Tanzanian government will appeal a UK court ruling which awarded Liberian lessor Wallis Trading USD30.1 million dollars plus interest after Air Tanzania (TC, Dar es Salaam) broke a 2007 contract involving A320-200 msn 630. As previously reported, the court rejected the African state's claim that the contract was invalid because its former chief executive, David Mattaka, had not followed government procurement procedures.
Attorney General Adelardus Kilangi has since told The Citizen newspaper that the government will appeal the ruling because the contract in question was "fraudulent".
"We have started the appeal process, while at the same time taking into consideration, the United Kingdom's laws and procedures that we have to adhere to," he said.
According to Kilangi, the fact that 5H-MWH, as msn 630 was then registered, only operated for eight months between May and December 2008 before being grounded for extensive maintenance work, rendered the verdict "unacceptable".
"They have defrauded the country, but we shall work tirelessly to ensure that we win," he said.
The Tanzanian government has suffered several embarrassing high profile asset seizures of late wherein creditors have taken temporary possession of state-owned lessor AL! TGF-o's aircraft abroad to recover debts the state has attempted to avoid paying.
In December last year, John Magufuli's government was forced to settle with Hermanus Steyn, an 86-year-old farmer whose bean-and-seed farm along with other assets were confiscated by the Tanzanian government in 1982. Steyn had sought to seize Air Tanzania/TGF's A220-300 at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and, failing that, a Dash 8-400, 5H-TCF (msn 4608), that was in the process of being handed over in Canada.
Before that, in 2018, another TGF Dash 8-400, 5H-TCE (msn 4559), was seized by Stirling Civil Engineering following the Tanzanian government's unwillingness to settle a USD38.7 million debt awarded to the Canadian contractor by the International Court of Arbitration in 2010. The case pertained to a cancelled USD25 million civil engineering contract. The turboprop was eventually released after reaching a settlement, the terms of which were never publically revealed.
