'CWABO' LAUNCHES CRY OF REVOLT

Quelimane, "Chuabo City" as the natives termed, can cry of pain and consternation. Since the National Independence on June 25, 1975, the "City Chuabo" knowing was gradually regression and systematic destruction caused by the successive local governments before flowing into a sea of ​​problems with no solution in sight to the present.  Water shortage is chronic and dramatic. On the outskirts of the city, the shortage or lack of it is alarming shape. Women and children jostle with, with their biddons during the day, along with holes, often in the morning to the setting of the sun, do not do well one drop of water to wet the throat, as well as the musician sings Mozambique Luis Fernando  At the opening of the campaign, Pio Matos, a former mayor, said he leaves with head held high because "Frelimo took water to the neighborhoods." This "can" does not convince anyone. The cry for water is heard, with increasing intensity.  Pio Matos, one of the "generals" of the campaign Frelimo party, lied that he left the city with the water problem solved. Good speaker, which humiliated the mayor to step down raise elections "interim" in the land of Chuabo talks swirling. The real fallacy of the water could only get out of the mouth of a great magician ... 

The water problem is severe and has not even begun to be attacked. People say that "Frelimo and Pius deceived him in three times." Promise to solve the same problem, but when they come to power, are more concerned with their arrangements. They are not concerned with the problems of the city. "Chuabo" is a mix of city and country. In the middle of the city's housing construction material precarious, surrounded by gardens full of worthless scrap wood to be sold abroad because it is fashionable in the country, exporting raw timber, a lucrative business involving elites linked to the ruling party and citizens Chinese, too, go to "taxi" bike here in Quelimane.  This way one sees large tonnage trucks loaded with logs, to circulate through the city, damaging the floor, under the impassive gaze of the authorities who should regulate the movement of such trucks. No one can be judge in his own. Those who were to oversee the administration are now in horse-trading behind the desks of state institutions. Manage their personal affairs installed in wards of the state. Do not put an end to these attacks to the assets of public funds does not impede the movement of trucks because business people are all the same political family. Quelimane so degraded.  The "City Chuabo" trash heap has in its corner that is not removed regularly. Its streets are potholed. Now that the election campaign is underway, city officials are working to full production, to cover the shame. What should be your daily work is done in the electoral campaign to deceive the most distracted.  "Chuabo" stopped in time and, as irony, the authors of their misfortune, every five years, returning to the door hit you on the hunt for votes to continue to enjoy.  Manuel de Araujo, the candidate of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, said that his candidacy is a cry of revolt. Used to say "enough to play with Chuabo Mwana."  The struggle in these "interim" is red hot. It is as early as next Wednesday that the residents of the capital of Zambezia go to the polls. This is the capital of the second most populous province in the country You can not have a secure sense of what might be the outcome of these elections. The truth, however, is that Manuel Araujo is messing with everything and everyone and his name is the most talked about, especially in the periphery and among young people.  Do not be surprised if the opposition wins, but the fear of fraud is present and may happen to be the spark that fired the prairie. It is recommended that the greatest civility, for fair elections. (Edwin Houn)

MOZAMBIQUE SCORE ON CORRUPTION INDEX UNCHANGED

The international anti-corruption NGO, Transparency International, has placed Mozambique in 120th position out of 184 countries surveyed in its 2011 Corruption Perception Index, which is much the same as its position in 2010.The index scores countries on a scale between zero and 10 – the nearer a score is to ten, then the cleaner that country is deemed to be. On this scale, the least corrupt countries in the world are New Zealand (with a score of 9.5), Denmark and Finland (each on 9.4), and Sweden (9.3).At the other end of the scale, the countries worst hit by corruption are Somalia, which has not had a functioning government for two decades, and North Korea, which both score just 1.0. Also among the most corrupt countries are Myanmar and Afghanistan (1.5) and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Sudan (1.6).Mozambique is scored at 2.7, and shares position 120 with the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Bangladesh.According to TI, the least corrupt African country is Botswana, on a score of 6.1 – the same as Portugal. It is followed by Cape Verde (5.5), Mauritius (5.1) and Rwanda (5.0).The 15 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have the following rankings and scores in the TI Index:
32 Botswana (6.1)
46 Mauritius (5.1)
50 Seychelles (4.8)
57 Namibia (4.4)
57 South Africa (4.4)
77 Lesotho (3.5)
91 Zambia (3.2)
95 Swaziland (3.1)
100 Malawi (3.0)
100 Madagascar (3.0)
100 Tanzania (3.0)
120 Mozambique (2.7)
154 Zimbabwe (2.2)
168 Angola (2.0)
168 Democratic Republic of Congo (2.8)
Perhaps not surprisingly, there are some poor performers in the euro zone. Italy, with a score of 3.9 is tied with Ghana, Macedonia and Samoa. Greece does rather worse with 3.4 – on a par with drug-stricken Colombia. And anyone who imagined that the fall of the Soviet Union was a recipe for clean government is in for a shock – Russia trails in 143rd position with a score of 2.4.Mozambique’s score is unchanged from last year. In 2010, it also scored 2.7, but because fewer countries were covered Mozambique was ranked in 116th position (out of 178).TI says that the Corruption Perception Index is based on “different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions”, and covering such questions as “bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds and questions that probe the strength and effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts”.The TI report notes that “public outcry at corruption, impunity and economic instability sent shockwaves round the world in 2011”. Referring clearly to the toppling of dictatorships in North Africa, it adds “protests in many countries have escalated quickly from small scale action to mass demonstration, united people from all parts of society”.
Public frustration “is well founded”, says TI. “No country or region in the world is immune to the damages of public sector corruption”. A clear indication of the seriousness of the problem is that the great majority of the 183 countries surveyed score less than five on the zero to 10 scale.“Whether in a Europe hit by the debt crisis or an Arab world starting a new political era, leaders must heed the demand for better government”, declared the TI chairperson, Huguette Labelle, cited in the report.

