The Norwegian group Det Norske Olse-Selskap (DNO International) is abandoning oil and gas exploration in the Inhaminga block, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala.According to a source in the Mozambican National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH), DNO is giving up because none of the four wells it drilled turned up any finds of hydrocarbons in commercially viable amounts.DNO-International invested about 30 million US dollars in the exploration. The drilling found some natural gas, but not in significant quantities. The Inhaminga block is onshore and covers a vast area of Sofala, including the districts of Cheringoma, Caia, Gorongosa and Maringue. Earlier work by DNO in the districts of Dondo and Muanza, also in Sofala, included aero-magnetic surveys, the acquisition of 2D seismic studies, geochemical sampling, and the opening of three wells. But here too the results were negative.

35 state officials were dismissed, or were expelled from the state apparatus in the central province of Sofala, from 2010 to March of this year for violating the norms that govern the Mozambican public administration.According to the permanent secretary of the Sofala provincial government, Elisa Somane, cited in the Beira daily paper “Diario be Mocambique”, in 2010 there were 93 disciplinary proceedings. These led to 14 dismissals and 11 expulsions (an expulsion is a much more serious penalty, since the person concerned can never be employed by the state again).35 of those accused were demoted, seven were fined and ten received warnings. Six were acquitted and the other cases are ongoing.Somane who was speaking in Beira on Friday, on the occasion of African Civil Service Day, added that in the first three months of 2011, there were 29 disciplinary proceedings which have resulted in ten expulsions.Somane said that the struggle against corruption is a battle that can be won by members of the public administration. “Let us be incorruptible in the exercise of our duties”, she urged.She said that in Sofala 18,364 people are employed by the state. Of these, the majority (11,937) are teachers and other education workers..

Sometimes life seems like a circle, around a system that gives us the impression that we are always doing the same things, but life is always different. Every day the sun will give way to night, get in and out of sleep for our work, it sometimes seems that we are in a rut but we know that every day is different from those already live. Well and that despite their regularity, every year, I invited some friends and acquaintances to celebrate our anniversary, remember the day we were born. In celebration of our anniversary, we also celebrate all that we already live, the things we create throughout our lives. Perhaps our life was not only joy, but we are happy for the things we have achieved and even our friends want us to have many years of life. Well, this week, today we celebrate the anniversary of the Mozambican state, we celebrate our separation from Portugal, is the anniversary of Mozambique. And this festival is held every year on June 25.
But what is Mozambique?
Mozambique consists of a population of nearly 21 million people living on the edge of the Indian Ocean. This is a way to tell who's birthday is June 25th. Also we can say that Mozambique is a nation that continues to form, build, because it still has not grown all you can, that is a beautiful story and that is becoming more and more beautiful. It is a story full of struggle for life better every year. Today is the National Independence Day, the day call on all those who knew so knew this dream suggest to Mozambicans, and full of sacrifices, broke the shackles of colonialism, of late, the human suffering and underdevelopment.
The celebration of Independence Day should be a stimulus, a proof that we can win, even against the greatest challenges and the worst adversity.
The Parents need each and every one to be a developed country. The present and future generations can not and should not be afraid to face the risk or have doubts about the future. Turn defeats, setbacks, but you can win when the battle and for their dignity, freedom, democracy and development.
 In the 36th anniversary of Mozambique, sing the National Anthem in honor of the beloved motherland the ability of many men and women, our compatriots, whether they are simple, illustrious and anonymous, who persistently struggle for a better future.
May each of us and all of us together, has many years of life, and that is our birthday party every year more beautiful and joyful.
 
Mozambique, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

No right to defense

The secretary general of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), Luis Boavida, was yesterday tried in Pebane, in Zambezia province, in an operation by surprise with the contours of political influence over the judiciary. Boavida went to Pebane MDM on a mission and was captured and brought to trial without having ever been heard on record in preparatory instruction. Has not had the right to appoint a lawyer. He was tried for alleged non-viability of the census by a brigade of the electoral registration process and dual enrollment, both of pending cases in 2004, about six years. Luis Boavida, moved Tuesday to Pebane order to perform the installation work of the bases of the MDGs (Democratic Movement of Mozambique), but yesterday morning was intercepted, but not before he had gone through a process of education and the other phases that typically follow the court proceedings. It was never heard as requiring the Code of Criminal Procedure, in force in the country Boavida, was taken aback when he was called to respond to Defendant, a fact that not being arrested, has never before been subject to interrogation, which normally should have taken place in pre-trial preparation by prosecutors, who did not even to be held. "It is a process from forged and addicted to prevent Luis Boavida engaged in activities that MDM has just awarded him," accused the president of MDM, Simango in an interview with Canalmoz - Reuters and the Mozambique Channel - Weekly. The most ridiculous, the second president of MDM is that there are a number of prerequisites that have been violated by the court of Pebane. The legal right to assist the defendant through counsel was denied. "It is a normal rule of law that the defendant is timely notified of the process that runs against him, and he is given the opportunity to challenge, within useful time period, benefiting from the appointment of a lawyer assistant. But this did not happen. It is understood that this is a plot engineered by the Frelimo party, to undermine the political activities of the MDGs, "said Simango, president of the party that Luis Boavida became Secretary-General for about two weeks, to be named, the last National Council on Pemba, to that position after the resignation of former GS, Ismael Mussa. Simango said he was amazed at the speed of this process, which refers to the time when Luis Boavida was a member of Renamo. "In Beira, a process that took place there in 2008 that remains unresolved. This is the case of Virgil and Mouzinho Mazoca Antonio, 24 and 58 years old respectively, both residents in the district of Cheringoma in Inhaminga. These were caught in flagrante delicto on the morning of July 22, a scheme of double registration of voters that they own the second involves the hand of "comrades of the party in power. This process is stopped. Also in School "American Board", ie the registration brigade No. 13, was the registration of voters passed 12 of the districts of Maringue, Caia and Chemba. These are cases that fell into the waters of cod, only work because the courts to punish the opposition, "accused the president of MDM. Simango called the magistrates involved in this case to consciousness, arguing that peace in Mozambique is conditional on good governance and transparency of justice, taking into account that these are essential to its credibility. The case of Luis Boavida sentence and has not had the nullity is natural that it will raise resource. (Adelino Timothy)

