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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)