Tanzania: Dar es Salaam mayor sticks to his guns on DDC board

The Mayor of Dar es Salaam, Dr Didas Masaburi, on Sunday maintained that his order to dissolve the Dar es Salaam Development Corporation (DDC) Board of Directors was intact and warned to take legal action against anyone violating his directive.

Dr Masaburi’s statement came just a day after the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Local Governments and Regional Administration), Mr George Mkuchika, nullified his order on dissolution of the board.


He told the ‘Daily News’ on Sunday that as the mayor of the city, he has the legal mandate to form and disband the DDC board and demanded for his decision to be respected.

He said the board which he dissolved has been occupying the office illegally since March, this year and that he could not continue to let it operate any more.

“This board was formed by the outgoing City Mayor in 2007 and I have legally terminated it not only because of embezzlement of funds, but also because its tenure has expired. If they keep holding the office I will be forced to take them to court,” he said.

Dr Masaburi maintained further that he decided to disband the board due to its lack of accountability and nobody has powers to question that directive.

Reacting to Mr Mkuchika’s statement, Dr Masaburi said his decision could not wait any longer, while DDC was suffering losses in millions of shillings.

He said he was not sure of the regulations as meant by Minister Mkuchika, but said he was sure the board was made to extend its tenure in office on personal interests, something that cannot be tolerated.

Citing various examples, he said it was revealed that DDC has been losing more than 100m/- every month from renting 80 business kiosks, which amounts to more than 400m/- for the last four months.

“I insist that the board’s extension letter as written by the City Director Mr Bakari Kingobi expired in March, why these people want to forceful occupy the office? There must be something fishy here!” he fumed.

However, he said he would follow Minister Mkuchika’s advise to report the matter to the Finance Committee of the City Council, but that will be done while the board is not in office and not otherwise.

Yesterday, the one Kiswahili daily reported that a section of DDC Board Members who were fired have vowed to continue occupying the office.

One of the board members, Mr William Bomani was quoted as saying that Mayor Masaburi was supposed to officially write to the City Director on the intention, before making the final decision.

Meanwhile, Dr Masaburi has announced that he was now going to focus on the Kariakoo Market Corporation, accusing it for failing to pay dividends to DDC which is one of its major shareholders.

The Kariakoo Market is jointly owned by the government and DDC.