ATTORNEY-GENERAL WARNS OF THREAT FROM ORGANISED CRIME

Mozambique’s Attorney-General, Augusto Paulino, has warned it is likely that the real estate business in Mozambique is being used for money laundering.Giving a speech dealing with organised crime to the police academy (ACIPOL) on Monday, Paulino pointed out that the Mozambican economy is too small “to support buildings of the size of those that are springing up in the major cities, particularly in the capital”.Paulino gave no further details, but it is indeed true that a surprisingly large number of new hotels, enormous office blocks, and palatial private mansions have appeared in Maputo in recent years.He feared that states are not interested in serious investigations of money-laundering, particularly when the money being laundered comes from drugs, “because no state wants to be linked with the easy emergence and growth of these criminal activities”.Paulino noted that, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the three most profitable forms of organised crime are trafficking in drugs, in weapons and in people. In such trafficking Mozambique seems largely to act as a transit country.Mozambique cannot be a market for large quantities of illicit drugs, he said, but it seems to lie on the route of drug traffickers. He noted examples of large drug seizures, some of which have never been explained. The largest was the 40 tonnes of hashish, disguised as cashew nuts, and seized in two trucks in 1998. Only a minor player, a man accompanying the drugs, was ever brought to trial, and to this day nobody will say who imported the hashish, or where it was being sent.As for trafficking in people, Paulino pointed out that the traffickers are sending Asian migrants via Mozambique to work in South Africa. There was also sexual trafficking, shown most clearly in a case currently before the South African courts of a brothel owner, Mozambique national Aldina dos Santos (more commonly known as “Diana”), who lured Mozambican girls into sexual slavery in South Africa, by promising them jobs.“Organised crime”, said Paulino, “attempts, and unfortunately succeeds, in penetrating the entrails of the legislative, executive and judicial power. It penetrates the police machinery and shackles those who are dedicated to the cause of the majority. There are men who, from the weakness of their soul, fall on the long march”.It was “from the key centres of power” that organised crime operates, said Paulino, giving as examples the Italian, Russian and American mafias, the Colombian drug cartels, and the Japanese Yakuza. He did not mention exactly how the phenomenon applies to Mozambique, but the warning was clear enough.Paulino also warned that “corruption and the dilapidation of public resources, fraud, capital flight and fiscal evasion undermine security, economic stability and good governance”.And sometimes foreign donors do not help, he added. “Congresses and seminars are organised to debate corruption and, in some cases, those financing the fight against corruption themselves become corruptors when they impose strange conditions on aid for the beneficiary”, he accused.To confront organised crime, the police need modern resources, said Paulino – but the shortage of resources in poor countries, leads to the available resources being channeled to what are regarded as “productive sectors” and since the police, the courts and the prosecution services are considered unproductive, “they receive fewer resources”.On top of this came procedural red tape which hindered the fight against modern financial and computer crimes. Paulino noted that the procedures for dealing with counterfeit and pirated goods are “slow, heavy, obsolete and anachronistic”.Modern police training, he added, should have a strong digital component. Police should learn how to use instruments such as Google Earth, in order to visualize strategic places without making direct and personal reconnaissance.“In this fight against crime, there is no half-way house”, warned Paulino. “Either we win, or the criminals win”.

IMF BACKS POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY

he Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed has backed the Mozambican government’s latest Poverty Reduction Action Plan (PARP), and has insisted that fighting inflation remains the top macro-economic priority.The board met in Washington on Friday to complete its second review of Mozambique’s progress under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI). A PSI does not involve any IMF loans: instead, it is a supposedly voluntary arrangement under which countries such as Mozambique seek IMF endorsement for their policies. Mozambique is now into its second three year PSI. The current PSI was initially approved in June 2010.A statement issued at the end of the meeting by IMF Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, Nemat Sadik, praised Mozambique’s economic performance. “Helped by appropriate macroeconomic policies, the economy proved resilient to the global economic crisis”, she said. “The country is poised for an acceleration of economic growth over the medium term, reflecting expanded production in the natural resource sector and stepped-up public infrastructure investment”.Sadik declared that the fight against inflation “should be the key priority for macroeconomic policy in the short run. The authorities’ policies aimed at bringing about an early decline in core inflation are welcome, and the authorities should stand ready to tighten policies further should inflationary pressures persist”.The PARP, Sadik said, “contains the right ingredients to allow growth to become more inclusive. The PARP’s emphasis on broadening the country’s productive and export base and creating employment opportunities is appropriate, but determination is needed in implementing the strategy”. She described as “welcome” the government’s pledge to phase out the current fuel subsidy, and urged that it “should move forward in expanding well-targeted and affordable social protection systems”.In implementing investment strategy, the statement warned, “it will be important to continue to pursue a prudent borrowing policy to safeguard macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability. Efforts to strengthen tax administration should be sustained and new revenue sources tapped, including in particular from the natural resource sector. The authorities are also well advised to continue implementing key structural reforms in debt management and investment planning, as well as public financial management”.The IMF also welcomed improvements in banking supervision, but called for “more resolve” in fighting against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

VALE ENTERS PARTNERSHIP TO PRODUCE LIQUID FUEL

The Brazilian mining company Vale is to enter into a partnership with the Portuguese company SGC Energia to build an industrial unit to convert coal into liquid fuel in Moatize district, in the central Mozambican province of Tete.According to Tuesday’s issue of the Portuguese daily newspaper “Diario Economico”, the facility will use coal from Vale’s open cast mine in Moatize.High quality coking coal will be exported, while thermal coal will be burnt at a planned power station to produce 300 megawatts of electricity. The remaining, low grade, coal with high ash content will be converted into liquid fuel.In May, Vale’s chairperson Roger Agnelli estimated that a liquefied fuel processing plant could produce 300 million litres of fuel a year, of which about half would be used by Vale in Mozambique. The rest would be sold on the domestic fuel market, thus reducing Mozambique’s need to import liquid fuels.SGC Energia is involved in developing renewable energy projects, and is currently working in Mozambique in the Enerterra jatropha project. This is a project to produce biodiesel from the seeds of the jatropha plant, grown in an area of almost 19,000 hectares in Cheringoma district, in the central province of Sofala.

GUEBUZA PRAISES AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION OF NIASSA FARMERS

