TENDER LAUNCHED FOR ALLOCATION OF AIR ROUTES

The Mozambique Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation regulatory body, on Tuesday launched a public tender for the allocation of domestic, regional and intercontinental routes, and asked interested Mozambican and foreign companies to apply for them.This follows strong criticism of LAM (Mozambique Airlines) by many of its customers over flight delays and cancellations – criticism that was supported by President Filipe Nyusi, when he visited LAM on 13 April, and later that day addressed an extraordinary meeting of the Consultative Council of the Transport Ministry.

Nyusi also called for competition in civil aviation, and claimed there are senior figures in the Transport Ministry “who find it difficult to let the competition flow. We don’t have planes flying, but we don’t let others fly. We say that our airspace is open, but we don’t say what this means”.

He urged the IACM to take a flexible approach to the entry of new companies into the domestic market. “You are closing the circuit so that things operate as they did in the past”, he accused. “The problems of transport result from this closure”. The routes covered by the tender include virtually every conceivable domestic route, whether currently flown by LAM or not. If other companies respond to the tender and are accepted, LAM would face competition on its routes from Maputo to the main central and northern cities (Beira, Chimoio, Nampula, Tete, Lichinga and Pemba).Clearly the IACM would dearly like to attract other companies to use Nacala International Airport on the northern coast. This airport, inaugurated three years ago, is the most modern in the country and the most underused. The only airline using Nacala is LAM for flights to and from Maputo. So the routes proposed in the tender include from Nacala to virtually every other provincial capital.The tender also covers new routes from small airports such as Inhambane and Chimoio to cities which currently cannot be reached without changing planes.

The regional routes in the tender exclude LAM’s most profitable route, which is Maputo-Johannesburg, operated in an arrangement with South African Airlines (SAA). But other South African destinations are covered, included Lanseria (north-west of Johannesburg), Cape Town and Durban.Other regional routes currently flown by LAM (but sometimes operated by other airlines) are included in the tender (to Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa). So are routes that have never been flown before, such as Maputo to Mauritius, to Gaberone, to Zanzibar or to Mombasa.

The international routes include Maputo to Doha (currently flown by Qatar Airways) and to Istanbul (currently flown by Turkish Airways), but most of the proposed routes are entirely new, including such destinations as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore and Hanoi.The IACM also suggests routes from Nacala to destinations in South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi, and also to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Other intercontinental flights never flown before include Beira, Tete, Nampula and Pemba to Doha, and Nampula to Istanbul and Ankara. New regional routes proposed include Nampula to Mauritius, Beira to Mombasa and Pemba to Gaberone.Airlines applying for these routes must hold a licence issued by the IACM. They must have a sales code approved by the IACM, and their flights must be included in an integrated reserves and sales system.They must prove that they have the financial capacity to operate the flights, and present an economic viability study. Preference will be given to companies that have been operating on the national and international market for more than two years.Companies have 30 days, as from Tuesday, to send their applications for the routes to the IACM.

INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANT FOR NINI SATAR

The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) on Tuesday night announced that it has issued an international arrest warrant for one of the country’s most notorious assassins, Momad Assife Abdul Satar (better known as “Nini”), in connection with the wave of kidnappings that has shaken Mozambican cities since 2011.

In January 2002, the Maputo City Court found that Satar was one of the three business figures who had ordered the murder, in November 2000, of the country’s foremost investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso. Satar was sentenced to 24 years and six months imprisonment, but was released on parole in 2014 after serving just half his sentence, on the ground that he had shown “good behavior” while in the Maputo top security prison.

Police and prosecutors, however, were convinced that, far from being a model inmate, Satar had been active, from his prison cell, in planning other crimes, including the kidnappings of business people. Satar never had any problem in acquiring cell phones, even though such devices are not allowed inside prisons.Satar was charged in a 2013 kidnap case – but the presiding judge scrubbed his name from the list of suspects. That same Maputo judge, Aderito Malhope, later in 2014, authorized Satar’s request to travel abroad, supposedly for medical treatment, though it was not stated what condition he suffered from which required treatment outside of Mozambique.He was supposed to go to India, but the parolee never set foot in that country. Supposedly, he changed his mind and went to London instead. He has never returned to Mozambique, but keeps a Facebook page detailing at least some of his travels, including to Geneva and Lisbon.