ASSEMBLY PASSES BILLS ON INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday passed the first reading of a bill on the status of members of the State Intelligence and Security Service (SISE), providing them with a legal framework to protect their rights and establish their duties, as is already the case with members of the police and armed forces.The bill states that the “indispensable conditions” for recruitment to SISE are “recognised civic and patriotic suitability, professional competence, and relevant academic training”. A career in SISE is open to Mozambicans aged between 18 and 25 – but recruitment is not done publicly, and there are no tenders or adverts.Recruits must “accept the risks inherent to the duties they will perform”, and must not belong to any “political pressure groups”. They must be “permanently available” for duty, even after they have retired.The element of risk and the physical and psychological pressures of the job entitle SISE members to allowances in addition to their monthly wages.As is usually the case with intelligence agencies, a veil of secrecy is thrown over SISE. The names of successful recruits are not published in the official gazette, the “Boletim da Republica”, and nor are the SISE wage scales. The trial of any SISE member accused of a crime will be held behind closed doors.SISE members are banned from “interfering in the private life of citizens or in the operations of public and private institutions and companies”. They must not undertake any activities which “threaten the principles enshrined in the constitution and the law”, and must not usurp any powers that belong to the courts, the police or the public prosecutor’s office.They are also barred from releasing any information about SISE to the media, and cannot write or publish anything concerning their work without authorisation.
Any interference in the lives of citizens will lead to dismissal, as will the unauthorized possession of firearms, or involvement in any illegal business or financial activities.The bill passed with the 125 deputies present from the ruling Frelimo Party voting in favour, while 43 deputies of the largest opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, voted against, and five members of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) abstained.The same breakdown occurred on Wednesday when the Assembly passed a bill on the nature and powers of SISE. This bill states that the mission of SISE is “to protect state security through the production of useful information on crimes against state security or cross-border crimes and other activities, which by their nature might alter the constitutionally established rule of law”.SISE is allowed to intercept communications when there are signs that such crimes are being committed or planned, particularly attempted assassination of the head of state or other senior state figures, sabotage, terrorism, espionage, piracy, armed rebellion, money laundering, and trafficking in drugs, guns, people or human organs.SISE is barred from any activity “that involves threats or offences against the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens, enshrined in the Constitution and the law”.Renamo deputies claimed that SISE “harasses Mozambican citizens who don’t agree with Frelimo”, and makes death threats against people who want to be election candidates for opposition parties. No specific examples were given.Fernando Matuasanga declared that the SISE commander-in-chief (President Armando Guebuza) “took power fraudulently”, and claimed that SISE “defends his personal interests rather than the interests of the nation”.In reality, in the 2009 presidential election Guebuza won almost three million votes (75 per cent of valid votes) to slightly more than 650,000 (16.41 per cent) for Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama. Those incidents of fraud that did take place cannot possibly account for such an enormous victory.The MDM’s concern was for lack of sufficient oversight over SISE. MDM deputy Eduardo Elias warned “those who are not properly supervised are prone to commit abuses”.

A new opportunity to change

Frelimo was concerned that the responsibilities of disaster management in the municipalities of Cuamba, Pemba and Quelimane will be charged. Therefore, the aldermen that she herself proposed to the posts in the last municipal elections, were forced to cease their functions long before the term expires. Were humiliated as the responsibility of the municipal disaster was theirs and nobody else. Were humiliated as if they had provided all the means in order to solve the problems of municipalities. They ended their careers as men incapable.As part of the party they are bound they were not given freedom of action, nor provided resources, but at the time of accountability were burned to hide the indifference of whom nothing else has been doing in the country without fulfilling that promise.By being forced to resign, with the fall of aldermen in Pemba, Quelimane and Cuamba, by law there must be elections "progress" that will lead to the residents in these municipalities, to 07 December, again to have the opportunity to choose who can bring new dynamics to the cities and with them the long-awaited progress although they promised never arrived.
By requiring the outgoing aldermen to renounce, Frelimo attempted to transfer the sole responsibility for them. I wanted to make them responsible for the unique disaster reached by the authorities of the capital of Cabo Delgado and Zambezia, and the Cuamba, the second city of Niassa.The people in these three municipalities of Quelimane, Pemba and Cuamba today suffer from a total abandonment, which is clearly the result of indifference to the central government - always Frelimo - the subject comes from 36 years ago.In many other cities, as in Quelimane, and Pemba Cuamba, knows that the Frelimo government in charge since independence is not to result in benefits for citizens.Even in Maputo, where the central government is installed, it is easy to see that the rulers are more interested in using the resources of the State and the powers of office to enrich themselves than properly to provide a better future for people.In the only municipality in the country where Frelimo and the opposition is not to govern the municipality, the real autonomy is bringing its fruits to Beira.
Realizing the risk he was to be allowed to residents of more municipalities in the country were given the same chance that sovereign will on 07 December next resident in Quelimane, Pemba and Cuamba, Frelimo eventually left the fate of more aldermen for later, when the legal time limits do allow them to fall without these municipalities have to be elections "interim."The same humiliation that the three mayors who were in office have been subjected in Quelimane, and Pemba Cuamba, may still come to pass those who think they have escaped the dirty game that Frelimo tried to believe that chaos is not the responsibility of the Government central, but people who accepted his challenge to be candidates for mayors and have been "elected".If the humiliation Pio Matos, Quelimane, and their other fellow Cuamba and Pemba is forgotten can lead to Frelimo can reelect their candidates in these "interim". But if the residents of Pemba, and Quelimane are lucid Cuamba certainly aperceberão that it's time to give a chance to those who never had it.Refresh the executive of the city of Quelimane, Pemba and Cuamba, may benefit because it will surely attract international aid that have been coming because donors are tired of always putting money in the hands of them that instead of making use that improve the lives of people, have only been taking care of themselves, be filled with money and let the country fall into all levels of evaluation as happened recently in relation to the Human Development Index which put Mozambique on the humiliating condition of the fourth poorest country in the world.The heads of Frelimo have proven that today are more concerned about their pockets than the welfare of citizens.
Residents of Quelimane, and Pemba Cuamba now have until 04 December the opportunity to hear the candidates what they intend to do if elected.Frelimo will return to promise wonders, but in the end will offer the same as ever: wealth for the "great leaders".For those who insist on walking distracted and always vote on who has a lot of talk but little does, will keep the holes in the roads, garbage outside the home, water shortages, power failures, blocked sewers and overflowing, lack of medical care, shortage of ambulances to rescue sick, lack of decent schools, housing miserable, lack of medicines. For the poor the "prize", pass the irony will always be the same if not open their eyes.The choice is in the hands of citizens. If you want to vote for continued disaster. If they want their cities to change, vote for change. There is no change in continuity. So change the flies but the "disgrace" is the same.We believe in the merits of democracy through it when you know who elect politicians to put in order and play opportunities. We believe that even so who's Frelimo Cuamba, Pemba and Quelimane, should know that only win if you see the alternation of power an asset to the lands in which they live.Do not be fooled by those promises better every year, but after only ensures misery and chaos, even the Frelimo can experience the best day to put the interests of his own land ahead and set aside servility.We have seen what is the result when the "Father" is convinced that it does not take care of "children" ... Just look at the stage where they are Cuamba, Pemba and Quelimane ... The image of these cities is worth a thousand words.

