Q&A – 4 November 2013
Use of unregistered sim card
I have recently bought a new sim card and my friend told me that it is not necessary to register it. However I have been using this sim card for some time now without any disruption. How far is my friend’s advice true? Please guide.
EO, Mwanza
In 2010, our parliament passed the Electronic and Postal Communications Act. The said Act prohibits the use of unregistered sim cards which is a punishable offence. The law clearly says that any person who knowingly uses or cause to be used an unregistered sim card commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand Tanzanian shillings or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months. With that observation, you are advised to comply with the law without delay or face the consequences.
Stop order for building construction
I am undertaking a simple construction project half a kilometer away from a river bank. There are other developments nearby and this is not the first development in the area. Few weeks ago some environmental officers have issued a stop order against the development although I have a building permit. Is this legal and why would a development require an environmental certificate?
RL, Dar
The Environmental Management Act of 2004 provides in section 81 that (1) Any person, being a proponent or a developer of a project or undertaking of a type specified in the Third Schedule to this Act, to which environmental impact assessment is required to be made by the law governing such project or undertaking or in the absence of such law, by the regulations by the Minister, shall undertake or cause to be undertaken, at his own cost, an environmental impact assessment study.
(2) An Environmental Impact Assessment study shall be carried prior to the commencement or financing of a project or undertaking. (3) A permit or licence for the carrying out of any project or undertaking in accordance with any written law shall not entitle the proponent or developer to undertake or to cause to be undertaken a project or activity without an environmental impact assessment certificate issued under this Act.
The third schedule provides the following wide categories (a) any activity out of character with its surrounding; (b) any structure of a scale not in keeping with its surrounding; and (c) major changes in land use, 2. Urban Development, 3. Transportation, 4. Dams, rivers and water resources, 5. Aerial spraying, 6. Mining, including quarrying and open-cast extraction, 7. Forestry related activities, 8. Agriculture including, 9. Processing and manufacturing industries including, 10. Electrical infrastructure. 11. Management of hydrocarbons including the storage of natural gas and combustible or explosive fuels, 12. Waste disposal, 13. Natural conservation areas, 14. Nuclear Reactors, 15. Major development in biotechnology including the introduction and testing of genetically modified organisms and 16. Any other activity as may be prescribed in the regulations.
You can see that any urban development needs an environmental impact assessment and hence you should apply for one.
Arrest without warrant
From what I know of the law, a police officer cannot arrest me without a warrant of arrest. Also when I am arrested I should be told the grounds of arrest and cannot just merely be taken away. Is my understanding of the law correct? How long can the police interview me for in one day?
IT, Dar
Your first assertion is wrong. Section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act clearly states that a police officer may without a warrant arrest– (a) any person who commits a breach of the peace in his presence; (b) any person who wilfully obstructs a police officer while in the execution of his duty, or who has escaped or attempts to escape from lawful custody; (c) any person in whose possession anything is found which may reasonably be suspected to be stolen property or who may reasonably be suspected of having committed an offence with reference to such thing; (d) any person whom he finds lying or loitering in any highway, yard or garden or other place during the night and whom he suspects upon reasonable grounds of having committed or being about to commit an offence or who has in his possession without lawful excuse any offensive weapon or housebreaking implement; (e) any person for whom he has reasonable cause to believe a warrant of arrest has been issued; (f) any person whom he suspects upon reasonable grounds of having been concerned in any act committed at any place out of Tanzania which, if committed in Tanzania, would have been punishable as an offence, and for which he is, under the Extradition Act, or otherwise, liable to be apprehended and detained in Tanzania; (g) any person who does any act which is calculated to insult the national emblem or the national flag; (h) any person whom he suspects of being a loiterer.
As for being informed of grounds for arrest, you are right that a police officer must inform you why you are being arrested.
Section 23 of the Criminal Procedure Act states inter alia that (1) A person who arrests another person shall, at the time of the arrest, inform that other person of the offence for which he is arrested. (2) A person who arrests another person shall be taken to have complied with subsection (1) if he informs the other person of the substance of the offence for which he is arrested; and it is not necessary for him to do so in a language of a precise or technical nature. (3) Subsection (1) does not apply to or in relation to the arrest of a person– (a) if, by reason of the circumstances in which he is arrested, that person ought to know the substance of the offence for which he is arrested; or (b) if by reason of his actions the person arrested makes it impracticable for the person effecting the arrest to inform him of the offence for which he is arrested.
And your last question on interviewing, the law provides that a police officer cannot interview you for more than 4 hours per day unless there are strong reasons which allows the period to be extended for another 4 hours.