ARE AMERICAN REPORTS A RELIABLE SOURCE ON MOZAMBIQUE?

Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax” informs us, in a headline on its front page, that Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party “continues to stick its hands into an inefficient judicial system”.The paper’s source for this claim is the recently published human rights report for 2014 issued by the US State Department. The State Department has a legal obligation to issue human rights reports annually on all countries, with the significant exception of the United States itself.The paragraph that “Mediafax” seized on is the following: “Although the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, according to civil society groups the executive branch and the ruling Frelimo party heavily influenced an understaffed and inadequately trained judiciary”.Which civil society groups made this claim and when? The State Department does not tell us, but it is instructive to look back at the reports from previous years.Thus for 2013, the State Department report said “Although the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, according to civil society groups, the executive branch and the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party heavily influenced an understaffed and inadequately trained judiciary particularly in the lower tiers.”.

And the report for 2012 said “Although the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, according to civil society groups, the executive branch and the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party heavily influenced an understaffed and inadequately trained judiciary, particularly in the lower tiers”.And guess what – for 2011, the report said “Although the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, according to civil society groups, the executive branch and the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party heavily influenced an understaffed and inadequately trained judiciary, particularly in the lower tiers”.Year after year, we see almost exactly the same formulation. This goes right back to 2009. But for 2008, the report was a bit different. Then it said “The constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary; however, the executive branch and the ruling FRELIMO party heavily influenced an understaffed and inadequately trained judiciary, particularly in the lower tiers”. Even the minimal source of unnamed “civil society groups” was not used then.Are we to suppose that the same anonymous civil society groups were contacted every year, from 2009 to the present, by the US embassy, and said exactly the same thing, word for word? A more parsimonious explanation would be that lazy diplomats at the embassy simply copied and pasted from the previous year’s report, working on the principle that “if we said it last year, it must be true”.In other words, nothing at all can be understood about the Mozambican judiciary from such a report. To learn whether or not Frelimo exercises undue influence on the courts, reporters would have to do their own homework, and interview their own sources, instead of giving credibility to a US report which just recycles itself, year after year.

“THOSE WHO WIN ELECTIONS GOVERN” - NYUSI

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday stressed that it is those who win elections who govern the country.He was speaking in Quelimane, capital of the central province of Zambezia, shortly after arriving for a working visit. Zambezia, Nyusi said, belongs not to any group of people, but to all Mozambicans – clearly a message sent to Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo, who claims the right to rule Zambezia, since it is one of the provinces where he topped the poll in last October’s presidential election.Mozambicans, Nyusi said, should not allow themselves to be distracted because this is their only opportunity to develop the country. He urged that those who win elections should be allowed to work on governing the country.Nyusi praised Quelimane as an example of peaceful coexistence, since it has a mayor, Manuel de Araujo, who was elected from the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), but nobody attacks anyone else, and all work for the good of the municipal citizens.He thanked the people of Zambezia for taking part in the elections, particularly those who had voted for him and for the ruling Frelimo Party “so that we can continue the tasks of developing Mozambique”. Nonetheless, he stressed that he is the President of all Mozambicans, without any discrimination.“Everybody deserves good governance from me”, Nyusi said. “I want to promote the development of all Mozambicans”.He added that he was also visiting the province “to say that your concerns, expressed before the elections are now included in our programme of governance for the next five years”.At the same rally, Manuel de Araujo took the opportunity to urge greater speed from the government in repairing all the infrastructures destroyed by catastrophic flooding in Zambezia in January. 

“The lack of these infrastructures is having a damaging effect on the development of the economy of the city and of the province as a whole”, he said.He also called on the government to increase the number of buses allocated to Quelimane in order to improve passenger transport in the city. People who spoke from the floor at the rally urged Nyusi to continue the government’s dialogue with Renamo, stressing that Quelimane does not want a return to war. They also wanted an increase in the number of doctors and nurses working in the province, credit for the informal sector, and policies which ensure that the benefits from the exploitation of natural resources reach the most vulnerable strata of the population.