MINISTER EXPLAINS BENEFITS FROM MINERAL RESOURCES

Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, on Thursday denied opposition claims that Mozambique gains no benefit from the natural gas extracted from the Pande and Temane fields in Inhambane province, because it is all exported to South Africa.Speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Bias declared “we will continue to export gas, which brings foreign exchange to our country”. But it was quite untrue that none of the gas is used in Mozambique – currently three million gigajoules a year of the gas is consumed inside the country. Some of this gas generates electricity for districts in the northern part of Inhambane province and the southern part of Sofala.There is also a spur running from the main gas pipeline to South Africa, and this spur takes the gas to industries in the city of Matola, where it has replaced imported liquid fuels. There are also plans to pipe the gas to households in Maputo and Matola.Deputies from the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, thought it was absurd that Mozambique is exporting natural gas but at the same time the country is experiencing a critical shortage of cooking gas.But the gas used for cooking is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and currently there is no factory in Mozambique that can turn the gas extracted from Pande and Temane into LNG. Mozambique thus imports its LNG from South African refineries under a contract with the South African fuel company Engen. Since 13 October, when there was a fire in its Durban refinery, Engen has been unable to honour its contract.There are plans to build facilities to liquefy the natural gas discovered in vast quantities in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado. But Bias warned that, since these discoveries are recent, the investment in LNG plants will take time and production cannot be expected before 2018.Renamo deputy Gania Mussagy claimed that the electricity generated from the Inhambane gas is more expensive than electricity elsewhere in the country, and that consumers in Vilankulo had thus stopped buying it.But a deputy of the ruling Frelimo Party from Inhambane, Sara Mamude, said this was quite untrue since the price per kilowatt-hour of electricity is the same in Vilankulo as everywhere else in the country.Mussagy was four years out of date. Initially the private company ENMO sold the electricity in Vilankulo and neighbouring districts, and it did indeed charge extortionate prices. But there were so many complaints against ENMO’s performance that the government cancelled its concession in October 2007, and handed the rights to distribute the power generated by gas to the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, which has a policy of uniform electricity tariffs across the country.As for claims that Mozambicans are not benefitting from the country’s mineral resources, Bias said that mining is creating jobs, not only in the extractive industries themselves, but also in upstream and downstream activities. The best example of this is that the western city of Tete has become a boom town, thanks to the huge open cast coal mines under development in the nearby district of Moatize.Mining in Tete, Bias added, now employs about 13,300 workers, the great majority of whom are Mozambicans. The full impact of the mining projects was yet to be felt, she added, since they were very recent. Until May of this year, only one small, underground coal mine was operating in Tete. This mine, Chipanga 11, owned by the company Minas de Moatize, only produced 30,000 tonnes of coal a year.

But as from May the Brazilian mining giant Vale started producing coal at its Moatize mine, and made its first exports in September. An adjacent mine run by the company Rio Tinto is now in production and is expected to start exporting coal by the end of the year. The opposition also demands transparency in the allocation of mining licences. Bias replied that applicants receive licences in line with the legal requirements, and that all licences are published in the main daily paper, “Noticias”. The mining register, with the locations of all exploration licences and mining concessions, is a public document, she said, and anyone may consult it.Illegal mining was a matter of concern to the government, Bias said, and over the past year seven tonnes of assorted minerals had been seized from illegal miners, along with their equipment, which all reverts to the state.Mussagy had claimed that the government intervened to stop mining companies from increasing their wages. Bias challenged Mussagy to name these companies, but she failed to do so.In reality, the government cannot order private companies to pay higher or lower wages. The government merely sets the statutory minimum wage – wages above the minimum are a matter for negotiation between employers and their workers.

SAFETY IN DEFENSE OF THE STATE CAPITAL

How do you think that the throw on the fire, the Ka Mpfumo District Court in the city of Maputo, will judge Thursday the spokesman of the group of veterans led by Herminio dos Santos, who are still at war with the government , reported yesterday the Voice of America.Jossias Macena, according to U.S. radio station, was arrested last Monday in a "strange" is being seen as "kidnapping," said the Voice of America.The VOA says it is still unaware of the motives for the arrest of Macena, however, Herminio dos Santos has no doubt it is the work of Intelligence and State Security (SISE), which he said, "have made many connections, using anonymous numbers and making various kinds of intimidation. "According to the group account - adds the VOA - the disappearance of his spokesman took place late on Monday after a call, allegedly from the Embassy of the United States of America in Maputo, summoning him to a meeting.Contrary to advice from their peers - continue to cite the VOA - Macena have decided to meet the false call that led to his arrest somewhere at Avenida Kenneth Kaunda, the way to the U.S. embassy, ​​allegedly linked to SISE by individuals in civilian clothes, and taken for uncertain place, where it was transferred on Tuesday afternoon, for the Civil Prison."After receiving the call, decided to answer the call. I tried to dissuade him, since the call was not revealed, even the agenda of the meeting ", said dos Santos.Frustrated in his attempt, the leader of the forum said to have indicated some colleagues to monitor their spokesman, and those who attended his arrest, led by individuals who were carrying six cars."After nearly a day without information of their whereabouts, just by being informed by someone from the Civil Prison, that our fellow was imprisoned in that place and would be brought to trial on Thursday."The defense of Joss Macena is in charge of the Mozambican Human Rights League, through attorney Salvador Nkamate.Contact with the story of Voice of America, said he had yet Nkamate the process and repudiated what he called blatant illegalities behind the arrest.Remember that since the beginning of the protests of former combatants, Jossias Macena is the second element of the group to be arrested and brought to trial. The first was Herminio dos Santos, who was arrested, tried and acquitted last year, coincidentally, also a time when preparing demonstrations in the streets of Maputo.

DANGER

The Government has been to put into motion armament of the capital of the Country, Maputo, for other provinces. Specified amounts of weapons and other military equipment had not been carried in the last tuesday of Maputo to points notice unknown it of Maputo. In the last tuesday, the way district of Magude, throughout the national road I number 1, concretely the crossing of Xinavane, with six military camiões, some with plates of registers and others without school registrations, loaded of enormous amounts of military material. Each military camião with almost a capacity of 5 tons, the 3 military in the cabin carried between two. The military viaturas were lead by soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Defense of Moçambique (FADM). They were of mark JAC, Chinese production. With distrust of that a popular revolt can come out in the Parents, due to the generalized dissatisfaction who already nobody hides, the Government has come to import armament of the People's Republic of China, parents who were world-wide marked for the slaughter of Tianeman and continue to be directed by a intolerante and highly repreensivo regimen, although its economic performance. Beyond to import armament of those parents Asian, the Chinese military executive has contracted some technician for assists and to train the Armed Forces and the policy. In the last days, the Government is to promote a campaign being aimed at to discourage the populations not to adhere the manifestations. To such it has come to use the block heads and other structures the diverse levels of the city and province of Maputo. The great distrust is in a revolt of the population in the City of Maputo and would perfiferia. Still this week, the governor of the province of Maputo, Jonas Maria, made one appeals the populations Mothasse and Matsandzane so that they do not bind what it nicknamed “saudosistas of the war” that according to it “walk to agitate the people”. “We want the Peace” said the governing Jonas Maria, confirming of this form the distrusts of the Government. The government has been to be threatened by the desmobilizados ones filiados in the Fórum of the Desmobilizados directed for Hermínio Dos Santos, who congregates former-military proceeding from the rows of old army FAM-FPLM and the Renamo, former-milicianos, former-groups of monitoring, former-Naparamas, as well as until widowers and orphans of whom they had fought during the armed conflict that dilacerou the fabric social of the country in a bloody Civil War. This group of former-combatants has an ample popular support for what it is suspicious that acts of violence in the Country can come out, particularly in Maputo. It stops beyond the desmobilizados ones of war, are equally to threaten the government, the leader of the Renamo with its men of the security force and many others of that it has notice of if being to reorganize to come back to the asset, as well as the former-returned ones in the old Democratic Republic of Germany (RDA), that every week they have been come close to reveal pacifically in Maputo, but that lately they have come to thicken its rows and to carry out drawn out interruptions of the traffic road in Maputo-City. (Bernardino Alvaro)

