EMPLOYEES at Free Media and Club Bilicanas reported to work yesterday morning only to learn that their employer, Mbowe Hotels Limited (MHL), was being evicted from the building in which they operate due to rent arrears amounting to 1.172bn/- owed to the National Housing Corporation (NHC).
Commonly referred to as ‘Bilicanas’, the
structure, probably one of the famous historical sites in downtown Dar
es Salaam, houses the famous entertainment spot and Free Media Limited,
the publisher of the daily Kiswahili newspaper ‘Tanzania Daima,’ and
other MHL offices.
It is owned by National Chairman of
Chadema, Mr Freeman Mbowe. The eviction from the building, situated on
plot 725-726/11 along Mkwepu and Indira Gandhi (Makunganya) streets in
the Central Business District, started early yesterday morning and was
undertaken by a court broker, Fosters Auctioneers and General Traders.
It was not easy for the employees as
they were seen in total disarray, watching helplessy as their equipment
was being carted away from the building under maximum supervision from
the police who later left the scene after they were satisfied that the
exercise was going on smoothly.
NHC Debt Recovery Manager, Japhet
Mwanasenga, told reporters that the housing corporation decided to
effect the eviction after failure by MHL to settle the huge and long
standing debt.
“MHL is among major defaulters; we will
act on all tenants who owe us, including government institutions,” Mr
Mwanasenga remarked. According to the official, the space that was
occupied by the company, including the famous Club Bilicanas, will be
leased to other interested tenants.
On the other hand, the Managing Director
of Fosters Auctioneers, Mr Joshua Mwaituka, said the NHC was empowered
to evict, confiscate and auction the property of defaulting tenants.
Mr Mwaituka explained further that the
eviction exercise followed all required procedures, including issuance
of notices. “At first, the NHC issued the company with a 30-day notice
and we (as court brokers) issued a notification for additional 14 days
which expired.
The equipment will be auctioned if the
company fails to make payments in the next fourteen days,” he stated.
MHL was among seven tenants residing in the building, but it had a
lion’s share of the property as it occupied 1,390.75 square metres,
translating into 71.2 per cent of space of the structure.
Available information indicates that the
company started occupying the building in 1973 after it was relocated
from the then Splendid Hotel at the current site of the Extelecoms
Building along Samora Avenue.
The building is among structures
nationalised by the government through the Building Acquisition Act of
1971 and placed under the then Registrar of Buildings, the predecessor
of NHC.
Investigations by this newspaper have
revealed that NHC and MHL have been at loggerheads for years following a
failure by the latter to fulfil its obligations stipulated in shoddy
joint venture agreement entered by the two parties in 1997.
On February 16, last year, the
state-owned housing corporation wrote to MHL notifying it on its
intention to terminate the re-development and co-ownership agreement on
the property.
Sources have confided to this newspaper
that the housing corporation issued a notice of termination after MHL
failed to respond and sign a revised draft Joint Venture Agreement,
which was sent to the company on January 18, 2015.
MHL had on several occasions tried to
purchase the building in vain but even after it entered into the joint
venture agreement with NHC, it failed to make good on pledges to expand
the structure.
The company had pledged to construct an
ultra-modern international multi-purpose function hall by renovating the
old backyard and renovating the right wing into an international
standard casino and upgrading the left wing into a two-storey 100-room
international standard hotel, among others.
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