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Monday encouraged peasant farmers in the Muapula administrative post, in Maua district, in the northernmost province of Niassa, to remain committed to raising their agricultural production, and thus contribute to the eradication of poverty.He was addressing a rally in Muapula that marked the start of a working visit to Niassa as part of his “open and inclusive presidency”.   In the latter stages of the war of destabilisation, Muapula saw serious clashes between the Mozambican armed forces and the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels who set up their provicial base in this area.But with the end of the war in 1992, residents of Muapula were able to farm the land in safety, and guarantee self-sufficiency in food production. Muapula is regarded as the granary of Maua district, and its farmers have produced excellent harvests of maize, sorghum, cassava and sweet potato, as well as of tobacco, which is the main cash crop.Livestock farmers have bred milk cattle, and Guebuza praised them for turning some of this production into yoghurt. This he regarded as living proof of the possibility of forcing poverty onto the defensive.Guebuza said there are still people who believe that poverty can never be overcome, but Muapula is proof of how wrong they are. Evidence that peasant farmers in Muapula are improving their living standards can be seen in their brick houses, their motorcycles, and the large amounts of maize and other crops that they have harvested. Guebuza recalled that the day of the rally was also the birthday, 91 years ago, on 20 June 1920, of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder and first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), regarded as “the architect of national unity”.Guebuza noted that, despite his doctorate, and despite his prestigious job at the United Nations, Mondlane abandoned what promised to be a brilliant career, in order to unite Mozambicans and show them the path to victory over Portuguese colonialism.At the rally, Muapula residents asked Guebuza for an ambulance so that seriously ill people can be evacuated quickly to the nearest hospital, and a maternity facility plus a waiting house where mothers-to-be could wait for the birth. They also wanted their administrative post to be brought within mobile phone coverage.A further concern expressed was that elephants sometimes invade farmers’ fields and destroy their crops. Earlier this year one rogue elephant even entered Maua town, causing panic as it chased children through the streets.But perhaps the most serious complaint was of a lack of transparency in the management of the District Development Fund (FDD) in Maua. When one resident mentioned this, he was greeted with whooping and applause. The FDD is still commonly known as “the seven million”, because it started life in 2006 as a transfer of seven million meticais (about 241,000 US dollars) from the central state budget to each of the 128 districts. The money was to be lent to groups and individuals with viable projects that could boost food production and create jobs.As at all the other rallies he has addressed during his “open presidency”, Guebuza did not promise immediate solutions, but guaranteed that the problems raised would all be studied. Those relating to physical infrastructure, such as maternity facilities and mobile phone masts, were already on the government’s agenda, he said.

BOANE FARMERS WANT MEANS OF TRANSPORT

Farmers in Boane district, in Maputo province, have asked the authorities for means of transport so that they can take their crops to local markets.The farmers made this appeal in the locality of Gueguegue, during a rally addressed by the First Lady, Maria da Luz Guebuza, who began a four day tour of Maputo province on Monday.According to Lina Macie, the chairperson of a local association of farmers, support from the government and its partners has permitted a considerable increase in agricultural production, but the lack of transport is a brake on any further development.“We walk long distances to reach our fields, because we have no transport to get there”, said Macie. “At harvest time, we can only manage to carry one sack of crops on our head, and much of the production remains in the fields. We are asking you to transmit this concern to the government when you return to Maputo”. In response, the First Lady, did not promise any immediate solution, but said she was happy to hear of the efforts made by Boane farmers to increase their production.
“We can see that there is a major effort by the communities to step up their agricultural production”, she said. “We have to produce our own food. It is we Mozambicans who are going to do away with hunger and poverty”.

INDIA WILLING TO ASSIST FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY

India is willing to assist Mozambique in the fight against piracy, as long as the Mozambican government specifies the areas in which it needs help.This guarantee was given in Maputo on Monday by the new military attaché at the Indian embassy, Prashant Chowdhry. He said the question of piracy in the Indian Ocean is also a matter of concern for the Indian government, and for the international community in general. “We share Mozambique’s concern about piracy, because piracy is a threat”, said Chowdhry, speaking to reporters after he had delivered his letters of accreditation to Defence Minister Filipe Nyussi. “We are willing to make available patrol boats, warships and aircraft for maritime inspection”.“We are open to supporting Mozambique, if the government tells us what are the specific area it would like us to work in”, he added. It was the Indian navy which in March rescued 12 Mozambicans who had been kidnapped by Somali pirates. The pirates seized the Mozambican fishing ship, the “Vega 5”, on 27 December, took it into Somali waters, and turned it into a pirate mother ship from which pirate skiffs attacked merchant shipping in the Arabian Sea.Two Indian warships engaged the “Vega 5” in a gun battle on 12 March, during which a fire broke out on board the Mozambican ship, and pirates and crew members alike jumped overboard. The Indian ships picked up 74 people from the “Vega 5” – 61 prates and 13 members of the original crew, 12 Mozambicans and one Indonesian. A further seven Mozambicans and two Indonesians are missing, feared lost at sea.Manuel Mazuze, assistant national director for defence policy in the Defence Ministry, said that Mozambique and India can cooperate in protecting shipping in the Indian Ocean, and in military training.Chowdhry is the first military attache that the Indian authorities have posted to Mozambique. Mazuze said his appointment was a sign of the high level of cooperation in the defence area between India and Mozambique.He was one of four military attaches accredited by Nyussi – the others are from South Africa, Botswana and Brazil.

HUGE COST OF SABOTAGE TO ELECTRICITY COMPANY

Theft, sabotage and illegal connections cost Mozambique’s publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, more than 50 million meticais (1.73 million US dollars at current exchange rate) in 2010, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily, “Noticias”, citing Paulo Fernandes of the EDM Board of Directors. Speaking in the central city of Quelimane, during a meeting of the Inter-Sector Commission on Preventing the Vandalisation of Public Infrastructures, Fernandes said acts of sabotage (usually committed in order to steal cables or metallic parts from pylons) have serious implications for the quality of the service that EDM supplies to its clients.It also obliges the company to mobilise resources to repair the damage at the expense of projects to expand the national grid.Stolen electrical material is sold to scrap metal merchants, who then export it by land and sea. “Controlling this business is difficult, because the people involved in the scrap metal trade are licensed”, said Fernandes.Some days ago, he revealed, the Zimbabwean authorities seized two truck loads of stolen electrical material that had crossed the border at Machipanda. These were trucks that had left Mozambique through an official border post, and nobody had stopped them.Fernandes demanded that the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT), which is responsible for customs inspections at the borders, should be much more rigorous in controlling the goods that are leaving the country. A police spokesman at the meeting confirmed that thieves arrested in connection with the sabotage have turned out to be former employees of EDM (retired workers, or people sacked from the company). The meeting was also attended by representatives of the rail and port company, CFM, the telecommunications company, TDM, the airport company ADM, and the government’s Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund, FIPAG. All suffer from similar problems of theft and sabotage.The stolen material sold to scrap metal merchants is often melted down and turned into pots, pans, bedsteads or even snares for poaching.

The consortium formed by the Italian oil company, ENI, and the Portuguese Galp-Energia expects to start drilling for oil and gas in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, by September.ENI holds 70 per cent of the shares in this consortium and Galp-Energia the remaining 30 per cent. The contract the Mozambican government has signed with the consortium envisages an exploration period of eight years, followed by 30 years for the production phase, on the assumption that hydrocarbons are discovered.According to the general manager of Galp-Energia, Carlos Ferreira, cited in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, drilling should have started in May, but was postponed first to June and now to September, to allow time for the arrival of all the drilling equipment.The consortium will be drilling in waters that are up to 2,600 metres deep. This is much deeper than the wells drilled further north by the Houston-based company Anadarko. The six offshore wells drilled by Anaarko are in about 1,500 metres of water.The ENI-GALP consortium can take encouragement from the fact that four of the Anadarko wells made large discoveries of natural gas. Anadarko believes that the gas finds in its concession are sufficiently large to justify investment in a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility.Anadarko also found oil, but not in commercially viable amounts. But the search for oil in the Rovuma Basin is continuing.Other companies granted concessions in the Rovuma Basin are Norsk Hydro of Norway and Petronas of Malaysia.