900 PROJECTS SUBMITTED FOR FUNDING IN TETE

900 income-generating projects have been submitted to the Consultative Council in the western Mozambican city of Tete, in the hope of receiving funds under the government’s Urban Poverty Reduction Programme.  The programme operates with money from the District Development Fund (FDD), which has been providing loans for projects to boost food security and provide jobs in rural districts since 2006.In urban areas funds from the FDD are allocated to income-generating projects which, it is believed, will play a role in relieving urban poverty. According to the Mayor of Tete, Cesar Carvalho, the city has received 9.4 million meticais (about 348,000 US dollars) from the FDD which reached the municipality in August. The Consultative Council and its technical team have been set up to receive and evaluate the projects. “We are behind in implementing the programme, because we received the money late”, Carvalho. “But we have set up the important bodies and we have begun to receive projects. So far we have received 900 projects, and we hope that this year the first projects to be approved will be financed”. Carvalho stressed that the Tete City Council wants to ensure that loans from the FDD are repaid – unlike what has happened in the rural districts, where repayment rates have been extremely low (usually less than 10 per cent).He said that, in order to ensure repayment, the City Council will draw on its experience of financing small income-generating projects for vulnerable women. For the past two years, the Municipality has been providing small loans for women living under difficult circumstances so that they can undertake petty trading or other small businesses. And most of these women have repaid their loans.“Our experience over these two years has shown high levels of repayment”, said Carvalho. “The repayment rate has been over 90 per cent. So we think we are prepared to implement the FDD programme successful. We are expecting good results and high levels of repayment”.   Among the priorities for funding are agricultural projects within the city boundaries in order to reduce Tete’s dependence on foodstuffs grown elsewhere in the province.

CDM LAUNCHES CASSAVA BEER

CDM (Cervejas de Mocambique – Beers of Mozambique), the local subsidiary of the world’s second largest brewing company, SABMiller, announced on Monday the launch of Impala, a beer based on cassava, rather than on malt.The official launch is taking place at Namigonha in Ribaue district in the northern province of Nampula.According to a CDM statement received  Impala beer will be brewed commercially, using 70 per cent cassava, at the CDM factory in Nampula city. CDM is confident of its new product, which it says results from years of research and development to overcome the challenges of brewing beer from cassava.The new beer will initially be sold in the various districts of the province of Nampula at an affordable price of 25 meticais (about 92 US cents) for a 550ml bottle. (The price for the same sized bottle of malt-based beers, even in cheap bars, is not less than 35 meticais).Mozambican farmers produce more than enough cassava than is required for domestic consumption. A source of starch, it begins to degrade almost immediately after harvest and its high water content makes it inconvenient to transport over long distances.In order to preserve its high starch content, CDM has entered into a partnership with DADTCO, a Dutch organization for trade and agricultural development. The latter has spearheaded an innovative solution in the form of mobile processing units which travel to the cassava growing regions.The Chairperson of the CDM Board of Directors, Isidora Faztudo, cited in the release, said “It has always been our ambition to develop a beer of high quality at an affordable price to meet the local demand”.The production of beer from cassava opens the opportunity for Nampula farmers to increase their production cassava, knowing that there is a guaranteed buyer. Impala production will require 40,000 tonnes of cassava annually and will create employment for over 1,500 subsistence farmers. DADTCO will manage the cassava production value chain and agricultural extension services will be provided by IFDC, a public international organization that supports farmers across Africa.To encourage the use of cassava in brewing, the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, amended the tax code earlier this month, so that beers made from roots and tubers will pay a lower rate of tax than malt-based beers. While malt-based beers pay a 40 per cent tax rate, the rate for Impala will be only 10 per cent.This is the second time a beer named Impala has been produced in Mozambique. In the early 1980s, a malt-based Impala was brewed at what is now the CDM brewery in Maputo. It was a lower alcohol alternative to the established Mozambican beers (2M and Laurentina), but it was clearly less popular, since it disappeared from the market a couple of decades ago.

90 PER CENT OF MAPUTO RESIDENTS HAVE ELECTRICITY

Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, has invested 2.4 billion meticais (about 90 million US dollars) over the past five years in expanding and upgrading electricity infrastructures in Maputo city.According to an EDM press release, this resulted in an extra 440 kilometres of low voltage and 135 kilometres of medium voltage transmission lines. The number of Maputo households benefitting from electricity in their homes almost tripled in this period, rising from 90,000 to 236,000. EDM claims that access to electricity in the city is now at almost 90 per cent of the population.From 2006 to 2011, a further 273 transformer posts were installed in Maputo, thus improving significantly the quality of the electricity supplied.Entire neighbourhoods that had no electricity in the past are now linked to the national grid – including Guava-Mateque, Hulene, Magoanine C, Chamissava and Unguane (which is on Inhaca island). Public lighting has also been dramatically improved. The number of street lamps in Maputo has risen from 8,500 in 2005 to 23,800 in 2011.For 2012, EDM has set itself the target of raising access to electricity to almost 100 per cent of households in all Maputo city neighbourhoods.As of mid-November, in the entire country there were 921,704 households linked to the national grid – which is about 18 per cent of the Mozambican population. The Maputo city figure of 236,000 households accounts for 27 per cent of the national total.