Ten years later, President of the Republic travels by plane from Moçambique.Filipe of Aereas Nyuse apologized to the company's passengers already aboard the Boeing 737-700 for its delay before take-off in Maputo.Austeridade has been one of the new Chief policies State Moçambique.O its predecessor, Armando Guebuza, duante its 10 years of governance always traveled in business aircraft leased to private companies the executive branch.

25.06.1975 to 06.25.2015 independence of Mozambique

CIMENTOS DE MOCAMBIQUE TO BUILD NEW PLANT IN NACALA

Cimentos de Mocambique (Cement of Mozambique) has announced that it is to build a cement production facility in the northern port city of Nacala at a cost of around 250 million US dollars.Production at the new plant is expected to begin in 2018 with an annual output of 1.5 million tonnes of cement.Cimentos de Mocambique currently employs 1,200 workers and produces 3.1 million tonnes of cement per year. It is owned by the Portuguese company CIMPOR, which is part of the multinational group InterCement. InterCement now has forty production units around the world, with an installed capacity of 38 million tonnes. It also operates in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Portugal.The announcement came in the same week that Turkish company Limak Holding pledged to invest 150 million dollars in a cement factory in the southern city of Matola. This will employ at least five hundred workers in the first phase with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes of cement per year. In the second phase output will increase to two million tonnes a year.

12 months to agree on the course

The delegations of government and Renamo, the main opposition party in Mozambique, signed today in Maputo, the Declaration of Principles on Despartidarização Public Administration, an act that marked the culmination of the consensus reached around this matter between the parties.The statement, initialed by the heads of the two delegations on political dialogue, José Pacheco and Saimone Macuiana respectively establishes some additional measures to eliminate what the parties consider to "perceptions of partisanship of the state."Thus, the document advocates the introduction of a contract system and its publication in all the main stage (seed, nominations, jury presentation, selection and announcement of the results) to the provincial and district permanent secretaries, heads of administrative posts and presidents of the localities and villages.

The same procedure is extended to \ chairmen of the boards of directors of public companies or subsidiaries by the State Board of presidents or general managers of public funds. In light of the Declaration, it is prohibited by the discount deducted at source from salaries of employees and agents for any purpose except as provided in the law, as well as active participation in political party activities of rectors of public universities and public managers, employees and agents of the state during normal business hours. In the workplace, according to the document to be submitted to parliament, the Assembly of the Republic (AR), the civil servant should not promote the partisan political activities, a ban which also covers the magistrates, ambassadors and members of the Forces Defence and Security.Advocates further strengthening recognition arrangements of the holders of traditional authorities by the State in accordance with customary law and that its legitimacy only observes the family line.

The document also proposes a review of the functions, powers, organization and functioning of the Superior Council for the Media, as well as establishment of a monitoring committee of the State despartidarização to be created by Parliament and which will be composed of government representatives, political parties parliamentary seat and civil society.

RENEWABLE ENERGY REACHES 4.5 MILLION MOZAMBICANS

New and renewable sources of energy are benefitting about 4.5 million Mozambican consumers, which is 18.5 per cent of the total population, according to the deputy national director of renewable energy, in the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, Marcelina Mataveia.She was speaking on Tuesday at the first fair on renewable energy, organized by the Ministry in partnership with Maputo Municipal Council, as part of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Mozambican independence on 25 June 1975.The fair is intended to show the potential of renewable energies, with displays of photovoltaic systems, solar panels and other technologies that produce energy in a sustainable manner.Mataveia said that the country has, in recent years, been banking on renewable sources of energy to overcome the country’s electricity deficit, since it is quite impossible to hook up every remote locality to the national electricity grid based on the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river.“We are electrifying rural areas that are a long way from the national grid”, she said. “We have been prioritizing solar panels to provide electricity for social infrastructures such as schools and hospitals”.Before the installation of the solar panels there were certain health units which could not offer care which depended on the availability of electricity. But once the solar panels were in place the range of care provided by these health units expanded greatly.The government. Mataveia added, is committed to the mass use of renewable energies, and believes they have a key role to play in the socio-economic development of Mozambique. A range of policy documents have been approved – including the Policy and Strategy on the Development of New and Renewable Energies; the Biofuel Policy and Strategy; and the Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Renewable Energies.This policy framework, Mataveia said, is intended to create a favourable environment for the development of new and renewable energies.The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, she continued, will continue electrification based on renewable sources of power. She believed they are having an enormous impact on the quality of life, particularly in areas that cannot yet be reached by the national grid.

