THE highest levels of the third phase government under ex-president Benjamin Mkapa were behind the setting up of the Meremeta Limited project and its extraordinary access to major funding from both local and foreign sources, it has been established.
THISDAY can now reveal that the President’s Office itself authorised the Meremeta project and backed the privately-registered company in the securing of financing worth millions of US dollars from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and international financial institutions.
According to our latest findings, the decision to set up Meremeta Limited in 1997 was personally sanctioned by Mkapa who, in his capacity as chairman of the ministerial Cabinet meetings, gave the greenlight for the company to establish an underground mine in the Tembo area and an open-pit mine at Buhemba in Mara Region.
It is understood that the government thinking at the time was that the huge potential of gold mineral reserves in Tanzania was not benefiting the country, hence the decision to set up the Meremeta project, the initial objective being that the company would be buying gold from artisanal miners.
This was effectively confirmed in the company’s own registered memorandum of association at the time of its establishment, outlining objectives that include implementation of ”a gold collection and benefication programme on behalf of the government of the United Republic of Tanzania.”
But in 2000 (three years after Meremeta Ltd was officially registered in the country), Mkapa allowed it to divert from its original mission of buying gold from artisanal miners and become fully engaged in gold mining activities.
This decision by the ex-president was reportedly based on geological surveys that confirmed the viability of the project.
Well-placed sources say State House at the time also lent its full weight of support to moves by Meremeta Ltd to gain the necessary funding for its operations from the central bank and a number of international investment banks.
These include Nedcor Trade Services Limited of South Africa, which provided a (Tanzanian) government-guaranteed loan of $118m (approx. 150bn/-) to Meremeta Ltd.
When Meremeta Ltd went bankrupt in 2005/06, the BoT was quick to issue a controversial 155bn/- Treasury bond to raise funds for settling the massive debt to Nedcor Trade Services Ltd.
It is understood that this particular transaction later raised serious queries from the central bank auditors.
The highest office in the land during the third phase administration is also understood to have tangibly supported moves by Meremeta Ltd to secure additional funding from Deutsche Bank AG of London.
The official government position todate has been that Meremeta was a joint venture project owned on a 50-50 basis by the defence ministry and a private South African firm going by the name of Triennex (Pty) Limited.
THISDAY findings have furthermore established that there were four listed directors at the time of the company’s official registration in Tanzania in late 1997 - including three Tanzanian nationals of respectable standing.
They were Gerald Augustine Mrudi, an officer of the Tanzanian military; Wilfred Lusata Nyachia, the then Treasury registrar in the finance ministry; and Zulu Ally Lyana, also identified as a member of the civil service.
The fourth listed director was Russel John Schwartz, identified as a South African financier.
From This Day
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