ANARDARKO CAPITAL GAINS TAX PAID

The US oil and gas company Anadarko has paid the Mozambican treasury 520 million dollars in capital gains tax, the chairperson of the Mozambican Tax Authority, Rosario Fernandes, announced at a Tuesday press conference.The Anadarko Mozambican subsidiary, Anadarko Mocambique Area 1 Limited, used to own 36.5 per cent of the Rovuma Basin Offshore Area One, in northern Mozambique, where vast quantities of natural gas have been discovered.Anadarko sold ten per cent of these shares to the Indian company ONGC Videsh for 2.64 billion dollars. Fernandes said the capital gain on this deal was calculated at 1.625 billion dollars. The capital gains tax owing, at the standard rate of 32 per cent, was 520 million dollars, and this sum was paid on 13 March.“The AT is thus bringing to the knowledge of the public that this transaction has been closed”, Fernandes said. “The AT repeats that it will always be firmly committed to pursuing actions in compliance with Mozambican tax legislation, concerning capital gains transactions, in close partnership with all the relevant bodies”.Capital gains tax on transactions involving Mozambican assets has now become a major source of revenue for the state budget. Cited in Wednesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, Fernandes said that, since 2012, there had been five large capital gains tax payments (including Anadarko’s), amounting to a total of 1.3 billion dollars.He thought this sum could be doubled by the end of this year, since the AT hopes to conclude by December the collection of tax from seven multinationals who have sold holdings in Mozambican coal and natural gas operations. A further three, more complex transactions should be concluded in 2015. Fernandes did not name which companies are involved.One he did name was the Australian mining company Riversdale, which was taken over by Rio Tinto in 2011, for 3.6 billion dollars. Riversdale’s only assets worth mentioning were in Mozambique – notably the open cast coal mine at Benga, in the western province of Tete, which is now being operated by Rio Tinto. No tax whatsoever was paid to Mozambique on this sale, but Fernandes said the AT intends to pursue the matter “to the final consequences”.“The Riversdale operation is not something we have abandoned and it never could be”, he said. “The Riversdale-Rio Tinto operation is a tax dispute, and we expect to have results. Taxation is a legal imperative. So the operation remains on the table and we shall follow it to the end”.It is believed that capital gains tax on the Riversdale deal should bring at least 200 million dollars into the Mozambican treasury. 

DEADLINE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY CNE CANDIDATES IS NEXT MONDAY

Mozambican civil society organisations have until next Monday, 31 March, to submit the names of candidates for the four remaining seats on the National Elections Commission (CNE).Mario Sevene, chairperson of the parliamentary ad-hoc commission organizing the selection of the civil society candidates, told a Maputo press conference on Wednesday that the resolution from the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, was published in the official gazette, the “Boletim da Republica”, on Monday.The resolution establishes a deadline of seven days from publication for the submission of nomination papers. Sevene admitted that so far not a single nomination has arrived. He said the Commission is placing advertisements in some of the media calling for nominations. In fact the Commission had already placed one advertisement in the daily paper “Noticias” on 21 March. Since this was before publication of the resolution setting up the ad-hoc commission, it was of doubtful legality. It also gave a wrong closing date of 28 March.The ad-hoc commission is obliged by law to submit a short list with a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 24 names to the Assembly plenary which will then vote. Since the ruling Frelimo Party holds 191 of the 250 seats in the Assembly, clearly a candidate can only be elected to the CNE if he or she is supported by Frelimo.Yet the increase in the number of civil society seats on the CNE was imposed by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, and Renamo is taking part in the work of the ad-hoc commission. This leads to suspicions that an informal deal will be struck, whereby the Frelimo parliamentary group will select two of the four members, and the opposition (Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) the other two. Asked exactly how the list would be whittled down to four names, Sevene would only say “The plenary will decide”.

Initially, under a law passed in December 2012, the CNE consisted of 13 members – eight from the parliamentary political parties (five appointed by Frelimo, two by Renamo and one by the MDM), three from civil society, a judge appointed by the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistrature, and an attorney appointed by the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.But the changes imposed by Renamo during its dialogue with the government, and rubber-stamped by the Assembly in February, increased the size of the CNE to 17, and threw off the two legal professionals. The new composition of the CNE is five from Frelimo, four from Renamo, one from the MDM and seven from civil society.The three civil society members elected last year (including CNE chairperson Abdul Carimo) remain in place, and all the political party nominees have been chosen. It remains for the Assembly to choose the other four civil society members. According to Sevene, the main requirements the candidates have to meet are that they must be Mozambican citizens over the age of 25 who will “perform their technical and professional duties with independence, impartiality, objectivity, zeal, honesty, loyalty, neutrality and dignity”. 