"The president was not informed that a meeting is needed with the demobilized"

The Forum of Demobilized War, the organization that brings together more than 13 thousand ex-soldiers from the ranks of the extinct Armed Forces of Mozambique / Popular Forces for the Liberation of Mozambique (FAM / FPLM) and those of the then Renamo guerrillas, naparamas , etc ... yesterday accused the Government of Mozambique in Maputo to be "trying to cheat" and divide the demobilized "for they do not continue to claim the rights they say TuesThe Executive President Armando Guebuza has called on the last Wednesday a meeting with demobilized. By the way was the last day as the deadline given by demobilized, as the limit for the head of state to receive in audience. Arriving at such a meeting, to the astonishment of the Forum, were at the meeting on Wednesday around 15 representatives of different groups of demobilized. The Forum of Demobilized War, the only one who has been on the streets to manifest itself, was another. This is what has been manifest and require demobilized benefiting from a pension, but when they arrived at the table there were also summoned by the Minister of fighters, the leaders of other groups of demobilized did not review the Forum led by Herminio dos Santos.Thinking that the Minister of fighters, Colonel Matthew Kida, they wanted to convey the will of the president, this did not happen.According Herminio dos Santos, President of the Forum of Demobilized, rather than to be told something of the head of state who want to meet, were informed that the meeting was to "harmonize the regulation of the Combatant Status and the Commission Interministerial ".Against the backdrop, the leaders of the Forum of Demobilized withdrew from the room where the meeting was over, for allegedly not being in accordance with the schedule that had been proposed by the Ministry of fighters. Does the leadership of the Forum led by Herminio dos Santos that the government is trying to "entertain demobilized." "They wanted to forget that he was the last day" of the deadline for the Government to respond to the demands of the Forum led by Herminio Santos.Wednesday was the deadline proposed by the government after the end of the first period which ended on the previous Wednesday, that required by the demobilized Forum. Expired without the President of the Republic had received for allegedly is outside the country.On the last Wednesday before the incident, the demobilized Forum arose out of the meeting and slammed the door."The Forum of Demobilized War Mozambique, left the meeting at the Ministry of Combatants, because the agenda had nothing to do with our concerns that led us to speak out between 25 and 26 days of the month" . According to the release of the "Forum of Demobilized", dated Wednesday the "minister [of fighters] invited 15 associations leaving the day's schedule 25 and 26, to say that we are gathered to harmonize the regulation of the Combatant Status we do not recognize. " The statement also says that the Forum does not recognize the Interministerial Commission for allegedly "does not work.""We abandoned the meeting because this is not our agenda should not be the agenda of any meeting that need with the president" concludes the Forum of Demobilized led by Herminio dos Santos."We will continue to take to the streets until the president to receive, hear and consider our concerns" Herminio dos Santos said yesterday .According to the source at this time, after the failure of the meeting with the Head of State Armando Guebuza, "the demobilized are organizing themselves to return to the streets to make a large-scale demonstration.""We are arranging to go out to the streets in order to avoid bloodshed. We are preparing people, demobilized soldiers say, for when there is bloodshed is rightly so, "said our interviewee adding however that" the demobilized did not want there to be bloodshed. ""What we want is to hear and feel the government our concerns," he added.
Asked about the date on which they would take to the streets, Herminio dos Santos said that "this will happen no later than two weeks.""Right now we are having some meetings with our members and some civil society in order to join forces. We do not want leadership that is just to go to the street, but all "he said.In another development Herminio dos Santos has made known that at this time the Forum is to explain to members throughout the country that "dialogue is failing the government's fault, but that the struggle must continue until the ultimate goal."To the Forum of Demobilized War, "remains the strange attitude of the government does not want to talk to people who are part of Mozambican society.""We think the president is the father of all, but we see it to discriminate against people by denying us get" accused the president of demobilized questioning "what kind of President Armando Guebuza of the Republic is that discriminates?".Convinced of the demobilized "the president was not informed that a meeting is needed with the demobilized."Herminio dos Santos accused the minister of Combatants Matthew Kida be "aldrabão, walking to change and manipulate it to fool the demobilized, with air that will be able to contain them.""We know that PR received nothing of Mr. Kida related to the audience that we" said the president of demobilized grounds that the meeting Wednesday "it is not even addressed this issue, having just tried to deceive us."For weeks the demobilized led by Herminio dos Santos joined without causing disturbances near the prime minister's office, headquarters of the Council of Ministers, as a way of pressuring the government to consider their claims. Turned to leave last Wednesday in a meeting with the Minister of fighters, Colonel Matthew Kida, who say they are not able to solve their problems.To persuade them, the minister of fighters they would have asked to wait until last Wednesday, because the president was not in the country. Then meet with them unless the meeting is led by PR. "It's a aldrabão" says the now demobilized.When was expected to last Wednesday that the government response to the demobilized, whether one received by the President, behold, the executive asks for "harmonization of the combatant status."The demobilized among other things require a decent retirement, especially for a monthly pension of 12,500 MT.They say they have been used in many wars and so they want to be compensated by the government for years to come to fight.They do not accept the status of combatant approved in parliament by the Frelimo benches, which holds the parliamentary majority and thus decided on its own. The fighters claim that this status is discriminatory and favors national liberation fighters with links to the historic Frelimo regime, but all the other discriminates.The group led by Herminio dos Santos and has been on the streets, part 13 000 demobilized from the side of Frelimo and Renamo, the former militia members, former members of vigilante groups, the naparamas, widows and orphans of deceased war fighters during and after the war, among others.The demobilized already ruled out any dialogue that is not with the president, Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister Ali Aires

They also demand the resignation of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Combatants, Lino Joaquim Hama, by the way her husband the governor of Maputo City, Lucilia Hama, whom they accuse of being the promoter of most of "treacheries" in relation to projects that demobilized entitled by law, such as the ease of bank credit for financing projects.The husband of the governor of Maputo and SP Ministry of demobilized combatants is accused by the bureaucratization of the process causing the demobilized so far have not achieved any credit. (Bernard Alvaro)

Help!

The demobilized soldiers demobilized members of the Forum, which is demonstrated next day the office of prime minister, as a way of pressuring the government to consider their demands, initially said they would wait for a response from the government until there last Wednesday . The PR was then absent from the country. Now say the "demobilized" to wait for a response until next Wednesday. Decided so at the request of the executive, they say.The Government asked them respite until Wednesday. He promised them that the president, Armando Guebuza, will take them into the audience.Herminio dos Santos, leader of the demobilized Forum, said last night, Sunday, the Canalmoz that the Minister of Soldiers, retired Col. Matthew Kida, had contacted to ask them to tolerate until Wednesday. In this day promised to give us the answer when the head of state will be available to receive the demobilized."The minister of the fighters came to ask us to wait until Wednesday because the president was not in the country and returned last Friday," said Herminio dos Santos.Herminio dos Santos assured that there Canalmoz, demobilized soldiers will not manifest. However in the case said Wednesday the answer is not satisfactory, go back out to the streets in new protest action.The demobilized require, among other things, a "reform condign." Want, including a monthly pension of 12,500 MT.The mobilized claim they were "used" in many wars and so they want to be compensated by the government for years to come to fight.They do not accept combatant status approved in Parliament by the Frelimo bench holding qualified parliamentary majority to approve it without objection or better, without considering the opinions of others.The "demobilized" agglutinated Forum led by Herminio dos Santos claim that "the Statute approved by the Combatant Frelimo Party is discriminatory and favors the fighters for national liberation with historic ties to the regime of the Frelimo party."The group led by Herminio dos Santos, who has been on the streets to demonstrate their anger and to fight for approval of its package of demands, part 13 000 units demobilized from Frelimo and Renamo, the former militia members, former members of vigilante groups , naparamas, widows and orphans of the war fighters who died during and after the war.The demobilized since descataram than any dialogue with the president, Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister Ali AiresThe demobilized also require the resignation of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Combatants, Lino Joaquim Hama, by the way her husband the governor of Maputo City, Lucilia Hama, whom they accuse of being the promoter of most of the "treacheries" of projects that involve demobilized . They say things that they are entitled by law are being circumvented. They give the example of the ease of bank credit for financing projects.The husband of the governor of Maputo and the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Combatants, Lino Joaquim Hama, is accused by demobilized bureaucratising the whole process of making the demobilized so far have not achieved any credit for their projects. (Bernard Alvaro)

