Terrorists expel residents of some villages

The self-styled “Islamic State” terrorist group invaded last Wednesday, the villages of Marere, Calugo and Ulo, in Mocímboa da Praia district, in the northern Mozambican Province of Cabo Delgado, warning the local residents to leave their homes, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newsheet
“Carta de Moçambique.”

According to sources cited by the paper, the terrorists said they did not want to see anyone, which means

the population had to leave the villages.

“The population in the south of the district had abandoned their villages for fear of the terrorists and of being mistaken for insurgents, since joint forces operations are underway”, said Sifa Saíde, a resident of the Aeroporto neighbourhood in Mocimboa da Praia town

Two weeks ago, the terrorist group claimed, through its propaganda channels, to have murdered 11 people, whom it described as “Christians”, in Mocimboa da Praia district.

The defence Minister, Cristóvão Chume, declared on Friday that the eradication of terrorism from Cabo Delgado demands community empowerment, and reduction in poverty and illiteracy.

He also said that governing in favour of the well-being of the population can help stop the spread of terrorist actions on the African continent, including in Cabo Delgado.

 

Three Muslims run for Municipal President

 

Four district administrators were dismissed , “as part of the ongoing movement of public administration staff in the country”, according to  a statement from the Ministry of Public Administration and Civil Service issued on Friday (September 29).

The press release states Shafee Sidat was dsimissed from the position of  administrator of Marracuene in Maputo province; Momade Ali as district administrator of Ilha de Moçambique district and Rui Chong Saw as district administrator of Mossuril district, both in Nampula province; and Issa Tarmamade as administrator of Ibo district in Cabo Delgado. On Thursday, Mozambican president dismissed Cecília Chamutota as deputy minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, appointing her Secretary of State for Sofala province, in central Mozambique, in place of Stela Pinto Novo Zeca, who was dismissed from the post on Tuesday. Stela Pinto Novo Zeca is the Frelimo candidate for mayor of the city of Beira in the municipal elections on October 11th.

Ahmad Shafee Ismail Sidat, Momade Amisse Ali, Rui Chong Saw and Issa Tarmamade are also Frelimo candidates in the October 11 elections – for mayors of Marracuene, Ilha de Moçambique, Mossuril and Ibo municipalities, respectively.

 

Saudi company to produce feed and fertilizer in Chókwè

The Saudi company Jampur Mozambique, Lda, operating in Chókwè district, in the southern province of Gaza, will produce feed to meet demand from the poultry industry and aquaculture, as part of a series of new projects it is introducing to make better use of by-products from the processing of rice, tomatoes and cashew nuts. Jampur has taken control of the Chókwè Agro-Industrial Complex (CAIC), which was once a gigantic state farm.

According to Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Notícias”, the company’s focus was on seeking market guarantees for locally produced rice, but now the businessmen of the Jampur Group want to broaden the range of investments to other projects, which include a production line for fish and poultry feed, fertilisers and supplements to improve the robustness of cattle. The expectation of this business group is to reduce dependence on imports to satisfy the local market for poultry and fish. In addition to food production and marketing, Jampur has other projects in the pipeline, namely the establishment of an industry to produce footwear and uniforms.

According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jampur Group, Mohammad Shafiq, at this embryonic stage of its operations in CAIC, attention is being focused on processing and marketing. He said, without giving specific figures, that there is investment in the pipeline for a range of structuring projects in the value chain of products aimed at domestic consumption and also for export.

“We are also interested in investing in the production of poultry, fertilisers and uniforms, all here in Chókwè district,” he said.

The revival of the Chókwè Agro-Industrial Complex is the result of the National Programme to Industrialise Mozambique (PRONAI), launched in 2021 by President Filipe Nyusi, with the aim of contributing to an increase in production, stimulating agro-processing, reducing the export of raw materials and generating employment and income for the family sector. According to the governor of Gaza, Margarida Mapandzene Chongo, this is the first major step that the province has taken in agro-processing and agro-business in the light of the national industrialisation programme. She said that foreign researchers had been approached during the recent presidential visit to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which included a delegation from the Gaza Provincial Executive Council, to relaunch the portfolio of anchor projects for the Limpopo Valley production area. She emphasised that the arrival of the investors in CAIC is an added value for boosting the province’s economy and creating more job opportunities, especially for young graduates in various areas of technical and vocational education, but also for valuing the efforts of producers who have been complaining about the lack of a market for their produce.

“Work has already begun. As they are foreign investors, there is a lot of bureaucracy in the initial procedures so that they can carry out their activities to the full, but they are very confident in the collaboration of the central government and we locally have been doing our part to make this project a reality”, she said.

 

 

Gains $500mn+ secret debt cancellation

Mozambique on Monday announced a negotiated deal with the major Swiss Bank UBS. It took over Credit Suisse after CS collapsed under a series of corruption scandals including the Mozambique secret debt. This ends only part of the case about the secret debt in the commercial count in London.

Economy and Finance Minister Max Tonela and Deputy Attorney General Angelo Matusse told a press conference on Monday that the negotiation in London resolves a large part of the Credit Suisse loan. They refused to give details, but we estimate that more than $500 mn of the secret debt has been cancelled, which is a major victory for Mozambique.

The $2 bn secret debt was borrowed by three companies owned by the government, including the security services SISE. Initially in 2013 and 2014 $622 mn was borrowed by Proindicus, $535 mn by MAM, and $800 by Ematum. Of the Proindicus loan, $118 was lent by the Russian bank VTB and the rest by Credit Suisse, which in turn syndicated some of the loans (that is, sold the loans) to investment funds.