13.7 million US dollars

The delay in implementing last September’s agreement on a cessation of military hostilities between the Mozambican government and the former rebel movement Renamo could create “additional budgetary pressures”, which would be difficult to accommodate in the 2015 state budget, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco warned on Wednesday.Pacheco was speaking at the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, in his capacity as head of the government delegation at the government-Renamo dialogue which has now held 109 sessions.The September agreement envisaged the disarming and dismantling of the Renamo militia. Its members were to have been recruited into the armed forces (FADM) and the police, or reintegrated into civilian life. But none of this happened. To date, over nine months after the September agreement, not a single Renamo gunman has been disarmed. A military observer mission, known by the acronym, EMOCHM, was to monitor implementation of the September agreement, It consisted of 70 Mozambican officers (half appointed by the government and half by Renamo), and foreign observers from eight countries (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Kenya, Italy, Portugal and Britain). EMOCHM had a mandate for 135 days, which was extended for a further 60 days. Throughout this period it could do nothing, since Renamo refused to deliver a list of names of those of its militiamen whom it wanted to join the FADM or the police. These were months of inactivity entirely paid for by the Mozambican government.“The government created the conditions for Renamo’s residual forces to be recruited into the FADM or the police, or for their social and economic reinsertion”, Pacheco stressed. He gave the Assembly details about the expenditure on EMOCHM. The government had approved a budget for EMOCHM of 540.2 million meticais (about 13.7 million US dollars at current exchange rates). Running costs accounted for 60 per cent of this, and capital expenditure for 40 per cent.By the time EMOCHM was wound up, only 370.3 million meticais had been spent. So there was an unspent balance of 169.9 million meticais (or 31.46 per cent of the total budget approved). Expenditure would presumably have been considerably higher if EMOCHM had been allowed to do its job, rather than simply sitting in hotels. Pacheco said that the largest item of expenditure was vehicles. 59 vehicles were purchased for EMOCHM, costing 83 million meticais (22.44 per cent of the total). The allowances paid to the foreign and Mozambican members of EMOCHM amounted to 83.7 million meticais (20.61 per cent).   59.9 million meticais (16.1 per cent) was spent on equipment for accommodating the Renamo “residual forces” – such as beds, refrigerators, water tanks, generators, stoves and other kitchen material, But since the Renamo militiamen never left their bases in the bush, this material could not be used.Food cost 33.9 million meticais (8.9 per cent), and accommodation for EMOCHM members cost a further 31.8 million meticais (8.6 per cent). EMOCHM office equipment cost 15.7 million meticais (4.3 per cent). All unused EMOCHM assets are now being transferred to the defence and security forces.Pacheco said the government had decided against any further extension of EMOCHM, and would instead “prioritise dialogue to establish consensus for an effective and lasting peace”. That peace must rest, not only on a cessation of military hostilities, but on an end to “incitement to division and violence, and disinformation”. Crucially, it would also depend on “the demilitarization of Renamo”.

On the occasion of the 40

The President of the Republic (PR), Filipe Nyusi, awarded at the highest level, several national and foreign figures who have distinguished themselves in the exaltation of patriotic values, freedom and promoting the good name of Mozambique abroad. In total there are eight honorary degrees awarded, inter alia, Hero of the Republic of Mozambique, Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mozambique, Order Eduardo Mondlane Chivambo, Bagamoyo Medal, Medal of Merit Scholar, Medal demerit Arts and Letters, Sports Merit Medal and Medal Working merit.

