A plane belonging to the Tanzanian government has been impounded in Canada, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Palamagamba Kabudi revealed on Saturday.
The Bombardier Q400 plane is among new planes procured by the state for the national carrier-Air Tanzania Corporation.
Prof Kabudi said that plane should fly to Tanzania before the end of November.
He claimed that the plane was impounded after a South African businessman, Hermanus Steyn, requested the Canadian authorities to impound it pending a court case in which he is demanding $33 million from the government of Tanzania.
Mr Steyn is demanding the money as a compensation after the government of Tanzania seized his land way back in the 80s.
The minister reported the matter to President John Magufuli at the State House in Chamwino, during a swearing in ceremony for new Tanzanian envoys to Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Burundi, Egypt and Abu Dhabi.
It is the second time South African farmer is demanding the seizure of Tanzania’s planes over claims of compensation.
A South African court had ordered the seizure of another Tanzania plane following the farmer’s request in August but it was released after Tanzania n government successfully appealed.
Kabudi said that a battery of lawyers is ready for dispatch to Canada to appeal against the decision to impound the plane.
The minister also expressed serious concerns over what he claimed is a bad tendency by Canadian authorities to seize Tanzanian planes over the farmer’s request.
President Maguli had written to the Canadian PM in 2017 regarding the seizure of Bombardier Q400.
The plane that was supposed to be delivered in July, is being held in Canada after the Tanzanian government failed to raise the needed $38 million owed to Britain’s Stirling Civil Engineering Limited over contractual dispute.
The firm won a tender to a road in Tanzania but the contract was prematurely terminated by Magufuli’s administration without compensation.
They successfully sued the government of Tanzania in a court in Montreal, Canada.