POACHERS SLAUGHTER ELEPHANTS IN NIASSA

So far this year, poachers have killed at least 52 elephants in the Niassa Reserve, in the far north of Mozambique, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”.Last year, the poachers, many of whom have crossed the border from Tanzania, killed 72 elephants in the reserve. Usually, the poachers hack off the tusks, and leave the elephants’ bodies to rot in the bush.Speaking at a rally chaired by Niassa provincial governor, David Malizane, at Matondovela, in Mecula district, where the reserve is located, local residents said they frequently stumbled across the bodies of the slain animals.Malizane urged members of the public to participate actively in the conservation of natural resources, and to denounce those who pillage forestry, mineral and wild life resources.“Some steal timber. Others take out semi-precious stones. We should not allow these traffickers to continue delapidating our wealth”, declared the governor.The major problem facing the authorities in the Niassa reserve is that there are not enough wardens to patrol the vast area of the reserve effectively, and it is very easy for poachers to slip across the long and porous border between Mozambique and Tanzania.

SOUTHERN MOZAMBIQUE AT RISK OF DESERTIFICATION

Satellite images of Mozambique show that the southern interior of the country runs serious risks of desertification.The images were taken under Project “Desert Watch”, which is looking at the problems of desertification in Mozambique, Brazil and Portugal. The project is implemented by the European Space Agency (ESA), under the terms of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification,“The initial conclusions are that there is a likelihood of desertification in the southern interior of Mozambique in the future, and there is information about land degradation in the northern interior in the past”, according to Nuno Duro, of the company Critical Software, which manages Desert Watch.Speaking on Wednesday during a seminar on the economic advantages of land observation technologies, Duro displayed maps which show the southern province of Gaza and certain areas in the western province of Tete as the parts of Mozambique where the likelihood of desertification is strongest.Duro said the research also considered historical information and indicators on the weather, soil, vegetation, and land occupation and use. The images used by Desert Watch come from MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer), an instrument carried by the earth observation satellite, Envisat.The research has yet to be validated by the Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Action (MICOA). It is hoped that the study will allow the government to identify possible measures for combatting desertification.During the seminar, Critical Software representatives also spoke of the advantages of earth observation technologies for managing river basins, forests and agriculture, for urban planning, and for controlling desertification and erosion.“Critical Software is developing critical business, telecommunications, energy, and industrial systems, as well as in military areas such as aeronautics and defence”, said the company’s managing director, Rui Melo. “We are developing dual use technologies (for military and civilian purposes)”.“We are bringing the capacity of observing the planet from space”, he added, “and we explain the importance of these technologies in comparison with manual techniques, given the size of Mozambique’s territory”.

STRIKE AT SUGAR MILL CONTINUES

A strike by about 700 workers in the Xinavane sugar mill in Manhica district, about 90 kilometres north of Maputo, went into its third day on Thursday after a meeting between the strikers and the Provincial Director of Labour, Olga Manjate, failed to produce any agreement.The strikers are demanding a wage rise, payment for overtime worked, and promotion in their professional careers.Their main grievance is that the company, the majority shareholder in which is the South African sugar group Tongaat-Hulett, has not honoured a July agreement to raise wages as from October.One worker, Mario Sitoe, cited in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, said “on 20 October we asked the heads of each area to find out from the local trade union what was the solution to our concern”.“They promised to bring a solution”, he said, “but at the end of the month our wages remained the same and so we stopped working”.A second striker, Queiroz Sevene, insisted that the management had broken an agreement with the workers. “We decided to stop work to put pressure on them to respect the agreement they signed”.The workers say that, although they have other grievances, concerning overtime and promotions, they will return to work as soon as the company honours the July agreement.The Xinavane director of human resources, Francisco Nobrega, tried to downplay the strike, telling “Noticias” that it “only” involved workers at the mill, while workers on the sugar plantation were continuing to work normally.He described the dispute as “an internal problem that may be solved at any moment”. The company was holding meetings with the workers, he added.Olga Manjate confirmed that meetings are taking place, mediated by the Provincial Labour Directorate, in an attempt to find a solution that will satisfy both sides.“We are urging the workers to go back to their jobs while the negotiations are under way, so as not to cause the company losses”, she said. The Labour Directorate would insist on negotiations until consensus is reached.

CABLE THIEVES ARRESTED

The Mozambican police have arrested four people in the central city of Chimoio for the theft of 25 kilometres of copper electric cable, reports the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”.The thieves hacked down wooden electricity pylons on the road from Chimoio to Macate, in Gondola district, and then helped themselves to the cables.The police say they arrested the men on 25 October, when they were carrying the stolen material in a vehicle driven by a man named Celestino Chissambe.Chissambe said he had been contacted to pick up a sick person in Macate town and take him to hospital. But when he arrived he found three people who told him the real reason they wanted to use his services was to transport rolls of cables. Chissambe said he was unaware of the true origin of the cables, and thought they were just “rolls of wire”.
The vehicle had not driven far before it was intercepted by a brigade from the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, accompanied by the police. All four people in the vehicle, including Chissambe, were detained.One of the thieves, Erasmo Manuel, said they had intended to sell the cables for 50 meticais (slightly less than two US dollars) a kilo. There were about ten rolls, each weighing over 15 kilos. So the thieves expected to sell the stolen cables for a total of about 2,250 meticais.The spokesperson for the Manica Provincial Police Command, Belmiro Matadiua, said the preliminary investigations indicate that this was not the first time these men had stolen electrical cables. EDM has warned repeatedly that it suffers enormous losses from the theft of cables, and of metallic parts from pylons and other equipment. The thefts oblige it to divert money which should have gone into expanding the national grid into replacing the stolen materials instead.The cables are often sold to scrap metal merchants – a business which is virtually unregulated.