For the title Hero of the Republic of Mozambique were decorated Marcelino dos Santos (1pictured) and Feliciano Gundana (2photo), which according Nyusi, actively participated to achieve national independence. The award Order Eduardo Mondlane Chivambo the first grade fell to Janet Mondlane, wife of Eduardo Mondlane, the first president of Frelimo, the party that guaranteed the freedom of the country, and Francisco Rui Barreto was awarded the same title, but in high school.

 

For the title of Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mozambique was awarded the Italian Aldo Marchezini (3PHOTO), which was a key facilitator of the armed conflict, which lasted 16 years, between the government and Renamo. As worthy of the Medal Bagamoyo was elected Carlos Gonzalez, posthumously, Maria Beatriz Ferreira, Maria Ferreira Massena, and others who could not attend the ceremony.The Academic Merit Medal was awarded to Maria Gonçalves da Costa and José Rodrigues Carvalho, both posthumously, while the Medal of Merit Arts and Letters fell to José Bento Seer, Julio Carrilho, Samuel Munguambe Junior, Albino FMagaia and Gulamo Khan, being the last two were awarded posthumously.

The Sports Merit Medal stopped the hands of the Mozambican former athlete Maria de Lurdes Mutola (4photo), Joel Lebombo Carlos de Sousa, José Magalhães, Mussa Tembe, Cremildo Gonçalves, Altenor Perreira, José Duarte, Mario Column, Cândido Coelho, the the last two posthumously, while the Work Merit Medal was awarded to Antonio Maulano, Mualeia, Elias Nhiuane and Joseph MaLuLeCa.

These distinctions fall of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of national independence.Speaking at the ceremony, acknowledged Nyusi delivery, with fullness, the legend awarded to the cause of Mozambique.'' Mozambicans recognize those who engage in national causes immeasurable values. Agraciarmos to our compatriots with such honorary titles we value and recognize their feats of valor and invaluable dimension to the attainment of our freedom and the promotion and defense of the Mozambican state, '' said the Head of State of Mozambique.Nyusi also said that Mozambicans are now free thanks to the efforts of previous generations, so the current is required to transmit and disseminate their achievements.At the time, the former head of state Joaquim Chissano, who was speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony, said that during the time he headed the country, had a hard time condecorar people, because only in 2011, seven years after termination of your mandate was approved by the Assembly of the Republic, the Mozambican parliament, the law award of honorary titles.'' When I stopped being a PR, or before, the PR had a hard time condecorar people because we did not need decorations for all levels, we now have more assignments and therefore more choices, '' said Chissano.

OPPOSITION DEPUTY CALLS FOR GUEBUZA’S ARREST OVER EMATUM

A senior figure in the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) on Wednesday called for the arrest of former President Armando Guebuza, in connection with the government guarantees for the 2013 eurobond loan of 850 million US dollars for the Mozambique Tuna Company (EMATUM).Venancio Mondlane, the MDM candidate for Mayor of Maputo in the 2013 municipal elections, and now a prominent figure in the MDM parliamentary group, claimed that the EMATUM loan represented 53 per cent Mozambique’s public debt to international financial markets.Speaking in the debate on the General State Account for 2013 in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Mondlane declared repeatedly “somebody must be arrested for this”. 

Towards the end of his speech he made clear who he had in mind. He wanted prosecutors to arrest Guebuza, and he wanted the Assembly to lift the parliamentary immunity of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang (who is currently a deputy for the ruling Frelimo Party).Mondlane regarded the EMATUM loan as “the greatest financial scandal since independence”. He accused the government of covering up the seriousness of Mozambique’s public debt, “sticking its head in the sand, just as an ostrich does when danger approaches”.Mondlane said that from 2009 to 2013, Mozambique’s foreign debt had increased by 60 per cent, and much of this leap was due to the EMATUM loan. Taking all the public debt together (domestic and foreign, bilateral and multilateral), Mondlane estimated that EMATUM was responsible for about a sixth of it.

EMATUM was set up, by three state institutions, in August 2013, and it immediately sought funds on the European bond market, in order to purchase 30 vessels from a French shipyard. In all, EMATUM issued loan certificates for 850 million US dollars.Initially, EMATUM mandated the banks Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas to manage the sale of bonds worth 500 million dollars. Credit Suisse provided a loan to EMATUM for this sum in order to issue the bonds. The bonds carried an interest rate of 8.5 per cent.