In case of dispute, these loans are all adjudicated in the London Commercial Court, and in 2009 legal cases were brought by Mozambique, by Privinvest, and by lenders. Prininvest is the company which received all the money, allegedly for projects in Mozambique, and which is accused of bribery and over-invoicing. What is common in such proceedings in London is that the courts rule on points of law, and then the parties often negotiate a deal in secret.

With accrued interest payments and penalties, the Proindicus loan is now probably around $900 mn. The trial is due to start today in London, but UBS and Mozambique have removed most of the Proinidicus loan from the case and announced a deal this Monday morning. VTB and BCP (Banco Comerical Portuguese) are not part of the deal and are continuing with the court case. The exact deal remains secret because of the syndicated loans, but all banks and funds except BCP have accepted what is called a “haircut”. The Mozambican government has agreed to pay a small part of the syndicated loans and the banks and funds accepted a substantial loss. Thus I estimate that more than $500 mn in debt has been cancelled. Cancelling more than half the Proindicus debt seems a good deal for Mozambique. The press conference was told that Mozambique’s legal costs so far are $80 mn and will continue to rise as the trial resumes. In London Privinnvest has appealed a ruling which said that as President, Filipe Nyusi cannot be called as a witness. But it seems likely that as the court case proceeds and the evidence is laid out, other deals will be done.

 

 

Settlement with UBS was approved

The extrajudicial agreement between Mozambique and the financial group UBS on the “hidden debts” case in the British courts was approved by the Council of Ministers in June, the Mozambique Government Gazette Boletim da República dated 14 September indicates. The Supplement to the Boletim da República dated September 14, consulted on Monday by Lusa, ratifies the ‘Transaction Agreement’ signed between the Republic of Mozambique, the state-owned company Proindicus, the Credit Suisse Group and other litigants in accordance with a resolution approved by the Council of Ministers [Cabinet] on June 6th.

READ: UBS nears settlement with Mozambique govt in Credit Suisse $1.5 billion tuna bond case: Report

“The purpose of the Transaction Agreement is the global and definitive resolution of the dispute between the parties referred to in the previous article and the total and reciprocal waiver of their claims, in the dispute, in the case of the disputing parties, and outside of it, in the case of the non-litigating parties, regarding responsibilities in financing Proindicus,” the document states. 

In addition to Credit Suisse, currently part of the UBS financial group, Moza Banco, United Bank for Africa, investment funds VR Global Partners and Farallon Capital, as well as Banco Internacional de Moçambique, Banco Comercial de Investimentos and other institutions signed the agreement. However, the shipping group Privinvest, the Russian bank VTB and Banco Comercial Português (BCP) were specifically omitted from the agreement. “This deal appears to have been in the works and cooked up [over] some time,” Privinvest lawyer Duncan Mathews told the London High Court in London on Monday.

READ:  Mozambique: UBS Group reaches agreement on eve of hidden debt trial

Sunday’s settlement, struck one day before a blockbuster London trial was due to begin, prompted scores of lawyers representing Mozambique, Credit Suisse, Privinvest, three former Credit Suisse bankers, creditors and others, to gather in the High Court in London to establish how the trial should now proceed. Judge Robin Knowles said there was an imperative to ensure the three-month trial o “complicated and interwoven multi-party case” was fair to all parties and postponed the opening of the trial to at least Oct. 16. Duncan Matthews, for Privinvest, told the court that the settlement had created a “significant shift” in the burden on his clients and that they should have time to work out which claims and cross-claims remained on the table. He also noted that it was “not quite clear” whether Mozambique’s claims against three former Credit Suisse bankers had also been settled or put on hold.

READ:  London trial delayed until at least Oct. 16 as Mozambique switches focus to Privinvest in ‘tuna bond’ case

The trial is the culmination of almost four years of litigation in the British courts, to which Mozambique appealed, alleging bribery, conspiracy to harm by unlawful means and dishonest assistance to write off debts and claim financial compensation worth millions of dollars.

US$0.55 per kilogram

The official price for a kilogram of cashew nuts in Mozambique fell from 37 meticais (58 US dollar cents) to 35 meticais (55 cents) for the 2023-2024 marketing year, the committee responsible for regulating the sector has announced. The deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Olegário Banze, quoted today by Notícias, the country’s largest daily, said that the fixed price guarantees “balance throughout the nut production chain so that there are no segments [especially] harmed”.

“In order for prices not to be always dictated from the outside, it is necessary to create a more robust scenario internally that allows the national market to impose its prices, which involves increasing production and guaranteeing the processing of cashew nuts at a domestic level,” Banze emphasised. Cashew nut production is a source of income for thousands of families in Mozambique, mainly in the north of the country. According to AIM news agency, India and Vietnam are currently Mozambique’s main export destinations for cashews, and, therefore have the greatest influence on prices in the market.

                          

Balama graphite

Syrah Resources said Monday it has completed a production campaign at its Balama

operation in Mozambique, with natural graphite shipped during the September 2023 quarter. The announcement comes as the company says an Australian article on Sunday “incorrectly” stated that Syrah continues to mine and stockpile rather than sell output from Balama. Promising further details on 17 October, the company noted it has seen “increased anode production in China and improved natural graphite demand recently”.

Syrah Resources Limited (ASX:SYR) (“Syrah” or “Company”) notes that the Australian Financial Review published an article on Sunday, 1 October 2023, which incorrectly stated that the Company “continues to mine and stockpile rather than sell output”.

A production campaign has been undertaken at Syrah’s Balama Graphite Operation in Mozambique (“Balama”), and natural graphite sales and shipments were completed, during the September 2023 quarter. Ongoing strength in global electric vehicle sales has seen increased anode production in China and improved natural graphite demand recently. Further information on Balama production, as well as natural graphite sales and shipments, will be released with the Company’s September 2023 Quarterly Activities Report on Tuesday, 17 October 2023