Kironde, 28th November 2009 @ 11:59, Total Comments: 4, Hits: 2386
THERE may be no love lost between Igunga MP Hon Rostam Abdulrasul Aziz and sections of the media, but for a newspaper to report that the MP-cumbusiness man is actually owed more than 2.6bn/= by the Government must have been very good news indeed.
The picture held by most members of the public is that the Hon MP has a lot to explain regarding his association with some large business undertakings involving the government and huge sums of money.
Well, in a front page article entitled: “Revealed: Rostam’s Govt Debts Scandal” (TODAY 19 November) we are told: “Government officials have confirmed that three companies……all being bona fide properties of the controversial businessmancum- politician ‘are owed’ more than 2.6bn/- by the government in connection with both the CIS scam and a related Japanese counterpart funds arrangement”.
I can see Hon Aziz being all smiles and instructing his financial manager to quickly submit an invoice to the government. But, wait a minute!
We were earlier told that these three companies are among the outstanding defaulters in the 180bn/- fraud linked to the commodity support scheme (CIS). We are told further that “in total, the outstanding CIS debt owed by the three companies amounts to around 1.6bn/-”.
The Hon MP is said to have paid back some 0.5bn/- out of the total of 1.6bn/- CIS debt but one of his companies has a further outstanding government debt of more than 1.5bn/- under another scheme, making the total outstanding sum to be 2.6bn/-.
It is getting confusing, isn’t it? How can companies be owed the money they are supposing to pay to whoever is supposed to owe them?
Read on: “Rostam himself is understood to have publicly admitted to being among the bigger CIS debtors of CIS funds but there is no word on when he intends to settle the outstanding amounts be is still ‘owed’ by the government?”.
The evidence provided suggests that it is Rostam who has to pay the government, so he is not owed.
Instead he owes. The litmus test is this: If you must pay someone, then you owe. If you must be paid by someone then you are owed. Why do we keep on confusing between owing and being owed? The reason could be that we think in Swahili and write in English. For, “kudaiwa” in Swahili, seems to be more appropriately translated as “you are owed”. You are the culprit.
However, in English, if “unadaiwa” (Swahili) then you owe; you are not owed. So Hon Aziz cannot in this case submit an invoice to the government.
Instead, he must be thinking of how to clear his name and his debt. We now take a quick ride to Nairobi and meet a lady who was retrenched from government and is now a promising jua kali entrepreneur as reported in the Saturday Nationalist (November 21, p. 3:
“For a widow, being sacked from Lands Ministry was a blessing in disguise”. Among other things, the lady is a promising practitioner of bee-keeping:
“After she was retrenched from her adjudication, AM (the lady) started cultivating her farm as she practised bee-keeping whose skills she acquired from her father while ‘she’ was alive”.
AM did not acquire bee-keeping skills from her mother. It is from her late father that she acquired these skills.
Referring to her late dad as a ‘she’ may not be taken lightly by madam AM. She and her group have their business ups and downs. Sometimes, ‘tradgedy’ (or is it tragedy?) strikes.
Like when her hives were deserted because of the dry weather and lack of water and the bees went elsewhere in search of flowers and water: “But, recently, a ‘swam’ of sting-less bees moved onto the farm”.
A swam of bees? Well, bees do not swim, or do they? So we cannot say they swam to the farm. In any case, the ‘swam’ used in the sentence is a noun not a verb. What the writer had in mind was a “swarm of bees”. A swarm is a large group of insects moving together.
Lastly, and back to Dar es Salaam, sports. While pressure is being brought to bear on national soccer team coach, Marcio Maximo, to call goalkeeper Juma Kaseja and a number of other players back to the team, he is not relenting as reported in the my- African 23 November (p. 10).
“I have got a reason to put Juma Kaseja out…. what do you think of a player who divides the team, smiles when the team he is playing for loses a game, ‘he’ is selfish, lacks patriotism, ‘indiscipline’ and sabotages the team?”
Although the sentence is long, we have to match Juma Kaseja with whatever follows. Thus we do not say “Juma Kaseja ‘he’ is selfish”. So, out goes the pronoun “he” from the sentence. Kaseja is not himself, “indiscipline”.
Rather he is “indisciplined”.
kironde@aru.ac.tz
Total Comments on the above stories (4)
Comment
Who is Rostam Azizi anyway. He is now a household name. What is his significance to our society? We are tired. All we want to see is for the government to take stern measures against him for his allegedly involvement with KAGODA, RICHMONDULI and other dubious deals. Stop baby sitting Rostam. He is a time bomb which is set to explode at anytime. His ancestors came from Iran. If he was living in Iran, do you think he would have been doing what he is doing here in Tanzania and get away with it? No way.
Comment
Poor Tanzania, how long this kind of saga can go on. We have an issue to BoT, Rada issues etc and now comes Rostam saga. Honestly i have no faith on this blood suckers and most importantly all involved should be jailed to life with a hard labour in their remaining time.
Comment
Perhaps when the allegations are proved in the court of law in TZ, and justice swiftly meted and delivered, he should be a 'Dis Honorable' MP Rostam Aziz.
Jules
Comment
hi,what is rostam aziz s emil or adress?thanks.
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