The bond issue was oversubscribed and so a second bond issue, managed by Russian bank VBL Capital, raised a further 350 million dollars for EMATUM. These loans were fully guaranteed by the Mozambican government, which must pay up in the event of EMATUM defaulting.Mondlane found the interest rate “astronomically high” and “comparable to an operation of criminal loansharking”. Furthermore, it was unclear what part of this loan was commercial and what was non-commercial.He noted that Guebuza had paid a personal visit in 2013 to the shipyard in Cherbourg where the EMATUM vessels were to be built, apparently putting his seal of approval on the deal. Of the 850 million dollars raised, only about 350 million dollars will pay for ships (24 fishing vessels and six naval patrol boats protecting the Mozambican coast and territorial waters). So “where are the other 500 million dollars?” Mondlane asked.Mondlane claimed it was most likely that the government was using this money to purchase military equipment. The real purpose of the EMATUM loan was “to make viable a warmongering project of the government”, he alleged. Mondlane offered no evidence for this sweeping claim, and the government, far from keeping quiet about it, has given a very different explanation.

When the then Fisheries Minister, Vitor Borges was explaining the deal to parliament in November 2013, he said the other 500 million dollars would be spent on radar equipment, satellite communications, onshore installations, transfer of technology, licence fees, training, and the running costs and payment of interest on the loan for the first year. But he gave no itemized breakdown of these costs.Mondlane was certainly right that EMATUM is in deep financial trouble. The EMATUM accounts, published in May, show that in 2014 the company made a loss of over 850.5 million meticais (about 24.9 million US dollars). The accumulated losses, from 2013 up to December 2014 were 1.17 billion meticais. EMATUM’s own funds were thus deeply in the red, at minus 1.16 billion meticais.This situation clearly worried the independent auditor, Ernst & Young Ltd. In its report, it pointed out that the continuity of EMATUM’s operations “is strongly dependent on a capital structure duly supported by the shareholders and/or by financial institutions, as well as on profitable operations in the future”.Mondlane claimed that the EMATUM catch would only bring in three million dollars a year, but the debt service is 24 million dollars a year and the first instalment falls due in September. The government’s estimate, however, is that when the EMATUM fleet is fully operational, it will bring in revenue of 200 million dollars a year.The initial fishing expeditions were with only nine boats, since the majority had not yet arrived from Cherbourg. EMATUM expects the level of catches to grow gradually through 2015 as more of the boats arrive.

Nonetheless, Mondlane was convinced that the EMATUM loan involved criminal activity and declared “the time has come to end this interminable cycle of impunity, of stabbing the state and the public treasury in the back”.  So he proposed the “immediate preventive detention” of Guebuza, and the lifting of Chang’s parliamentary immunity “so that he can answer unreservedly to investigations to hold responsible those who have betrayed and sold the country to foreign banks”.Asked if this was an official MDM position, Mondlane told AIM it was his personal view. However, the spokesperson for the MDM parliamentary group, Fernando Bismarque, said it represented the position of the group.EMATUM was repeatedly mentioned in other speeches by opposition deputies as a reason for rejecting the 2013 state account. Since the government did not have to make any payments related to EMATUM in 2013, the company is not cited by name at all in the account.Frelimo deputies are also not pleased with the EMATUM situation. Pedro Cossa said there was no doubt about the need for a tuna fleet and for coastal protection vessels – but he cited the huge losses made by EMATUM, and hoped that the matter would be dealt with in full in the 2014 General State Account. He hoped that, when the 2015 EMATUM accounts are published, “they will be more encouraging”.