MOZAMBICANS WILL “CLIMB THE THIRD MOUNTAIN”

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday urged Mozambicans to remain firm in “climbing the third mountain”.Speaking at a rally in Matema, an outlying neighbourhood of the western city of Tete, Guebuza said that in recent memory Mozambicans have already climbed two mountains – the first was the struggle to win independence and defeat Portuguese colonial rule, while the second was to win peace and end the war of destabilisation.The third “mountain” was the current struggle against poverty. When that mountain is climbed, he predicted, Mozambicans will embrace each other joyfully, scarcely able to believe the results they have achieved. Guebuza pointed out that Portuguese colonialism lasted for 500 years. Overcoming it was not an easy matter since initially there was no unity among Mozambicans. They could only reach the top of this mountain, he argued, after Eduardo Mondlane, described as the “architect of national unity’ had created a national movement, the key to success in the struggle against colonial rule.Mondlane, the founder and first President of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), taught Mozambicans the value of unity, argued Guebuza, and the result was the triumphant conquest of the summit of the first mountain with the proclamation of independence in 1975.The second mountain was the war imposed on Mozambique by the racist regimes of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. The values of unity again spoke loud and clear, Guebuza said, and allowed Mozambicans to end the bloodshed and opt for reconciliation instead of war. “When Mozambicans finally concluded that they were all brothers with the same destiny, they said ‘’no’’ to war which soaks up so much blood from children, young people, and adults, who all had a role to play in the construction of the country”, said the President. Now Mozambicans were facing the third mountain, that of the battle against poverty. Guebuza was sure that the moment would come when “having a decent house, access to hospitals and schools and other services and goods will not be any luxury, but will be something very normal”.“We have to get there”, he said. “There are obstacles, and so we have to define our strategies, including the building of roads, schools, public works, the extension of the electricity grid to the districts”.At the rally Guebuza, as usual during such events, invited people to raise their concerns. One complaint from a Tete resident claimed that that the mega-projects under way in the province have an “English face”, since a condition for workers to be recruited is that they must speak English,This is entirely untrue – indeed the first of the gigantic coal mining projects to start production is owned, not by an anglophone company, but by Vale, a company from Brazil which, like Mozambique, is a Portuguese speaking country. There were calls for priority in recruitment to be given, not just to Mozambicans, but to people from Tete – the speakers were apparently unaware that this is already the official position both of Vale, and of the second company already developing coal mines, Riversdale Mining of Australia.There were also complaints that foreigners are paid more than Mozambicans on the mining projects and that the foreigners hold the management positions.Guebuza made no promises of immediate solutions to any of the problems raised. He said it is the duty of the state to protect Mozambicans, and that the complaints made at the rally would be carefully analysed.Guebuza has now ended his “open and inclusive presidency” in Tete province, and on Monday he begins a working visit to the northernmost province of Niassa..

Guebuza to send messages back to their detractors

The president, Armando Guebuza, who is visiting the province of Tete, in the 'Open and Inclusive Presidency' (PAI), returned to send messages to those who exclusively have dedicated themselves to speak only of the errors of their Government and make it so they called the 'destructive'. To these, Armando Guebuza took a few adjectives not very friendly. He called them 'chattering and intrigues. "It was during a rally in the town of Mangan, administrative Ulónguè station, in Tete province, where Guebuza a few minutes to answer those who, in his view, just keep talking about what is wrong and what's good. It is this group of people, according to Guebuza, who has been rumor that poverty is not being won and will never be won. "During this great struggle against poverty there are people who try to discourage us. They say that poverty is not being won. For them everything is bad, nothing is improving. In fact, they do not like to work, spend their lives gossiping, "Guebuza said adding that" they do so with the aim of disrupting those who actually are fighting poverty, and in this case the Government and people of Mozambique. "In fact, Guebuza said in the same rally, that poverty is' suffer hard knocks' that are being inflicted by the Government and people of Mozambique to the feeling that one should have right now is hope and courage to continue on ' Epic struggle '.To require that only the government and do not contribute to constructive ideas, Guebuza called them the 'impatient' and compared them with individuals who love to eat "so that food is ready." "There are people impatient. Are equal to those who put food in the pan to prepare and light a fire as soon as they want to eat without the food is ready, why not have the patience to wait for the food cook. They are lazy because they actually do not like to cook, "said Guebuza.
In Ulónguè Guebuza also heard the concerns of local people. He asked for ten players, on behalf of the inhabitants of that region, presenting issues that afflict them. All interventions have a common denominator: agriculture, health and employment. The Head of State asked the inhabitants of Ulónguè investments in agriculture through the provision of agricultural inputs, construction of dams to feed any irrigation system and agro-processing industry. There are many reasons that have made agriculture the center of interventions. Is that in that region there are many that are underutilized agricultural potential. What is produced, and that is very good quality, if not rot for lack of drainage system, they said, is sold in neighboring Malawi, tell if the price of bananas. By the way, are, among others, products such as potato reno, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, he was given poor treatment in Maputo and that are imported from neighboring South Africa, after a paradox.On the issue of health, the inhabitants of Ulónguè, especially the hidden communities, want hospitals, in addition to expanding the health network itself. Some dentists want in health care. There are even those who go to Malawi after a dentist who will help you get a tooth pulled in all cases.Young people urged expansion of the school and employment. Again and again the issue of employment. Throughout the country it is.All these are issues that the head of state promised solutions, which, incidentally, he said, should come from government and community involvement.Today in the pursuit of 'Open presidency' and also 'inclusive', Armando Guebuza Chifunde visit the district, where a rally will guide people who certainly discuss the issue on Monday. (Matthias Guenter, Tete)

What will be the detonator?

