Retired ACT-Wazalendo party leader, Zitto Kabwe, has confirmed that he is facing a civil defamation lawsuit filed by Mr. Harbinder Singh Sethi, of Pan Africa Power Solutions Ltd (PAP), following a post he made on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) regarding information from the Controller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on IPTL’s compensation claims.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam on May 18, 2025, Zitto confidently announced that the case will serve as a good platform for him to reveal the full truth and bring final closure to the IPTL saga, which, according to him, was already settled by the Court of Appeal of Tanzania.
“I’ve been sued by Mr. Harbinder Singh Sethi for allegedly defaming him and damaging his reputation in public because I spoke about the IPTL saga,” said Zitto. “He has sued me and, among other things, is asking the court to order me to pay billions in compensation.”
Zitto acknowledged making the statements in question, explaining that they were based on interpretations of various court rulings and were intended to clarify the matter after it resurfaced in the 2023/24 CAG report released at the end of March this year.
The defamation case against Zitto has been filed in the High Court of Tanzania and is scheduled to be mentioned on June 12, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. under case number 8801.
The Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) saga gained widespread attention in Tanzania and shook the political landscape following a parliamentary committee report led by Zitto Kabwe in 2014, during his tenure as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Under Zitto’s leadership, the PAC unearthed major issues surrounding a controversial contract between the government and IPTL, in which PAP was identified as one of the owners. Their ownership was not only questionable but also indicated by the parliament as possible corruption and fraud.
According to PAC, the contract between IPTL and TANESCO, signed in 1995, was controversial due to the high electricity tariffs IPTL charged TANESCO, which were significantly higher than other power sources, sparking public outcry and suspicions of corruption.
The most explosive element of the IPTL saga involved a special escrow account opened at the Bank of Tanzania to hold payments for IPTL while a dispute over costs was ongoing. The parliamentary committee discovered that over TZS 300 billion was secretly withdrawn from this account and distributed to various high-profile individuals, including politicians, senior public officials, and religious leaders.
The scandal led to the resignation of several politicians at the time. In 2017, during the administration of the fifth-phase President, John Magufuli, two key suspects in the alleged corruption case—Sethi and James Rugemalira of VIP Engineering and Marketing—were jointly charged with six counts: economic sabotage, forgery, impersonation, running a criminal syndicate, obtaining money by false pretence, and causing financial loss to the government. They were both released in 2021 following a plea bargain.
