Judiciary studies Dowans ruling registration request
By The guardian reporter
27th January 2011
Dr Sengondo Mvungi
Issue of whether the international court ruling awarding 94bn/- to Dowans should be registered by the High Court awaits final decision by higher judicial authorities, Deputy Registrar Salvatory Bongole said yesterday.
The latest statement by the High Court Registrars office follows reports that the ruling had been submitted for registration.
We have decided to forward the matter to the judicial authorities because of its sensitivity, he told reporters, who wanted to know about the registration of the Award.
At the moment, I cannot say anything about the Dowans Award registration. We are waiting for the higher judicial authorities to discuss the matter and make a final decision. This is a sensitive and international law issue, Bongole explained.
The Deputy Registrar also declined to explain what he meant by high judicial authorities where the matter had been forwarded.
Instead, he said his office expected to receive feedback on the decision today.
After the decision of the higher judicial authorities, we will see if there is a need to summon Dowans to start processes for registering the Award, said the Deputy Registrar.
According to international laws Dowans cannot be paid compensation until the International Chamber of Commercial (ICC) ruling is registered at the High Court.
The government said on Monday it would appoint a team of legal experts to explore all legal avenues to save the nation from the burden of paying Dowans the 94bn/- penalty for breach of contract.
The move followed a resolution by members of the ruling CCM parliamentary committee calling on the government to find legal ways of reducing the amount to be paid to Dowans or to not pay at all.
Recently, activists under the umbrella of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) filed a case at the High Court (Commercial Division) to block a government decision, announced by the minister for Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja to pay the power firm 94bn/-.
According to LHRC Executive Director Francis Kiwanga, the High Court (Commercial Division) is expected to set up the date and appoint a judge for the hearing of the case tomorrow.
In our application, we asked the High Court to speed up the hearing of the case. We hope it will do so. We are challenging the hefty compensation. It is a huge amount of money, which is unfair to pay to Dowans, Kiwanga told a press conference.
The LHRC has contracted prominent constitutional lawyer and university lecturer Dr Sengondo Mvungi to represent them in court.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN