World Travel Awards

LAM inflight magazine Índico attracted the highest number of votes from readers, mostly passengers, customers, professionals and specialists in the aviation and tourism sectors. Director General of LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique/Mozambique Airlines) João Jorge expressed satisfaction with the achievement and gratitude to all the magazine’s fans and users of the company’s services. “A feat of this nature shows how vital the stability that shareholders give to the company is, being the driving force for professionals to give their best to the company. We express our immense gratitude to market and other interested parties, and particularly the public, who have done so much for LAM,” he enthused. Índico was created in 1988 and is the oldest trade magazine in Mozambique. With a focus on staying current and following the trends and dynamics of the civil aviation industry, in tandem with standing out in differentiating factors, it invests in innovative editorial projects. The magazine  is currently its fourth series and is now produced by Executive Mozambique.

Índico was voted at  the World Travel Awards for the In-Flight Magazine shortlist last year, and has already been lauded in Mozambique as “Best Tourism Partner”, in a 2013 Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators of Mozambique (AVITUM) initiative. Índico is also seen as a reference in the field of education as a result of its variety of articles, and as a means of promoting cultural dialogue, with texts published in both Portuguese and English, expanding its readership and the understanding of matters covered. The magazine focuses on Mozambique, while also covering other LAM destinations.

‘Revamp’

Vale Moçambique is to ‘revamp’ its mining complex in Moatize in Tete province, with the aim of increasing production to 15 million tons in 2021. The general maintenance of the mining complex is based on sustainable and safe operation, this being a crucial company value. Work started this month and will continue until the beginning of March 2021. Maintenance usually implies a decrease in coal production, but work in the mine will not stop, and all the miners will be actively involved during the project. Given the scale of the operation, Vale has had to hire around 1,300 temporary workers for the duration of the project – mostly Mozambicans, but also from countries such as Brazil and South Africa.

Maintenance at coal processing plants is based on the restoration of basic equipment conditions and the implementation of improvements in conservation, operation and production processes. Structural actions, such as a strategy review, will also be put in place, along with maintenance and operation plans and procedures and the training of operation and maintenance teams. The objective is to strengthen the operation and maintenance processes to ensure the sustainability of results after the ‘revamp’. Vale’s priority is its people, so the entire maintenance operation will be subject to the highest levels of safety, including the prevention of the new coronavirus. Despite the constraints caused by the pandemic worldwide, Vale has kept on its entire workforce, as crucial both for the company’s business and for the well-being of its employees.

Rail link to Malawi

Mozambique’s publicly owned ports and railway company (CFM) will invest 30 million US dollars in the rehabilitation of the Dona Ana-Vila Nova da Fronteira railroad spur, in the central province of Tete, to re-establish the rail connection with Malawi, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

Augusto Abudo, the managing director of the CFM central division, said the money will be disbursed by the company and the groundwork for the project, meant to end in September 2021, is underway. The branch line is 115 kilometres long, of which 44 kilometres are on the Mozambican side between Dona Ana and Vila Nova da Fronteira, and the remaining 71 kilometres on the stretch from Vila Nova da Fronteira to Nsange-Bangula in Malawi.The next phase, said Abudo, will consist of clearing the bush from the route of the line. Work on this has already begun on the Malawian side. When operational, the railway will connect Malawi to the central Mozambican port of Beira “When the line is working, cargo to and from Malawi will be ferried along the Sena Rail line to the Port of Beira,” said Abudo. He stressed that the line bring great benefits not only to CFM but also to the country because of the jobs and related businesses it will create.

The resumption of the rail link follows the understandings between the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, and his Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera, in October, when the two leaders met in Tete. The rail connection between the two countries was interrupted in the 1980s at the height of the war of destabilisation, pitting the government against the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels.

Seven of nine community radio journalists

Seven of the FORCOM radio journalists who fled into the bush when their village, Muidumbe, was attacked are now safe, director of the Community Radio Forum (FORCOM) Ferosa Zacarias has announced. “Of the nine journalists who were in the woods, seven are now supposedly safe. I say supposedly, because there is no true security where there is hunger and no roof over one’s head,” Zacarias reports. “Some are in Nampula, others in Montepuez or in the capital of Cabo Delgado, Pemba, and in Mueda. But they are very weakened physically and psychologically.” The journalists fled into the bush when terrorists raided Muidumbe on October 31, destroying the São Francisco de Assis community radio station.

Read more: Mozambique attacks: Community Radio journalists have been hiding in the woods for 10 days, with  families – NGO

There followed about 12 days of distress, in which the journalists reported difficulties surviving in the woods while grieving relatives beheaded by the terrorists.

FORCOM director Ferosa Zacarias

Where are the other two?

But the wait is not over, Zacarias noting that “two other [journalists] are unreachable, and we do not know what condition they are in”.

“They cannot be located, we have no information. We do not know if they are alive, and are very concerned. They are both married and have fled with their families,” Zacarias says.It is not the first time that São Francisco de Assis Community Radio, which is supported by the Pemba diocese of the Catholic church, has been closed down. In April this year, terrorist attacks forced the team to stop broadcasting and seek temporary refuge in a safer parts of Cabo Delgado province.

