Tanzania: Court Seals Manji's Dream to Own Tigo

By Faustine Kapama

THE Court of Appeal has shattered the dream by Golden Globe International Services Limited allegedly owned by

prominent businessman Yusuf Manji to reclaim the 13bn/-worth of 34,479 shares purchased in Mic Tanzania Limited, trading as Tigo.

This followed the decision by Justices Stella Mugasha, Rehema Mkuye and Ignas Kitusi to dismiss with costs an application for review lodged by Golden Globe International Services Limited and Quality Group Limited, as applicants in an attempt to challenge the nullification of the tremendous increase in revenue of the sale deal of the shares in question.

The sale was made in 2014 in execution of a court's decree in favour of a British national James Alan Russell Bell, who by then was claimed to have been an employee in Mic Tanzania Limited, which is one of mobile phone service Provider Company in Tanzania.

During hearing of the application for review, the applicants contended that there are serious manifest errors on the face of the record resulting in miscarriage of justice and they were denied an opportunity to be heard before the Court ordered that shares they purchased be released to Millicom (Tanzania), NV.

In their ruling delivered in Dar es Salaam recently, however, the justices of the appeals court said, "The complaint alleging that the applicants were not given an opportunity to be heard, is generally unsubstantiated."

They further declared: "The order that the applicants should be refunded by the one holding the money was consequential upon nullifying the sale. We do not conceive a situation where a separate hearing would be conducted on this point. For those reasons, this application is dismissed with costs."

The justices pointed out that in the Court of Appeal, the right to a hearing is exercised by presentation of written submissions under Rule106 of the Court of Appeal Rules and, or oral submissions.

However, they noted, when hearing the matter on revision opened by the Chief Justice suo moto (own motion), in reaction to complaint by Millicom (Tanzania), NV the applicants made use of both written and oral addresses to the Court, so the contention that they were not heard is hard to comprehend.

In the impugned decision sought to be reviewed, the Court ruled in favour of Millicom (Tanzania), NV after holding that the execution process of the court decree initiated by the British national was flawed with material irregularities which rendered the purported sale of the shares a nullity.