They came to us last week, the usually very well informed source close to the epicenter and government information that put us even more concerned than ever about the prospect of the walk that day comes around. They blew us that the very high levels of the system already recognizes and speaks with great concern a deepening financial crisis and liquidity of the state. They told us, even though that of palliative care to those eligible who has been using will be very soon, can not continue to hide the failure of the StateFor the first time a source of Frelimo and admittedly very well placed ears blew us and recognized that it is going through a time of great risk of failure to sustain a serious social upheaval that may result from a cascade of problems stemming from lack of liquid state. Sit down, however, that the news published in certain media with which agoiram good day in the future, are just pretexts, like other years have shown us that they are making applicants to believe that all is well. This time the same thing is not serious and "friends" will be able to help. Or by themselves are also in crisis, or because they themselves have been removed from the "blue bags" in their countries. We are finally on the verge of a "social earthquake" with all the predicates to degenerate into a "political cataclysm" which then culminates with the usual "smart" to conclude that "this is normal in Africa," as if it were a continent and morons unable timeless. The decrepit and "skilled" usual, this does not escape. "The issue is really serious," he assured us with concern to our source who claimed to be us to reflect the reality at the highest level of government and the ruling party. From all corners, from the APRM - chaired by the man of unparalleled capabilities commuters passing through the German Development Institute, the African Development Bank, all agree that there is an explosive cocktail just waiting to inevitably trigger a sudden do explode. Their obsession with the power of "the Old Katembe", particularly age, is preventing them to govern and impel them to lie just as happens with the "basket" after they promised when they saw that it was absurd , there was said by the unsaid. At the same time convinced that they live, that they have ensured the subservience and economic well-being of certain high military hierarchies, also subordinate the military and police increasingly undisciplined and predatory attitude of a clear survival, they will be eternally faithful. All this aggravates the situation and raises our level of concern. The immense body of unemployed uneducated and without any art and craft, unhappy that the "ride of the state" do not have anything new that could become a solution for them, we are "problem solvers", but now there are so many and customers increasingly little or nothing unless it serves them to collect in their daily business initiatives. There is no business for all in parallel trade. There is no money. The disorder is evident today. It is the prelude to despair. They call it lack of civility. It is merely palliative. People no longer know what to do to survive. The crisis has already installed can not be hid. Now, in addition to these factors, the citizens of the immense group of trained personnel and higher education, wrong for decades of study with an eye on false promises, also ended up becoming unemployed compulsive. Who thought of training them to be forgotten after graduation needed to be framed by the employment market. Who had the obligation to govern with a sense of responsibility to serve walked from the state to disentangle his own life, saying that we are entitled to be rich, just looking for your own navel. Time passed without realizing that the times were changing. Today times have changed. There are people today with new requirements, which may not accept for much longer be governed by predators who have seen the results do not allow to hide their incompetence. The President of the APRM and a Dean of the highest rated institutions of higher education in the country, has already desperately to warn the public that "the unemployed graduates are dangerous." For others will be salvation, depending on your point of view ...
If Marcelo Caetano had continued in power in Portugal ever have been possible to establish democracy in that country?
If Franco had remained in power in Spain ever democracy had been established in that kingdom of the Iberian peninsula?
If apartheid had not been overthrown in South Africa we have ever seen the Rainbow Nation, right here beside us, becoming a democratic, prosperous and organize one of the best leagues in the World Cup in living memory despite doubts about that?
It took queer schemes obsolete so that new winds blown. Our promised but nonexistent "better future", which served as served to deceive anybody fooled by the "slogan", no longer part of the vocabulary of politicians who think themselves irreplaceable. It is now recognized, even by the slowest of reasoning, as a drug of citizenship, and the liking of the rulers who speak of patriotism as a lever so insistent illustrative of its propensity for political illusionism. However, the perceptions were not enough already, now tell us that confirmed the state coffers are empty, with scarce dollars when Metical appears to be a new golden age, more robust. They tell us just be artificial in nature until he comes over here a speculative exercise. No one explains. The regime is panicking! Until someone has been necessary to remember that cans, plastic bags and even under mattresses, throughout the country, there may be millions of dollars and much needed meticais do today to save the elite, the illusion of unjust enrichment effort, fruit predatory activities, became convinced that dominate a mass of people who thought forever numb.  

They fooled!
They assure us now that the desperation has just settled in, unabashedly, the ranks of the regime, despite the high training and who have acquired the ability to hide a big crisis. Despite the crisis continue to see the misuse of state funds to promote partisan activities, as evidenced by the movement of partisan brigades of government officials to the provinces to address the congress of his party. The Government to corrupt business confederation CTA, is another news: 20 million years without appearing meticais of the state budget and without appearing in the accountability of the state. State money poured into obscure games which is not even budgeted, feeding a vicious CTA. Donors say nothing. She explained that employees who are only here are also afraid of losing their jobs and therefore do not report the abuses that are practiced here with taxpayers' money in their countries. A Partial Justice and incapable of certain judges "bought" with large land grants and other goodies treated, immersed up to his mustache with the executive, who is subordinate lightly, did not react. We have a flawed justice and inactive before the abuses committed by a private entity subject to apply the rule. The court does not care. They're all the same club. At least those are the heads of courts and prosecution. In similar conditions in other regions, we can see that here all done with state money was simply swept away. Here the much-touted democracy does not work. Everything is postponed until the "bomb" to explode.
Responsible people can watch it all quiet?
We pledge our word of honor not want to die like that!
We can not let us die like this!
(CM)

The governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove, announced on Thursday that new bank notes, made of polymer rather than paper, will enter circulation later this year.Paper notes will be replaced by polymer ones for the three lowest, and hence most commonly used, denominations – 20, 50 and 100 meticais (face values which are equivalent to about 70 US cents, 1.7 and 3.4 dollars).Speaking at a ceremony to mark the 31st anniversary of the creation of the metical on 16 June 1980, Gove said the polymer notes are appropriate to a humid climate and will last longer than paper notes.“By adopting this type of substrate, we expect to reduce significantly the cost of replacing damaged notes”, he said. “This prolongs the life span of the notes, and we shall be complying with our legal duty to provide the public with good quality bank notes, in the best conditions of security and convenience”.On average, he added, a low denomination paper note lasts for three years. The polymer notes are expected to last for five or even six years.Gove also launched new 200, 500 and 1,000 metical notes. These are made of paper, but with improved security elements, to make them more difficult to forge, including a water mark of the image of the country’s first president, Samora Machel, visible when observed against the light, a security thread incorporated vertically and visible on the front of the note, and intaglio printing.Gove explained that the introduction of the new notes does not imply the withdrawal from circulation of the existing notes. “They will circulate simultaneously”, he said.Gradually the improved notes would replace the old notes, but there would be no formal changeover, and nobody will have to hand in their old notes at the banks.“We think society needs more convenient and safer notes”, said Gove. “We must ensure more effective protection of the metical bank notes, adjusting their security elements and the material they are made of, faced with the current expansion of the financial sector, the increase in the number of monetary transactions, in the volume of money in circulation and the number of economic agents involved in these transactions”.The Thursday celebrations were also marked by laying the first stone for the new headquarters of the Bank of Mozambique, in central Maputo, about five minutes walk from the existing building. This will be a complex of two buildings – a 30 storey tall office block, and an adjacent 19 storey building, containing a car park, restaurants and further office space.