The PGR, however, continued to investigate Satar’s connections with the kidnappings and his name is on the charge sheet in two cases opened earlier this year. The PGR only went public with this information after one of Satar’s alleged accomplices, Jose Aly Coutinho, was sprung from police custody in a spectacular escape in downtown Maputo on Monday.Coutinho had been serving a 16 year sentence for theft and kidnapping. Like Satar, he too had no difficulty in communicating with the outside world from his prison cell, and the PGR is convinced he is one of those who ordered the murder, on 11 April 2016, of prominent Maputo prosecutor, Marcelino Vilanculos, who was investigating the spate of kidnappings.

During the latest investigations, says the PGR statement, “it was found that the accused, Momad Assife Abdul Satar, formed a criminal organization with the purpose of kidnapping Mozambican citizens, so that later large amounts of money in ransom could be demanded”.To this end, he formed “a criminal alliance” with Coutinho, and with another prisoner, Edith da Camara Cylindo, who has also now been accused of involvement in the assassination of Vilanculos.In light of these findings, the PGR issued an international arrest warrant, and asked the Maputo City Court to revoke Satar’s parole status. The City Court agreed and cancelled Satar’s parole in a dispatch dated 21 April. From that moment, Satar became a fugitive. If he is returned to Maputo and found guilty of any of the crime of which he is now accused, he will also have to serve the remainder of his sentence for the Cardoso murder.The PGR is also seeking the re-arrest of Coutinho, and of the second man who escaped on Monday, Alfredo Muchanga (who is not known to be connected with Satar), wherever they may be, in Mozambique or abroad.Meanwhile, the police have set up an inquiry into the circumstances of Monday’s escape. Those circumstances were peculiar, to put it mildly. Coutinho and Muchanga were taken from their cells in the Maputo City Police Command, and driven towards a Maputo police station, where they were to be interrogated in connection with alleged attempts to sabotage the security system in their cells. Before they could reach their destination, the vehicle, belonging to the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), was ambushed by a group of four armed men, all wearing hoods.

The assailants fired more than 20 shots, mostly at the tyres of the police vehicle, immobilizing it. The two policemen in the car, a Land Cruiser, fled for their lives, allowing the gangsters to rescue Coutinho and Muchanga. They then escaped in their getaway car, a Toyota Runx.

The chairperson of the Mozambican Bar Association, Flavio Menete, who is a former National Director of Criminal Investigation, interviewed by the independent television station STV, said that it was highly irregular to take dangerous criminals from prison for interrogation in a police station. The normal procedure is for the police interrogators to come to the prison.

Furthermore, although the cells are physically located in the Maputo City Police Command, they are an extension of the Maputo top security prison, which is under the control, not of the police, but of the national prison service, SERNAP. Menete pointed out that it was thus SERNAP, and not the police, who should authorise any movement of convicted prisoners. Yet there was no sign of SERNAP involvement in Monday’s events.A second police vehicle was escorting the Land Cruiser, but was held up at a set of traffic lights. Menete found this story absurd. For normally police cars on delicate or potentially dangerous missions do not stop for traffic lights – they just turn on their sirens and drive straight through them.A second jurist, Antonio Frangoulis, who was once the director of the Maputo branch of PIC, had no doubt that Monday’s escape could only have occurred with the involvement of police officers who had leaked information to the gang that rescued Countinho and Muchanga.

Meiya Pico

Director of Crime Investigation Bureau, Director of Cyber Police department, Second Secretary of Ambassador from Mozambique visited Meiya Pico for learning the digital forensics products and technology. During the visiting, the situation and problems in combating cyber crime that Mozambique are facing were introduced by delegates,and during the communictationand Meiya Pico marketing officers shared with each other some valuable suggestions.The smart idea and digital forensics of Meiya Pico attract more and more oversea law-enforcement departments.

