MAYOR TELLS OFFICIALS NOT TO FEAR “IMPORTANT” NAMES

The Mayor of Maputo, David Simango, has told municipal officials that they must not evade their responsibilities, when they are threatened by other citizens, even if the latter invoke the names of “important people”.At a meeting of the Consultative Council of KaMpfumo municipal district, low level officials complained to Simango that when they tried to enforce the municipal by-laws on building regulations, on parking, and even on excessive noise they received threats.The officials, mostly neighbourhood secretaries and block chiefs, said the threats came from “influential” figures or their sons.Simango replied that “normally threats are a tactic used by the weak. They make use of the names of the strong to frighten people. What I want to say to this Consultative Council is that nobody strong defends the wrong things”. “Some people may use the name of the head of state”, he continued. “Others will use the names of ministers and deputy ministers, of soldiers, judges or prosecutors, or of the mayor, or the city councillors, or of witch-doctors”.Even when the people whose names are used really are involved, “they are wrong”, Simango insisted. “What should be clear is that in our country, nobody is above the law”.Administrative authorities, from the highest to the lowest official, “must know this: when the head of state undertakes building work, he asks for authorisation from the municipality”, the mayor continues. “When it isn’t authorised, he doesn’t do it. I have already authorised building work for the head of state”.When there was a recent fire in the house owned by President Armando Guebuza in the Nlhamankulu municipal district, to carry out the repairs, he had to seek municipal authorisation and go through all the formalities. “That is, he asks, he waits, he pays the fees, and if he doesn’t pay, we charge him”, added Simango. “So who is this person who doesn’t want to comply with his duties and says that his son is above the law”.“Sometimes people tell lies and use our names maliciously”, he continued. “Don’t be frightened by these names. I have no power to stop people using these names, but what I can do is ask the grass roots bodies not to be afraid, and to follow the law. No matter whose son you are, we are all Mozambicans and we all we obedience to the law”.Simango added that he has personally interrupted illegal building work undertaken by influential people. “If I had been afraid of these people, and if I was not certain that I was acting in accordance with the law, I would not have told them to stop”.