NESTLE TO BUILD FACTORY IN DONDO

The multinational food company Nestle has announced that it is to spend 30 million US dollars building a factory in the municipality of Dondo, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala. The factory will produce a range of food products including seasonings, milk products, coffee and other types of drinks.According to the Director of Nestle Mozambique, Diogo Vitoria, the plan to construct the factory has been approved by the government, and the company is now looking at resettling families who live on the site. The director did not give figures for the number of people who will be resettled.Vitoria, speaking on Wednesday during a ceremony to launch new Nestle products, said that the factory will bring benefits to the company, the suppliers and the consumers.“We will have greater flexibility to adapt our products to meet the needs of our consumers and the local farmers who are going to supply the raw material”, said Vitoria.The goods produced at the factory are intended to supply the domestic and the wider SADC (Southern African Development Community) market.Speaking at the ceremony, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Armando Inroga, said that the government had approved the building of the factory in the context of its policy of developing industry at district level.He believed that the opening of the factory in Dondo will be of crucial importance. Firstly, at local level it will create more employment and increase family income. Secondly, at the national level it will help increase exports.According to Nestle, the factory will use local raw materials and will make products to meet the needs of the national and regional markets.

50 MILLION DOLLARS NEEDED TO CONCLUDE BEIRA SANITATION

The Mozambican government needs a further 50 million US dollars in order to complete the new sanitation system for the central city of Beira, reports Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.On Thursday the 60 per cent of the system so far concluded was handed over to the Beira Autonomous Sanitation Services, which is responsible for the operation of the system. 61 kilometres of sewage pipes have been built or renovated, plus 11 pumping stations, four elevation stations and six outlets to the sea. But a further 50 kilometres of piping remains to be completed.The cost of the first phase of the sanitation project was 62.65 million euros (about 88.3 million US dollars), of which 59.95 million euros came from the European Union’s European Development Fund (EDF).The EU is also interested in financing the second phase, but first wants to discuss the matter with other possible partners, such as the World Bank. EU representative Alexandre Serres said “there has not yet been a final decision, because there are other donors interested”.Serres thought that the partial conclusion of the sanitation project was a significant step in poverty production and moved the country nearer to attaining the Millennium Development Goals. Improved sanitation in Beira, he said, would contribute to reducing the spread of water-borne diseases, and the risks of flooding during the rainy season.National Director of Water Jaime Matsinhe, who represented the government at the Thursday ceremony, said that, although the work done so far was a victory for Beira, more effort had to be undertaken and funds mobilized to rehabilitate the remaining 50 kilometres of pipingThe mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, called on Beira residents to collaborate in maintaining the new system. “This work cost a lot of money and sacrifice”, he said. “This work will save lives, because it will reduce the spread of disease. Let’s ensure we conserve this undertaking”.

WATER SUPPLY INCREASES IN RURAL ZAMBEZIA

More than a thousand new sources of drinking water, including standpipes and wells, are under construction in rural areas in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia.Zambezia has more than four million inhabitants, buy just over one and a half million people in the province have access to clean drinking water.According to Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the provision of clean drinking water is being advanced by the provincial government under its Economic and Social Plan and within the National Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (PRONASAR).According to the governor of Zambezia, Francisco Itai Meque, constructing new water sources is being pushed to improve the current levels of coverage, particularly in the rural areas.He affirmed that the government is well aware of the implications of the low coverage rate, but stressed that this is a sector that is receiving special attention for public investment.A major problem standing in the way of increasing the coverage rate is that the Zambezia provincial government does not have the financial resources to fund rehabilitation work on the small water supply systems in several of the district capitals. These small systems have been broken down for over thirty years or are obsolete, and it is not likely that in the short term these will be rehabilitated with public funds.According to “Noticias”, cooperation partners are not interested in financing the rehabilitation of these systems in small towns because they are allegedly more interested in working in the rural interior.The non-functioning systems affect thousands of people living in the district capitals of Alto Molocue, Gile, Maganja da Costa, Pebane, Namacurra, Morrumbala, Mopeia, Ile, Milange and Namarroi. In total Zambezia has sixteen districts.

GRACA MACHEL CALLS FOR INCLUSION OF INTELLECTUALS

Mozambique’s former Education Minister, Graca Machel,

Graça Machel in 1984, with then husband President Samora Machel of Mozambique, and P W Botha and Pik Botha of South Africa, at the signing of the Nkomati Accord.

on Tuesday called for the inclusion of the country’s intellectuals in designing policies and solving problems.Graca Machel, widow of the country’s first President, Samora Machel, said that, although the intellectuals constitute a capacity that has been built up over the years, today they are being marginalized.Speaking at a round table on the life and work of Samora Machel organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology, she warned that there are no mechanisms to ensure that intellectuals “fully participate in solving the problems of the country, and much less that they influence policies and feel part of them”.“We have to reverse this situation and give an opportunity for the intellectuals to display their knowledge”, she urged.She gave Samora Machel as an example, pointed out that he deliberately surrounded himself with intellectuals, and had no complexes about doing so. “Samora did not have many academic qualifications”, she said. “His merit was to ensure that he was surrounded by highly qualified people. He had no problem about being surrounded by people who knew more than he did. He was a strategic thinker”.She stressed that it is not possible to win the battles and meet the challenges of the 21st century without putting education in first place, and that was what Samora Machel had always done.Even in the early days of the struggle for liberation from Portuguese colonial rule, there was an awareness that education was a pillar of the country’s future development. Frelimo believed “it was necessary to educate people to win the war and to build a new society to develop the country after independence”.“Samora argued that science liberates the people”, Graca Machel recalled. “That’s why there were always literacy programmes in the training camps. The few guerrillas who had experience of teaching drew up the foundations of a national education system that was truly Mozambican, and pilot centres were set up in Frelimo’s liberated areas”. She added that development only occurs when it is based on the real conditions of the people. “Theories are adopted from others, and we forget that we are only going to transform ourselves and attain prosperity when we look at our own reality, our own social and cultural conditions”.Samora Machel could not be brought back to life, his widow said, and keeping is ideas alive would depend on the work of other Mozambicans. “Samora will not come back, and continuing what he defended all depends on us”, she stressed. “Mozambique needs people who are aware of discrimination and social exclusion, and who reject these practices, reject the imposition of policies, so that we can put Mozambique on the rails”.The Mozambican state, must be a state of solidarity, a state where the poor are not thrust to one side, she insisted. “The Mozambican elites must be aware of national solidarity”, she urged. “Nobody can feel satisfied, nobody can feel they have achieved their goals, when the majority are fighting for survival”.

MAPUTO SPECIAL RESERVE EXPANDED

The Mozambican government on Tuesday approved a decree expanding the borders of the Maputo Special Reserve, in the south of the country, to strengthen the preservation and conservation of forests and fauna in the region.The new borders, according to government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Alberto Nkutumula, integrate the Futi River into the Special Reserve.The Maputo Reserve for Elephant Protection was created in 1932, and in 1969 it changed its name to the Maputo Special Reserve to reflect the desire to make it a centre of biological diversity.Speaking to the press after the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) meeting, Nkutumula explained that conflict between man and wild animals (notably elephants invading peasant fields), along with poaching, had led to the need to extend the reserve.The extension of the reserve by 24,000 hectares will also create a five kilometre buffer zone along the north and east of the park.“In this buffer zone economic activities and ecotourism will be allowed for the benefit of local communities” said Nkutumula.