Meiya Pico is the leading digital forensics and information security products and service provider in China, and dominates 45% digital forensic market share in China. Established in 1999, Meiya Pico started as an EnCase reseller and provided forensic service and training. Till now, Meiya Pico has established 24 offices across mainland China. Listed on the ChiNext board of Shenzhen Stock Exchange on March 16, 2011, Meiya Pico has been developing own hardware and software products of digital investigations and information security protection. Meiya Pico has six service centers, focusing on digital forensic authentication, data recovery, digital forensic training, intellectual property protection, and technical support respectively. Meiya Pico entered the international market since 2011 and is providing digital forensic products , forensic solution and service to worldwide clients.

MITSUI FINAL INVESTMENT

The Japanese company Mitsui does not expect to take its final investment decision on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado until April-June 2018, according to a Wednesday report from the Reuters news agency.Mitsui holds a 20 per cent stake in Area One of the Rovuma Basin, off the Cabo Delgado coast. The operator of Area One is the Texas-based company Anadarko, with a 26 per cent stake. The other partners in the consort are ONGC Videsh and BRPL Ventures of India (20 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively), the Thai Group PTT (8.5 per cent) and Mozambique’s own National Hydrocarbons Company, ENH (15 per cent).

Anadarko estimates the known recoverable reserves of natural gas in Area One at 75 trillion cubic feet. It plans to produce LNG in two factories (known as trains) onshore, in the Afungi Peninsula in Palma district. Those factories will produce 12 million tonnes of LNG a year. Construction can only begin once all the partners have taken their final investment decision. Building the two trains will take around four years, and so the start of LNG production will not be before 2022. 'We had hoped to have finalised the negotiations with (the) Mozambican government by December,' Hirotatsu Fujiwara, Mitsui's Executive Managing Officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of a gas conference in Chiba, Japan. 'We are four months behind.'

The partners in the Anadarko consortium are in talks with Japanese power and gas utilities, aiming to finalize binding long-term offtake agreements within a year, Fujiwara said.

The project has secured more than 8 million tonnes a year (mtpa) of non-binding long-term commitments. It needs to secure binding commitments to account for about 80 percent of the total 12 mtpa capacity to get the necessary funding for a final investment decision, he said.Fujiwara said Qatar's decision to restart development of the world's largest natural gas field, North Field, was a surprise but would not likely have a significant impact on the Rovuma Basin project because it had already taken into account a substantial growth in demand beyond 2025.It is likely that the second Rovuma Basin consortium, that in Area Four, led by the Italian energy company ENI, will start production before the Anadarko consortium. ENI and its partners have all, with the exception of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), taken their final investment decisions.ENI intends to build a floating LNG facility above the Coral South gas field in Area Four. It has signed a contract to sell the LNG from Coral South to BP-Poseidon, a subsidiary of British Petroleum. This contract covers the sale of all LNG from Coral South for 20 years.

KROLL AUDIT WILL COVER GUEBUZA’S ACCOUNTS

Mozambican prosecutors have asked the country’s banks to provide details of the accounts held by former President Armando Guebuza, as part of the investigations into the security-linked companies Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company), Proindicus and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), according to a report by the Bloomberg news agency.Bloomberg said it had obtained a copy of the letter sent to the banks by the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) which requested information on Guebuza, 17 other named individuals and one institution, for the period January 2012 to December 2016.PGR spokesperson Georgina Zandamela told Bloomberg that the request is part of the audit into Ematum, Proindicus and MAM being undertaken by the London branch of the US company Kroll. She said Mozambique’s sub judice rules made it impossible for her to say anything further.

Contacted by the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, Zandamela said “the PGR does not comment on ongoing cases”. But she added that the document quoted by Bloomberg “did not come from the PGR. We are not the source for this information”.

