Former senior cabinet ministers Basil Mramba and Daniel Yona
The duo, who were convicted last year of irregularly handling a
gold auditing contract for the government, will formally start cleaning
up the state-owned Palestina Hospital located in Sinza suburb, Kinondoni
District, Dar es Salaam.
They were allowed out of jail on a Kisutu resident magistrate’s
court order last week and will spend the remainder of their sentence,
which ends on November 5 this year, doing the community service at the
hospital.
They will swap the comfort of their homes for four hours a day, from Monday to Friday, for the task.
The court decision was based on recommendation from the Prisons
Department that the ex-ministers’ jail time be substituted with
community service.
Mramba, the former minister of finance, and ex-energy and minerals
minister Yona arrived at the hospital premises around 9:48 am in a
sports utility vehicle (SUV).
A crowd of people, including patients and hospital staff, were
gathered there to catch a glimpse of them as they alighted from the car.
They were then ushered into the office of the hospital matron, who
received them on behalf of the hospital’s doctor in-charge, for a brief
counseling session.
Addressing reporters, the Dar es Salaam regional probation and
community services officer Deogratius Shirima said according to the law,
all convicts who are placed on parole with community service work must
receive counseling to prepare them psychologically for the task ahead.
“We counseled them in our office first before bringing them to the
hospital, and here they have been counseled again,” Shirima said.
Apart from brooms, the ex-ministers were also provided with grass
cutters and appropriate working uniforms including boots and gloves by
the hospital’s environment officer Miriam Mongi.
The process was not without drama. As Mramba and Yona walked
towards the matron’s office, some people in the gathered crowd tried to
force Mramba to take up a broom in the vicinity and start sweeping right
away.
“You people are here to clean this place…so what are you going to
do in the office? Just take the broom and sweep,” said one man whose
name could not be immediately established.
Mramba stayed calm and even took the broom being offered. But
before he did anything else, security guards intervened and told the
onlookers to show respect.
Even while the ex-ministers were in the matron’s office, some
people were trying to force their way through the door and listen in,
prompting security guards to get tough. Other onlookers could be heard
using abusive language.
On July 4 last year, Mramba and Yona were sentenced to serve three
years in jail each with a Tshs 5 million/- fine after being found guilty
of occasioning an 11.7bn/- loss to the government.
0 comments:
POST A COMMENT