MINIBUS OWNERS STILL OPPOSED TO INSPECTIONS

The Mozambican Federation of Road Transport Operators (FEMATRO) is still resisting the government’s road safety plans, which involve regular compulsory inspections of all vehicles on the country’s roads.Interviewed by the independent television station STV, the deputy chairperson of FEMATRO, Luis Munguambe, claimed that “too many items” are being checked by the vehicle inspectors. He demanded that the government review the regulations for the inspections – particularly for the privately-owned minibuses licensed to carry passengers (and known colloquially as “chapas”).In other words, FEMATRO wants less stringent inspection for passenger vehicles than for other types of car or truck – while basic road safety logic is that vehicles licensed to carry passengers should be held to the highest possible standards of safety.Munguambe claimed that the “avalanche of conditions” demanded by the inspectors could “destabilize” transport in the country, particularly in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola.Minor faults are noted, but are not enough for a vehicle to fail the test. Only faults which pose a major risk to life and limb (such as defective brakes) will lead to the vehicle being banned from the roads.The chapa owners have been campaigning against the inspections ever since they were introduced in February 2010. Initially the government set a deadline of six months for all vehicles to be inspected. Faced with a massive boycott by motorists, the government backed down, using as its excuse that most of the provincial inspection centres were not yet functioning (but those in Maputo and Matola, where most of the country’s vehicles are concentrated) were fully operational.Now there is a new deadline – all vehicles are to be inspected by the end of this month. As from 1 July, the police can seize any vehicle not displaying the sticker indicating that it has passed the inspection.The chairperson of the National Traffic Institute (INAV), Alfredo Sitoe, told STV that the inspections divide vehicle faults into three categories. In the case of those which cause no risk to the vehicle’s passengers, the owner has three months in which to repair them.The second category includes faults which should be repaired within 60 days. Surprisingly enough, these faults include bald tyres, which can be lethal.Only in cases where the vehicle poses an immediate danger (such as defective brakes or steering) will it be ordered off the road until the fault is fixed.

TWO DEAD IN BANK ROBBERY

Bank robbers shot dead two people on Wednesday morning in an attack against a branch of the Nigerian bank UBA (United Bank for Africa) in Maputo.The victims were a security guard of the company Group Four Securicor (G4S), who was guarding the bank, and a client who was making a large deposit. This client was an official of the company “Sound City” which is located next door to the bank. “Sound City” sells motor vehicle parts and accessories.Eye-witnesses, cited by the on-line publication “Canal de Mocambique”, said the thieves opened fire against the client and the security guard, stole the money that was about to be deposited and made their getaway. The bodies were collected by the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), who declined to make any comment to the media.The head of human resources of Sound City, Rosa Manicusse, confirmed the death of her colleague whom she said was an Indian citizen named Firoz Bakhiria.UBA began operating in the Mozambican market with just two branches, both in Maputo, in November 2010

MAPUTO CIVIL PRISON TO BE REMOVED

The Maputo Civil Prison, which stands on Kim il Sung Avenue in the heart of the city, is to be removed, and the site used for some other social infrastructure, yet to be decided.According to the director of the National Prisons Service (SNAPRI), Eduardo Mussanhane, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, a multi-sector commission is working on a proposal that will shortly be presented to the government.“Within the next two months this commission should present the results of its work which will be delivered to the government for its assessment and approval. But the fact is that the Civil Prison will be dismantled”, said Mussanhane.He justified this decision on the grounds that the prison is in a residential area, in the centre of the city, and is in a poor state of conservation.He added that the prison will not be dismantled until new premises have been built to accommodate the current inmates. This new prison will probably be outside of the city, somewhere in Maputo province. Mussanhane stressed that the new premises “should reduce the costs of administering the prison”.The main purpose of the Civil Prison is to hold prisoners who are under preventive detention, though there have been many cases of it accommodating men who have been tried and sentenced.
Most prisoners convicted in the capital, however, are held in Maputo Central Prison, and those regarded as dangerous are kept in the neighbouring Top Security Prison. These are both in Machava, which is a suburb of the city of Matola.

NO RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SAYS MINISTER

Mozambican Justice Minister Benvinda Levi has supported the decision by Education Minister Zeferino Martins to forbid the wearing of the islamic burqa in public schools.This became an issue because one student, Fatima Khalifa, insisted on wearing a burqa to her classes in the Fraternidade Secondary School in Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The teachers refused to teach classes containing a student shrouded in a garment that resembles a black tent with a narrow slit for her eyes, but Khalifa insisted that she was within her rights to wear a burqaThe dispute dragged on for weeks, until Martins visited Pemba and suspended Khalifa from the school. He told reporters that wearing overt religious clothing such as a burqa violated the fundamental principles governing state-run schools.He pointed out that, under the Mozambican constitution, the state and its institutions are secular. There is clear separation between the state and all forms of religion, which belong to the private sphere. The lay nature of the state meant that students could not wear burqas in state schools.Cited in Tuesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, Levi said that religious freedom means that citizens can freely practice the religion of their choice, without interference from the state – but it does not mean that they can impose that religion on the state.Students, she said, must respect school regulations. “It cannot be accepted that each student invokes the name of their religion in the loudest tones in the schools”, she said. She pointed out that burqas are a recent arrival in Mozambique. These all-enveloping black cloaks are completely unsuitable for the Mozambican climate – particularly for the heat and humidity of Pemba. According to the 2007 census, about 18 per cent of the Mozambican population are moslems. The vast majority of them do not wear burqas. Indeed, Fatima Ismail is the first student ever reported to have worn a burqa to school. “Our country has many people who profess this same religion”, said Levi, “but they don’t wear burqas in the schools where they study”.For schools, burqas raise awkward practical issues. They can be used to smuggle objects in and out of classes. And when only the eyes can be seen, it becomes difficult or impossible for teachers to identify the student under the cloak – this could facilitate academic fraud, by allowing somebody else to take the real student’s place in examinations without being spotted. Nonetheless, Fatima Ismail’s family have threatened to take the case to court, arguing that the Education Ministry has violated the constitution.

IN ROVUMA BASIN, WORK UNDER WAY ON SIZE OF GAS RESERVES

The piece of grey sandstone in my hands does not look very special – but it is 40 million years old, and came from about three and a half kilometres under my feet.I am standing on the deck of the drilling vessel, the “Belford Dolphin” about 30 kilometres east of the small northern Mozambican port of Mocimboa da Praia. This is where the Houston-based oil and gas company, Anadarko, has drilled its sixth offshore well.This well, code-named “Lagosta”, was the fourth of the Anadarko wells to indicate large reserves of natural gas in the rocks lying under 1,500 metres of water. Now smaller holes are being drilled alongside the main well shaft, to extract samples of the rock.This is known as “coring”. Rock cores are extracted, including the lump of grey sandstone that one of the engineers thrust into my hands. From hundreds of metres below the sea bed, the cores will show the rock structure and composition, and give some indication of the ease (or difficulty) of extracting the gas.Broken into carefully labeled chunks indicating the depth at which they were taken, the cores will be sent off to specialist laboratories for analysis.