AUTHORITIES OPTIMISTIC THAT EU AIR BAN WILL BE LIFTED

The Mozambican civil aviation authorities say they expect the European Union to remove Mozambican air companies from the list of airlines banned from flying in European airspace, since the safety problems invoked by the EU have now been overcome.The European Commission issued the ban in April, announcing that “all air carriers certified in Mozambique have been banned from flying into the EU ... because of significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action”.Those deficiencies did not concern Mozambique Airlines (LAM), or any other Mozambican air company, but the regulatory agency, the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM).According to the EU report, a delegation from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) visited Maputo in January to carry out an audit into safety procedures which “reported a large number of significant deficiencies with regard to the capability of the civil aviation authorities of Mozambique to discharge their air safety oversight responsibilities”.The audit found that over 77 per cent of ICAO standards were not effectively implemented. It continued that “on certain critical elements such as the provision for qualified technical personnel, more than 98 per cent of ICAO standards were not effectively implemented”.The EU acknowledged efforts made by IACM to rectify the safety concerns, but considered that, as of April, IACM is “not able to implement and enforce the relevant safety standards on all air carriers under their regulatory control. Therefore, all air carriers certified in Mozambique should be subject to an operating ban”.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the IACM General Director, Alberto Mabjaia, said that audits undertaken in September showed that the irregularities detected by the ICAO have been overcome, and so the country has been removed from the ICAO black list.“We have resolved the fundamental problems we had during the ICAO audit of 2010”, said Mabjaia. Since Mozambique is no longer on the ICAO black list, “we expect that the EU will now take a decision about the banning of Mozambican air companies”.The ban did not result in the cancellation of any flights, because the only company flying to Europe is LAM, and its Maputo-Lisbon flights were exempt because they are operated by a Portuguese company, EuroAtlantic.Nonetheless, Mabjaia believed the EU ban had a serious impact on the Mozambican economy. The ban “causes constraints, both for the companies affected and for the country. When such bans are imposed, European citizens are advised not to travel in the flights of the countries affected, so ticket sales fall, and the number of foreign tourists visiting the country also falls”.European citizens may mistakenly believe that the ban means that LAM and other Mozambican air companies are unsafe. In fact, LAM’s safety record is enviable. On 26 October, LAM received the prized IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certificate for the third consecutive time, following an audit held by IATA (International Air Traffic Association) in June.LAM received the IOSA certificate for the first time in 2007, and was then recertified in 2009 and now again in 2011. Three consecutive safety certificates indicate that IATA certainly thinks it is safe for passengers to take LA flights.Since LAM was set up, in 1980 it has not had a single fatal accident. And since 1989 there have been no accidents of any kind involving LAM planes.Some major European airlines can make no such boast. For example, Air France has had nine accidents since 1980, four of them with fatalities, and a total death toll of 351.

MORE THAN TWO MILLION VISA CARDS IN MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique is one of the five African countries with the largest growth in the use of Visa debit and credit cards this year.Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Thursday, the Visa general director for sub-Saharan Africa, Jabu Basopo, said that the number of cards issued by Visa clients in Mozambique has now reached over two million. The number of transactions using Visa cards between June 2010 and June 2011 was 33 per cent greater than in the previous year. Only four other African countries had registered similar levels of growth, said Basopo, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Angola and Morocco.Visa cards are now available from almost all the 15 commercial banks operating in Mozambique. They allow people holding accounts in these banks to withdraw money at cash machines in any other bank, anywhere in the world, that accepts Visa cards, and to make purchases electronically in shops and other establishments across Mozambique, and in most other countries. The Mozambican cards had been used, in ATMs (cash machines), and at POSs (Points of Sale), more than 2.6 billion times in the year under analysis.“Electronic payments are important for developing a strong and modern economy”, said Basopo. “Visa products promote transparency and responsibility. They reduce transaction costs and they cut the size of the informal and grey economy, thus helping to stimulate economic growth and employment rates”.Visa has waged campaigns to make the public aware of the advantages of paying for their purchases by card, rather than carrying around large amounts of cash. The director of Visa in Mozambique, Christian Bwakira, said that such campaigns will continue in coming years to encourage greater use of cards. In cooperation with the banks, Visa also intends to invest in training bank staff in risk management, in order to avoid the use of Visa cards to commit bank frauds.

RUBBISH COLLECTION FEE TRIPLED IN NAMPULA

Residents of the northern Mozambican city of Nampula are angered at the decision of the municipal authorities to triple the rubbish collection fee, reports Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.The increase sounds exorbitant, because previously the municipality had been charging the derisory sum of ten meticais (about 37 US cents) a month for garbage collection. As from this month, the fee rises by 200 per cent to 30 meticais.Residents who spoke to “Noticias” say they were taken by surprise because the increase was not properly publicized. They also ask why they should pay anything at all given the apparent incapacity of Nampula City Council to keep the city minimally clean.“You can see it in this neighbourhood”, said a resident named Alfredo Manuelino. “These heaps or rubbish didn’t appear today. They’ve been here for a long time. But at the end of the month we’re charged 30 meticais. The City Council is swindling us”.It is hard to avoid paying the fee, since it is added onto electricity bills. The municipality says that, despite the complaints, it will not reverse its decision. “This was the decision taken by the members of the Municipal Assembly, and the money is intended to improve the regular collection of the solid waste that is produced every day in this city”, said Abdul Paulo, of the city council’s public relations office.Paulo claimed that work had been done to publicise the measure, including among the Nampula business associations, so he saw no reason for anyone to claim they were taken by surprise. But he admitted that there are indeed “serious difficulties” in collecting rubbish on time, particularly in the outlying neighbourhoods of the city.Paulo promised that better days will come. “The municipality is continuing and will continue to work to solve the problem of the accumulation of rubbish in Nampula”, he declared.

NOBODY DYING OF HUNGER IN MOZAMBIQUE

Nobody is dying of hunger in Mozambique, according to the National Director of Agriculture, Momed Vala, interviewed by AIM in the central city of Chimoio.Vala was reacting to last week’s report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which described the food security situation in Mozambique as “alarming”.This classification represents an improvement on last year’s report, in which the IFPRI described the Mozambican situation as “extremely alarming”. The IFPRI reports divide countries into five categories according to their levels of hunger – these are “low”, “moderate”, “serious”, “alarming” and “extremely alarming”. These classifications are based on three indicators – the proportion of the population that is malnourished, the percentage of children under five years old who are under weight, and the infant mortality rate.Even though the report concedes that Mozambique has made significant advances in food security, Vala objected to the term “alarming”. He pointed out that there is no famine in Mozambique, and that in recent years there have been no deaths at all from hunger.“Nobody can prove that any Mozambicans have starved to death”, he said. “But I agree that we have problems of malnutrition in the countryside – on that we can speak with one voice”.In the two most populous provinces, Nampula and Zambezia, “there is nobody who does not have access to cassava to eat”, Vala said. But he admitted that cassava alone only provides carbohydrates, and if children do not eat vitamin rich foods as well, they will grow up malnourished. Vala regarded this as a problem of changing rural dietary habits. “When I came to Zambezia as provincial director of agriculture, I had to wage a titanic struggle to persuade people to eat tomatoes”, he recalled. “There was no culture of eating tomatoes, they were afraid of eating tomatoes. But today the markets are overflowing with tomatoes. It was hard work, but it was a worthwhile investment”.There have also been important dietary changes in Nampula. In the coastal districts of Angoche and Moma, people used to eat maize or cassava porridge with dried fish and nothing else. Today, however, they have learnt to add vegetable sauces, providing the meal with vitamins and other micro-nutrients.Analysts from outside often paid no attention to these changes, said Vala, but the government thought it essential to step up nutritional education, particularly in rural areas, so that people would learn how to improve their diet.Vala admitted that there are isolated cases of hunger in areas that are not appropriate for agricultural production. This was the case, for example, with the arid district of Chigubo in the southern province of Gaza.“In inhospitable areas such as Chigubo, there are always a few households who are short of food, but that’s not alarming”, said Vala. “We can walk across this entire country and we will not find any alarming situation”. The latest assessment of the government’s Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat (SETSAN), made in April, was that some 300,000 Mozambicans were in a vulnerable situation.“Vulnerability is not the same thing as hunger”, said Vala. “It’s the case, for instance, of someone who hoped to harvest 20 sacks of maize, but because of pests only harvests 12 sacks. That household may have to tighten its belt, but it’s not starving”.