In view of the insurgents’ recurring attacks, will the station close indefinitely?

Radio coordinator Father Edegard Silva Junior says that, “the reopening of the mission will depend on the guidance of the bishop. For security reasons, the reopening of the radio will depend on circumstances and on the radio president, Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa”.Two other fundamental factors will have to be taken into account: the equipment, “which was probably stolen or destroyed”, and the electricity supply.“We have been without power for many months. And no one is going to put the team’s life at risk or open the radio until appropriate conditions exist,” the priest says.The violence in the north of the country has prompted FORCOM to observe that the state is responsible for guaranteeing the safety of its citizens, warning that the closing-down of community radio stations in conflict regions jeopardises the population’s right to information guaranteed by the Constitution.

Prominent trader murdered

Unidentified assassins murdered a prominent trader, Issa Ayubo (also known as Goromico) on Thursday night at his home in Nangade, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”. He was shot three times, and the official version is that this was a robbery. “He was found in the living room of his house at about 20.00 on Thursday”, said one local source. “He was hit with three bullets, in the chest, and the abdomen”.

On the day of the murder, he had sold a significant amount of cashew nuts, which means he was probably still in possession of the money from this sale. There are reports that he may have resisted handing over the money when his assailants demanded it. Earlier this year, the defence and security forces detained Goromico on suspicion that he was financing the islamist terrorists operating in Cabo Delgado. He was questioned for almost a month and was then released without charge. In addition to cashew nuts, Goromico made his living by selling spare parts for bicycles, motorcycles and electrical equipment. Meanwhile, the country’s Roman Catholic bishops, in the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM), have described the situation in the Cabo Delgado district of Muidumbe as “critical” and “highly unstable”.

At a Maputo press conference on Friday, the CEM spokesperson, the bishop of Chimoio, Joao Carlos, said “the perception we have is that it’s a very desolate situation which needs a rather forceful intervention to clarify what’s going on. But first we must find a way of accommodating all the people who are fleeing from the district”. The attacks in the northern districts of Cabo Delgado, said the bishop, constitute “a real humanitarian drama”, characterised by death, the burning of villages and the destruction of economic and social infrastructures. Vast numbers of displaced people are fleeing, he said, describing the situation as “a flagrant assault against human rights”. Reports from Muidumbe over the past week suggest that the terrorists struck at 11 Muidumbe villages between 31 October and 11 November. 20 young men were reported murdered when the jihadists attacked an initiation rite in 24th March village. A second initiation rite was attacked in a nearby village (which was not named), causing the deaths of 31 people. The raiders also destroyed two community radio stations, as well as schools, health centres and homes. The internet portal “Pinnacle News” reported that a football field in Muatide village had been turned into an execution ground, where the jihadists beheaded their captives and dismembered their bodies.

700 million dollars for new Zambezia

The Mozambican government hopes to mobilise over 700 million US dollars to build a new dam at Mugeba, in Mocuba district, in the central province of Zambezia. According to the Minister of Public Works, Joao Machatine, cited in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the dam is part of the government’s National Infrastructure Development Plan for the period 2020-2040. An environmental impact study on the Mugeba dam was completed last year.Machatine said this will be one of the largest investments during this government’s term of office (2020-2024). The dam will be able to store 658 million cubic metres of water. He believed it would be crucial for flood control on the lower reaches of the Licungo river. The Licungo regularly floods the downstream districts of Namacurra and Maganja da Costa.

The new dam, the Minister said, will also conserve water for human consumption and for irrigation, and will generate electricity. The dam will be one of the main themes of an International Investors’ Conference for the Development of Zambezia, to be held on 26-27 November. Speaking in Namacurra, Machatine said the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) has just set up an economic team to provide technical assistance and advice to the province, in order to transform its natural resources into real wealth. There were enormous challenges ahead for Zambezia in addition to the Mugeba dam, he said, including building the new port at Macuse, and the railway linking it to Chitima in Tete province, exploiting agricultural value chains and investing in new irrigation systems. He expected projects set up under the government’s flagship agricultural development programme, Sustenta, to create 10,000 direct jobs in Zambezia.

26th on Ibrahim Index

Mozambique ranked 26th on the 2020 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), showing a deterioration trend, it has emerged today. Mozambique scored 49 points, 0.2 less than ten years ago, with declines in the categories of “Participation, Rights and Inclusion” and “Security and the Rule of Law”. At the same time, the country has in the past year improved its “Foundations for Economic Opportunity” and “Human Development” scores significantly. The annual Ibrahim African Governance Index (IIAG) measures the quality of governance in 54 African countries by compiling statistical data from the previous year.

The 2020 Ibrahim Index of African Governance highlights a decline in African governance performance for the first time since 2010. The 2019 African average score for Overall Governance falls by -0.2 points below that of 2018, registering the first year-on-year score deterioration since 2010.