TBL in ‘boiling pot’ over foreign experts


The Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) is in the ‘boiling pot’.Its local employees are accusing the company’s management of recruiting foreigners for jobs that could be well performed by Tanzanians.

At the heart of the dispute is a decision by the TBL management, under Managing Director Robin Goetzsche, to employ over 30 foreign experts to managerial positions for tasks that could be handled by locals.

Highly-placed sources within the company have provided this newspaper with a list of 32 so-called expatriates, some of whom working as marketing trainees, fleet management, human resources as well as logistics management, among others.

“Such posts could be filled by Tanzanians but the management, for reasons well known to them, has opted for foreigners. We have raised the issue several times during workers’ meetings but the management simply chose to ignore them, a source quipped.

He claimed that a trade union leader at the Dar es Salaam plant, who was very vocal against the trend of employing the “experts”, was threatened with dismissal when he kept on pressing management over the matter.

The source said the matter had been forwarded to the government but nothing has been done since then.
Reached for comment, the Minister for Labour and Employment Gaudencia Kabaka, confirmed that her office had received the complaints.

“My ministry is aware of that issue and it is working on it. The problem is that there are various government institutions, which issue permits to foreign workers, investors and businesspeople.

“It is because of this that the government is now planning to amend some of the existing legislations so that in the future, only the ministry will have the authority to issue the permits,” the minister told the ‘Daily News’.

TBL’s Human Resources and Communications Director Steven Kilindo refuted reports that the company has over 30 foreign experts on its payroll.

“Out of over 1,350 employees, only 27 are foreigners deployed in various capacities. These are technical experts in specified fields and employed in line with business needs.


“They all have valid work permits obtained through proper channels as provided by the law. TBL, as part of the multinational SABMiller, provides opportunities for its employees to work in other countries,” Mr Kilindo said in an email responding to the allegations.

The Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC)’s Public Relations Manager Pendo Gondwe said the TIC Act stipulates that foreign investors should not employ more than five experts in the managerial level.

“However, the investor can place a request to add more foreign workers on areas where Tanzanians lack requisite expertise,” Ms Gondwe said in a telephone interview.

The local workers at the leading beer maker in Tanzania also accuse the foreign management of segregation to the extent of establishing an office in Masaki, away from the TBL headquarters at Ilala, exclusively for “expatriates.”

“This is a baseless allegation. As TBL group, we operate from several sites in Tanzania including Mbeya, Arusha, Mwanza, Moshi, Bukoba, Kahama and Dar es Salaam,’’ Mr Kilindo remarked.

He added that expansion work at the Ilala plant has compelled some of the company’s activities to be relocated to other places within Dar es Salaam as there is no adequate land available anymore to meet our needs and accommodate all our operations under one roof,” Mr Kilindo explained.

Efforts to contact the Immigration Department for more comment on the matter during the past two days were not successful as the department’s spokesperson did not respond to repeated calls.

By ALVAR MWAKYUSA, Tanzania Daily News

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