AIRPORT POLICE AND CUSTOMS OFFICERS SUSPENDED

Several policemen and customs officers have been suspended from duty at Maputo International Airport, and are being questioned in connection with drug trafficking, according to a report in Saturday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.The General Inspector of the Interior Ministry, Zeferino Zandamela, told the paper there were strong suspicions that these officers were involved in corrupt schemes that allowed people carrying drugs, particularly cocaine, to enter the country without being searched.The corrupt scheme is believed to have been in place for a long time. In exchange for turning a blind eye to drug trafficking, the policemen and customs officers concerned received large sums of money.They were replaced by a new team at the airport several weeks ago. Almost immediately drugs were discovered – particularly in the baggage of passengers who had come from India via Addis Ababa, and took the Ethiopian Airways flight to Maputo. Since July, drugs have been seized at the airport almost every week. The people arrested for drug trafficking have included Mozambicans, Zambians and South Africans.The police believe that cocaine was entering the country by this route regularly, but until the change of the police and customs team, the passengers carrying the drugs had been nodded through without any awkward questions being asked. Drugs carried in suitcases should be easy to detect, since all luggage of disembarking passengers must pass through scanners. Zandamela did not reveal how many policemen and customs officers had been suspended. “The most important thing is to continue the struggle against drug trafficking, rather than ask why it is only know that we are able to detect many cases in a short space of time”, he said. “It’s true that we’ve never had a situation like this before, and now we have to ascertain whether our colleagues were taking bribes to let the drugs through. The most important thing is the work we are doing now to neutralise the traffickers and prevent more drugs from entering the country”.

FUNHALOURO DISTRICT CONNECTED TO NATIONAL GRID

The district of Funhalouro, in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane, is now receiving electricity from the national grid, based on the Cahora Bassa dam, on the Zambezi river.Funhalouro was connected to the grid last week via a 139 kilometre long medium voltage transmission line, running from Malaia, on the country’s main north-south highway, to Funhalouro town and on to the locality of Mbanguine.With Funhalouro on the grid, this leaves only Mabote and Panda districts in Inhambane still to be connected. According to Duarte Inhalo, director for the Inhambane operational area of the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, tests were undertaken on the Funhalouro line last week, with positive results. Some finishing work is now being done, after which, clients in Funhalouro town will start to receive electricity from the grid in their homes and workplaces. “We can say that Funhalouro is now linked to the national grid”, Inhalo told reporters, “but we are still working to ensure that Funhalouro receives good quality electricity”.The project to electrify Funhalouro and Mabote districts, including the construction of 22 transformer post, covering over 500 new clients, is budgeted at about 30 million US dollars.The electrification of Panda is covered by a separate project, and involves a 60 kilometre transmission line and seven new transformer posts. 620 new clients will be connected in Panda.It is expected that both Mabote and Panda will be on the national grid by the end of the year.

SINGLE ID NUMBER PROJECT TO BE LAUNCHED NATIONWIDE

Mozambican authorities on Friday announced the successful completion of the first phase of the Single Citizen's Identification Number (NUIC) project, which covered 4,700 people in the southern city of Matola.The project will now be launched nationwide, and is expected to cover five million people over the next five years.NUIC is a system whereby every citizen will be identifiable with only one number for their entire life. This will end the current system whereby each document owned by the same person - identity card, passport, birth certificate, driver's licence, single tax number (NUIT), voting card, and others - has a different number.By the end of the project the authorities expect to cover the entire Mozambican population of about 20.2 million inhabitants at a cost of 40 million US dollars.According to the National Director of Registry and Notary Services, Arlindo Magaia, the registration brigades will now be deployed in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, and proceed gradually to cover the whole country.Describing the system, Magaia explained, “when a baby is born it is registered and issued with one single number to cover all documents. As well as collecting biographical data, the system also captures biometric data”.However, the project is facing a number of challenges. According to Magaia these include the lack of adequate infrastructure, electricity and internet services in some parts of the country, to carry out the process.“It is complicated, but it is a challenge worth tackling due to the importance of the registry for citizens. The plan is to register every citizen”, he said. Magaia explained that one of the advantages is that it will no longer be necessary to carry out the periodic updating of the electoral register because the Registry Office will already have all of the data.

The President of the ruling Frelimo party, Armando Guebuza, has warned that the discovery of new opportunities and development potential from the land and subsoil must not erode self-esteem and the culture of work.Guebuza, who is also President of Mozambique, was speaking on Sunday in the city of Matola to three thousand activists who were attending the closing ceremony of the three-day Frelimo national cadre conference.President Guebuza pointed out that in the euphoria caused by the good news coming from the development of the country’s natural resources “we may be lead to think that the resources extracted from the land, such as wood and agro-produce, and from the subsoil, such as coal and natural gas, are going to give us the income we need to live”.However, the President reminded those attending the conference that development is gained by work and not just given to outstretched hands.He also warned of the danger of impatience arising from the time gap between the revelation of a discovery and its effective exploitation, which is “not a few days”.According to President Guebuza, there are still some who believe that the exploitation of such resources will bring jobs to all Mozambicans. However, he stressed “this cannot be true, and never has been true anywhere in the world”.The President also warned of the danger that these discoveries could eat away at the main achievement of Mozambique over the last fifty years: national unity.He pointed out that the revenues from these resources must serve the development of all of Mozambique and not just the localities, districts or provinces in which they were discovered.However, President Guebuza recognised that without doubt the local community hosting a particular project must benefit. He stressed that “they should feel that such a project contributes to improving their social conditions, generates jobs and creates business opportunities”.Reflecting on the cadre conference, President Guebuza welcomed the fact that it was characterised by frank, open and inclusive debates.The main task of the conference was to discuss and feedback on the report of the preparatory office for the 10th Frelimo Congress. The Congress will be held in the city of Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, from 23 to 28 September 2012.