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Z`bar govt to probe rice scandal
2007-04-28 10:38:50
By Mwinyi Sadallah, Zanzibar
The Zanzibar Health and Social Welfare ministry has promised to investigate the circumstances under which Isles port health authorities cleared a consignment of rice that was not suitable for human consumption.
``We shall conduct a thorough investigation to establish the circumstances under which the 2,900-tonne consignment of rice imported from Pakistan was cleared from the port before receiving green light from the office of the chief government chemist,`` Juma Rajab, director of Social Health in the ministry, said here yesterday.
He said that, in the absence of the go-ahead, the procedure followed in allowing the consignment into the country and later into the market was outright illegal.
Zanzibar Health and Social Welfare minister Sultan Mugheiry said when contacted for comment on the matter that he had not received any report from his assistants relating to the importation of the rice under dispute.
``I have just learnt about the issue from the media today,`` he pointed out asking that he be allowed time to make a follow-up before making an official comment.
The rice is of the popular Super Power brand and was brought in last month by Bopar Enterprises Company Limited.
Salma Masoud Ibrahim, director of Trade and Marketing in the Tourism, Trade and Investment ministry, said her department had put under lock and key all stores where the rice is kept in Zanzibar`s Mombasa area.
She added that the report from the chief government chemist indicated that the rice was unfit for human consumption, ``although some of it has already been pumped into markets in different parts of Zanzibar``.
For his part, Bopar Enterprises executive director Said Nassir Bopar said there was ``completely nothing wrong with the rice because its suitability was verified by Pakistan’s Interteck Company prior to its shipment to Zanzibar``.
He noted that he was exploring the possibility of moving the rice on to Comoro, without however saying whether there was any likelihood that the Zanzibar authorities would let him do so.
Some Zanzibar residents have called on the government to make sure that all retailers who had brought the rice surrender it to the police.
``The government had better declare that all retailers who bought the adulterated rice surrender it to the police immediately and claim refunds,`` one, Makame Kombo, said.
Meanwhile, Musa Bakar of Mkunazini said the chief government chemist`s incriminating report was enough reason for the government to use all means at its disposal to make sure that the rice does not reach consumers.
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