Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda
As a result of the saga in August 2011 the government announced a one-year ban on licences for export of live animals.
Announcing the ban, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said measures
would be taken to plug loopholes being used to export animals illegally.
The investigative team which was formed in 2012 to probe the
illegal export of live wild animals to Qatar had not visited the country
because the team was still waiting for the travel documents from the
Qatar government, in the United Arab Emirates.
The 132 live wild animals and 16 birds were alleged to have been smuggled out of the country in November 2010 to Qatar.
The team’s mission is to establish whereabouts of the animals and
the propose measures to be taken to ensure the animals were flown back
to the country.
The decision to send the team was reached mid-2012 following
positive response from the Qatar office of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which confirmed that
the 116 animals and birds were indeed in Qatar.
However, the deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism,
Mahmoud Mgimwa told the National Assembly yesterday that all procedures
for the team to travel to Qatar had been completed except the travel
permits from the Qatar which they were still waiting.
Mgimwa did not say the specific reasons of why until now they did not get the travel documents from Qatar government.
The deputy minister made the remark in response to a supplementary
question by Special Seat MP Christowaja Mtinda (Chadema) who had
wanted to know the reasons for the probe team formed by the government
in 2012 .
Christowaja questioned the government’s silence over the matter
while CITES confirmed that the animals were illegally kept in Qatar.
Responding, Mgimwa admitted that following the scandal the
government had formed a special investigative team which included
members from the National Assembly and the Parliamentary Committee for
Natural Resources and Tourism.
Mgimwa told the House that according to the law they cannot travel
to any foreign country without getting a travel permit from the country
of destination.
Minister added that the failure to get the traveling permit from
Qatar was the main reason of why the team had not travelled but he
stressed that the government was still processing for the permission; he
added that the committee will travel immediately after receiving the
permit.
In her basic question Christowaja wanted to know the government measures to deal with piracy challenges in the country.
Responding to a basic question, Mgimwa said that the live wild
animals in the country were in massive piracy and the government had put
in place strong strategies to control the problem.
Mgimwa told the House that some of the measures were increasing the
security at the airports, at the ports and at all borders as government
efforts to protect the wild life in the country.
Meanwhile, in August 2011 members of Parliament pressured the
government to return the smuggled live animals and birds, resulting in
the government slapping a one-year ban on the export of live animals.
The cargo alleged to have been smuggled in 2010 included four giraffes.
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