Anadarko has kept the “Belford Dolphin” in the Rovuma Basin, near the border with Tanzania, for the past 18 months, moving from one well site to the next. The four gas discoveries made so far lead Anadarko to believe that it is feasible to establish a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Facility, which can handle a billion cubic feet of gas a day.The Rovuma Basin gas, plus the giant open cast coal mines under development in Tete province, and the plans for more hydro-electric dams, mean that within less than a decade Mozambique will be established as a major producer and exporter of energy. Anadarko intends to continue drilling elsewhere in its concession area, and a second drilling vessel will join the “Belford Dolphin” later in the year. A third may be needed in 2012. The company is optimistic that it will make further gas discoveries, and perhaps also strike oil.By the end of 2013, the Anardako investment in the Rovuma Basin will have reached three billion US dollars. If, as seems more than likely, the Mozambican government gives the green light to the LNG plant, total investment will reach 18 billion dollars by 2018, the earliest feasible date for starting production.

The “Belford Dolphin”, built in 2000 in a Korean shipyard, is owned by the Norwegian company, Fred Olsen Energy. Companies have hired it for drilling work across the globe, and in very different climates – it has previously worked in Brazil, Trinidad, the Faroe Islands, Indonesia, the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa.It could drill in water that is over 3,000 metres deep, and to a total depth of rock of 12,000 metres. It is not anchored to the sea bed, but is held in place by five variable thrusters, controlled by computers. There are 130 crew members, working 12 hour shifts. They stay on the vessel for 28 days then take the next 28 days off. They are from all over the world – at one point 23 different nationalities were counted on board the ship. Currently there are between 16 and 18 (the officer speaking to us is not sure of the exact figure), with the largest contingents from India, the Philippines and Britain.The most important Mozambican contribution to the “Belford Dolphin” is its security. Anadarko has hired two security vessels, keeping a discreet distance from the drilling ship. On board are armed marines from the Mozambican navy.This is a precaution against gangs of Somali pirates. It used to be thought that the pirates would not operate as far south as the Mozambique Channel, but a series of attacks in December destroyed that comfortable illusion.

The most serious was the hijacking of the Mozambican fishing vessel the “Vega 5”, off the coast of Inhambane province, on 27 December. The 24 crew members (19 Mozambicans, three Indonesians and two Spaniards) were taken hostage, and the ship was converted into a pirate “mother ship” used as a base for attacks on shipping in the Arabian sea, until it was overpowered in a fire fight with the Indian navy in March. The waters around Mocimboa da Praia seem virtually deserted – no shipping is spotted on the helicopter flight from the coast to the “Belford Dolphin”. But no chances are being taken: the security vessels are on permanent standby, and the “Belford Dolphin”’s own radar ceaselessly scours the horizon.Throughout the ship there are warnings against polluting the marine environment. Nothing can be thrown overboard. All waste generated on the ship is taken ashore for disposal in Anadarko’s waste processing facility, on the outskirts of the city of Pemba. Here an incinerator destroys what can safely be burnt, while other types of waste are carefully sorted into different categories for possible recycling or disposal elsewhere.

Anadarko is at pains to establish credentials as a company that cares for its workforce and for the environment. Asked about the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the largest marine oil spill in history, the Anadarko-Mozambique Managing Director, John Peffer, blamed it on “poor planning” and remarked drily “we don’t think we will suffer the same fate”.Clearly natural gas operations cannot cause the same level of pollution as an oil well – but Anadarko is also looking for oil offshore. So would an Anadarko oil well in the Rovuma Basin be just as much of a threat to the marine environment as the BP operation on the Deepwater Horizon?While careful not to criticize any other company by name, Peffer remarks “We don’t operate that way”.Anadarko, he added, was also confident of the professionalism of its contractors. The equipment they are using “is top notch”, said Peffer, “and has performed extremely well”.

INDIAN COMPANY PLANS IRON ORE TERMINAL AT BEIRA

The Indian conglomerate Essar Global is planning to build what could be the world’s longest slurry pipeline from its iron mines in Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira, according to the financial services company “Securities Africa”.Essar’s plans include building a terminal at Beira to handle up to 20 million tonnes of iron ore exports a year. There are also reports that the company is considering building a coal terminal at Beira capable of handling 20 million tonnes per year.Essar’s director for Africa and the Middle East, Firdhose Coovadia, gave details for the Beira terminal at the Africa Iron Ore Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, last week.In March, Essar Africa Holdings entered into an agreement with the Zimbabwean government to revive the state-owned Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco).Essar agreed to take on the debt owed by Zisco and to invest about 750 million US dollars in reviving the company, in return for gaining 54 per cent ownership of the company. As part of that deal Essar gained access to huge reserves of iron ore.Over the last five years there has been a 400 per cent increase in commercial relations between Africa and India.However, the expansion of Indian commercial interests in Africa does not only reflect the continued economic growth of the country.An article in “The Economist” in May highlighted the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the African continent, and argued that the Asian country is not only after the continent’s raw materials, but also seeks African support for a permanent seat for India on the United Nations Security Council.

GUEBUZA LAUNCHES NATIONAL SAVINGS CAMPAIGN

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday, in the central city of Chimoio, launched a National Campaign to Promote Savings.At the launch ceremony, Guebuza said the government remains committed to improving policies and legal instruments that stimulate individual and family savings, as well as encouraging financial operators to encourage their services.The campaign seeks to step up initiatives that will encourage people to save. It hopes to create innovative mechanisms to mobilise savings, which will make it possible to finance entrepreneurs, and implement the government’s strategy to turn rural districts into poles of development.The formal launch of the national programme, will be replicated at provincial and district level. The government hopes that after five years 80 per cent of the 128 districts will have branches of commercial banks or other financial institutions where citizens can deposit and withdraw their money. Currently only 52 districts have banking services. “The government will continue to induce improvements in socio-economic infrastructures in order to attract banks and other economic operators to set themselves up in more districts, administrative posts and localities as well as in urban neighbourhoods”, said Guebuza.He said that savings are one of the most effective instruments for achieving the desired successes in the fight against poverty.Saving, added Guebuza, means not spending today, not using resources on expenditure that can be avoided or delayed, in order to plan their use tomorrow, thus expanding the basis of future consumption.“We save because we know that life does not end today”, he stressed. “We save because we believe in our dreams of better days to come, days that we build ourselves”.Guebuza said that the current international financial crisis has caused inflationary pressures throughout the world, including Mozambique. But he told his audience “we must accept this crisis as a further opportunity to develop our capacity to seek solutions and to rationalise the few resources we possess. Only in this way will we emerge victorious in the fight against poverty, with savings making a valuable contribution”.