Former
Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang will be extradited by South Africa to
Mozambique and not to the US to face major corruption charges, Pretoria has revealed.
The move could allow Maputo to limit the political damage in the huge
corruption case Chang is involved in.
Manuel Chang is in
a South African jail awaiting the decision of South African authorities on
whether to send him to the US or back home to be tried on charges related to
embezzling part of a US$2-billion loan to fund Mozambican government shipping
projects. The scandal almost bankrupted the country three years ago. South
African authorities arrested him at OR Tambo International Airport on December
29, 2018, while en route to Dubai. He was arrested on a warrant issued by
Interpol on behalf of the US government which seeks to extradite him to the US
to face charges of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud and money
laundering during his tenure as minister of finance between 2005 and 2015. The
charges relate to huge loans which international banks extended to the
Mozambique government to establish a tuna fishing fleet as well as a fleet of
security patrol vessels. The US indictment states that the entire project was
created to enrich Chang, other Mozambican officials, an executive of a
French-based shipbuilding company and Swiss bankers. He is being charged by the
US because some of the financial transactions he was implicated in were done
through US banks. Chang was denied bail in Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court last
week and is expected to appear in court again on February 26 to hear if he is
to be extradited to the US.
But on Tuesday
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told Daily
Maverick in an interview that her government had instead acceded to a
request from Maputo to extradite him there. Although South Africa had arrested
him on Washington’s request through Interpol, Mozambique had wanted him back to
face charges.
“We have agreed
that this will be expedited. As soon as we are done with the Interpol case we
will allow Mozambique to have their former minister back.
“We’re sending him
to Mozambique to be tried….And we believe that is the easiest thing for
everybody.”
Sisulu added that
the Justice Department was now establishing if there would be a clash between
the US and Mozambique, over their extradition requests.
But she was also
adamant that “right now we have received a request from Mozambique and we have
acceded to that”.
She suggested the
US could perhaps pursue its case after Mozambique had, and possibly even in
Mozambique. However, extraditing him to Mozambique could allow Maputo to limit
the fallout from the case, especially in an election year. Some analysts
suspect that the big bribes, in this case, went right to the top. Sisulu also
disclosed that she had withdrawn from direct involvement in the assignment
given to her by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to normalise relations with Rwanda,
because the case had become so personal and “vile”.
This appeared to
refer to personal insults directed at her from the Rwandan side for suggesting
it would be a good idea for Paul Kagame to negotiate with dissidents based in
South Africa.Sisulu told Daily Maverick that South Africa’s intelligence
and security services were now dealing with the case. Her spokesperson Ndivhuwo
Mabaya said she had referred the case to the security cluster for advice and
input. (Daily
Maverick)