The only other plausible explanation is that somebody in one of the banks leaked the letter to Bloomberg.According to “Mediafax”, in addition to Guebuza himself, the accounts which the PGR/Kroll wants to investigate belong to, among others, two of the former President’s sons, Ndambi and Mussumbuluko, and to people who had worked in Guebuza’s presidential office, including Renato Matusse, Edson Macuacua (currently chairperson of the parliamentary constitutional and legal affairs commission), Neuza Matos and Marlene Magaia. When Bloomberg contacted Guebuza’s office, asking for comment, it was told that a response would be ready in 21 days. Isalcio Mahanjane, a lawyer who represented Guebuza when he was questioned last year by a parliamentary commission of inquiry, said he had not seen the PGR request.

The companies covered by the Kroll audit received over two billion dollars in loans from European banks (mainly Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB) in 2013 and 2014. These loans were illegally guaranteed by the Guebuza government, and thus became part of the country’s foreign debt stock. The guarantees smashed the limits on government guarantees fixed in the 2013 and 2014 budget laws, and also violated the Constitution which stipulates that only the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic may authorise such debts.Predictably, none of the three companies were able to service their debts, and it soon proved that their viability studies were based on wildly optimistic assumptions. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, has told the creditors that the government cannot repay the loans either, and has urged them to negotiate a debt restructuring.While the Ematum loan (of 850 million US dollars) was known, because it took the form of a public bond issue, the Proindicus and MAM loans (of 622 and 535 million dollars respectively) were kept hidden until April 2016. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other western partners, accused Mozambique of misreporting its debt situation, and cut off financial assistance.The IMF insisted that relations can only return to normal after an independent, international audit of the three companies. Kroll has until 28 April to submit its audit report. It is hoped that this will reveal what assets and services were purchased with the loans, whether the assets purchased arrived in Mozambique, whether they were properly priced, and whether any of the money has gone missing.

DREAM OF CHEAP BIODIESEL NOW OVER

The dream of producing cheap biodiesel from the shrub jatropha is over, according to the Mozambican Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.Under the previous government, led by President Armando Guebuza, a great deal of hope was placed in jatropha. The plant grows readily enough in Mozambique, and it was imagined that the production of biodiesel from jatropha seeds might be a way of reducing Mozambique’s dependence on imported fuels.Indeed, crushed jatropha seeds can produce high quality diesel, and the plant has also been used to produce aircraft fuel. Several countries, including Brazil and Pakistan, grew jatropha commercial, and produced diesel from it.But in Mozambique, jatropha cultivation was on a small scale, and most farmers declined the invitations to grow jatropha, preferring to concentrate in food crops.

But the final nail in the jatropha coffin was the sharp fall in oil prices. Cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, Almirante Dima, deputy national director of hydrocarbons in the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, pointed out that, at the height of the enthusiasm for jatropha, a barrel of crude oil was selling for 130 US dollars. There was talk that prices could reach 200 dollars a barrel.That would certainly have made biodiesel from jatropha highly competitive. But, contrary to the prophecies, the price of oil has tumbled. Dima said no-one would buy biodiesel at 70 dollars a barrel, when conventional fuels cost 50 or 60 dollars a barrel.“Nowadays it is not viable to use biodiesel because the cost of producing it is higher than the cost of conventional fuels”, he said.The government had once planned to make it compulsory to add biofuels to conventional fuels. As from 2012, fuel companies were supposed to sell diesel that was a mixture of three per cent biodiesel and 97 per cent ordinary diesel. Petrol would be 10 per cent ethanol and 90 per cent orthodox petrol. This measure, it was believed, would cut the annual fuel import bill by 22 million dollars.But it never happened. Despite the announced support of the Brazilian government, the project fell victim to the global financial crisis, which halted funding for biofuel initiatives. In 2014, the then National Director of Renewable Energies, Eusebio Saide, said the financial crisis had blocked the development of the biofuel industry in Mozambique. Chances of revival seem slim. Nowadays, the main alternative to imported liquid fuels is Mozambique’s own natural gas, and the words “biofuel” and “jatropha” can no longer be heard in official discourse.