Finally: aerial strength returns

The Air Force of Mozambique (FAM) has received in recent months in Maputo eight fighter-bomber aircraft MIG-21, which have been completely reconstructed and re-equipped with modern technology instruments, which lend the fleet of warplanes exceptional actualidade.Os aircraft They were fully converted in the workshops of the aerospace company Aerostar in Bacau, Romania, a company that is now one of the most prestigious sector of the repair, maintenance and modernization of military aircraft in Europe, with great support from reputable brands, including Airbus. It has been remarkable work that the Aerostar has developed into equipment coming from the factories of the countries that were once united in the 'Iron Curtain' or were assigned to the Soviet Union. The case of the MIG-21 Mozambique are proof that good work, highlighted by the European trade press in their editions' on line'.Os aircraft were acquired by Mozambique in 1982, but some did not get to fly 10 years (were intact in former Nacala airbase) and others not left the boxes, according to international press reports. When Mozambique decided three years ago to rehabilitate its Air Force had no planes and those who did not were operacionais.O contract for recovery of seven MIG-21 'Fishbed' (two seater) and two MG-21UM 'Mongol-B' ( used for instruction), also included the recovery of other aircraft, two seats, a L-39ZO Albatros, a jet of advanced training, developed by the former Czechoslovakia in the sixties, and is now also back to Moçambique.

O program -Contract between FAM and the Aerostar was 12 months and also included the education and training of military pilots and mechanics and other personnel will support the MIGs squad in terra.Segundo the magazine specializing in military affairs and defense ' IHS Jane's Defence 'Mozambique also acquired the Aerostar two ultralight planes' Festival' that will certainly be used in the training of pilot cadets who join the FAM. These aircraft are Romanian manufacture.The renovation project of the Mozambican Air Force has accelerated in recent months.

 Last year the FAM received two Antonov transport planes Na-26, second-hand in Ukraine, where the devices have been totally revised and painted with the colors of the military institution in Mozambique. Already in Maputo.It is recalled that Mozambique received in 1978 ten transport planes of that model, then provided under the military-technical cooperation agreements that the Armed Forces of Mozambique had with the former Soviet Union (USSR), as they are of Ukrainian manufacture, country which was then integrated in the former USSR. These planes is known that one was shot down assets due to having been destroyed in an accident in Pemba Airport in northern Mozambique that killed three crew members and 41 of the 48 passengers were on board. Six were parked in the open in the military zone of Maputo Airport, two in Beira Airport and another in Cuamba. None of these planes is recoverable, according to sources related to aviation in Mozambique.The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s, was crucial for the future of military aviation in Mozambique was practically dependent on the support of the then Soviet.Besides the two An-26 military transport planes already in Maputo, the Mozambican Air Force acquired last year an executive jet 'Hawker 850XP', secondhand and built in 2005 in the United States, which is intended to transport individuals, including government officials, when on official travel. 

Earlier, in September 2012, the Mozambican Armed Forces signed a cooperation agreement with Portugal (CTM - Military-Technical Cooperation) through which the Portuguese Air Force is training Mozambican staff in various services of military activity at the same time they were Mozambique offered the two light aircraft 'Cessna / Reims FTB-337G Milirole', who were assigned to the Aviation School of Practice and which are used in training pilots, medical evacuations and air traffic control of the Mozambican coast.The School of Aviation Practice is still in its training fleet a Cessna 152, a Cessna 172 and a Piper PA-32 Seneca, it acquired in 2011. 

The President of Brazil authorized the deployment to Mozambique, the supply of title, three Emb-312 Tucano fighters for training Air Force Mozambique. The planes, which once were part of the fleet of the Brazilian Air Force, are now allowed to continue their journey to Mozambique. These aircraft follow free, but the Brazilian defense minister has hinted that the offer has a double interest, as Brazil believes that in the near future Mozambique will order the Brazilian plant three Emb-314 Super Tucano aircraft, the updated version of the plane Embraer's military training. It's natural interest that we are witnessing the refit and relaunch air force Mozambican, who last was an excellent breeding ground for pilots, many in civilian life working in estrangeiro.Nunca was well understood because the Mozambican government, after Samora Machel, left drop the Air Force. There are mismatched versions, some unorthodox analysis and chain justification, but we've never seen confirmed or denied by the government of Maputo, that the FAM has been suspended, for so it was agreed when negotiating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between Frelimo and the Renamo on 4 October 1992 in Rome.