Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali on Thursday promised that the government will reduce the prices of identity documents.Speaking at the end of a two day question and answer session in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Ali said that all states faced a problem with ensuring that identity documents are reliable.“There is a growing demand for appropriate security solutions”, he said. The Mozambican government had therefore switched to biometric identity documents. These had clear advantages in that they cannot easily be forged – but they also had additional costs.The government has farmed out production of identity documents to the Belgian company Semlex – and the prices have increased dramatically. An identity card for an adult used to cost 50 meticais (less than two US dollars) – but the biometric version produced by Semlex costs 180 meticais.The cost of a passport has soared from between 150 and 300 meticais to 3,000 meticais. The price of a one year residence card for foreigners is now an extraordinary 24,000 meticais. 60 per cent of the money paid for passports and residence permits, and 83 per cent of that paid for identity cards is pocketed by Semlex.The government is now yielding to the protests over these prices. “The government has decided to review the process”, Ali told the Assembly. “We shall soon issue new prices”. Turning to the riots against the cost of living in Maputo on 1-2 September, Ali stressed that it is the government’s responsibility to maintain public order. Violent demonstrations “are not the best way to deal with the cost of living. We strongly condemn those who incite violence and disorder. Dialogue is the way to solve problems”.He urged the public “not to be intimidated by those who call for violent demonstrations”.
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