VOTER REGISTRATION: ONLY 37 PER CENT OF TARGET REACHED

Less than 40 per cent of the 9.14 million people expected to register as voters this year did so in the first half of the voter registration period, according to the general director of Mozambique’s Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), Felisberto Naife. Addressing a Maputo press conference on Tuesday, Naife said that in the first 37 days of registration, voter cards were issued to 3,345,177 people – 36.58 per cent of STAE’s target figure of 9,143.923.

Broken down by province, the figures are as follows, from highest to lowest percentage:

Cabo Delgado – 498,640 (55.47 per cent)

Gaza – 227,439 (45.09 per cent)

Inhambane – 245,228 (44.45 per cent)

Manica – 257,321 (40.62 per cent)

Sofala – 245,091 (37.91 per cent)

Maputo province – 141,495 (33.53 per cent)

Niassa – 206,824 (33.37 per cent)

Tete – 314,418 (32.73 per cent)

Zambezia – 629,191 (32.22 per cent) 

Nampula – 633,590 (31.78 per cent)

Maputo City – 35,940 (29.59 per cent).

These figures come from 3,728 (91 per cent) of the 4,078 voter registration brigades. Of the other 350, about 60 have not yet begun their work because of attacks by gunmen of the former rebel movement Renamo in parts of Sofala province, particularly in the rural areas of Gorongosa district. The rest have not reported in the full data for the first five weeks of the registration because of communications difficulties.The data refer to a point exactly half way through the registration which is due to last for 74 days – from 15 February to 29 April.To these figures should be added the 3,059,794 people registered in the 53 municipalities last year, ahead of the 20 November municipal elections. This means that 6,404,971 people now hold voter cards. This is 52.5 per cent of the total estimated electorate of 12,203,717.Naife was confident that the remaining 47.5 per cent of the electorate can be reached in the remaining five weeks of the registration period. He pointed out that heavy rains in late February and early March had slowed down the registration, “but the rains have now slackened, which is improving conditions on the ground”.Technical assistance for the computerised equipment used by the registration brigades has also improved, he claimed.There have been repeated complaints of computers, printers and batteries breaking down. Naife said that some of the problems were due to moving the equipment from the registration posts into storage every evening. During the movement, connections were loosened, and the brigades interpreted this as a breakdown.Naife promised that within a week all the brigades that have not yet begun work because of the military tensions in Sofala will be on the ground registering voters. Members of the National Elections Commission (CNE) have left Maputo to supervise registration in the provinces – particularly in Zambeza, Nampula and Tete. Two members of the CNE are in each of these provinces. Zambezia and Nampula are causing particular concern, because they are by far the most populous provinces. Between them, they account for about 40 per cent of the entire Mozambican population.Among the measures being taken, Naife said, is to extend the opening hours of the registration brigades. They are supposed to close at 16.00 – and have been doing so, even when there are still long queues of would-be voters outside the post. The brigades will now be instructed to carry on working when there are queues.Registration of Mozambicans living outside the country began on 14 March and will run for a month. Naife said that in the first week, 6,975 people registered – which is 11.79 per cent of the Mozambicans in the diaspora who registered for the last general elections in 2009.The numbers vary drastically – in Swaziland registration has already reached 65.74 per cent of the 2009 figure, but in Tanzania the figure is only 1.87 per cent.

CHIURE AWARDS GUEBUZA TITLE OF “CHIEF BUILDER”

Residents of Chiure district in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado on Monday gave President Armando Guebuza the title of “”Regulo (chief) Nteka”.In the Makua language “nteka” means builder, and the title was awarded in recognition of Guebuza’s role in the construction of social and economic infrastructures since he took office in 2005.The award occured at a rally in Chiure town held as part of Guebuza’s open and inclusive presidency in Cabo Delgado. Mendes de Sousa Mawala, who read out a message from the local population, said that, since 2005, two secondary schools, one technical and professional training school, and several primary schools had been built. The Chiure district hospital had been expanded and rehabilitated, and the district had been connected to the national electricity grid, he added. Furthermore, said Mawala, the District Development Fund (FDD), instituted by Guebuza in 2006, which provides loans for projects that boost food production and create jobs, had allowed hundreds of families to expand their areas under cultivation and improve their homes. He declared that in Chiure “we no longer go hungry”. ”We’ve built brick houses, with gutters and cisterns, we’ve planted trees and we’ve begun to taste the fruit they bear”, he declared. “This is all your work, Mr President”. Shortly before the rally, Guebuza visited some of the buildings now attributed to him, including the Kuphe Secondary School, which is implementing the presidential initiative of planting “one tree per pupil” each year, and an inn that had been built with FDD finance.Guebuza accepted the honour but added “you’ve called me the Chief Builder, but I didn’t do all this on my own, because I always relied on your support”. “I’ve visited a modern school, with qualified teachers, and an inn”, he said. “It was never imagined that someone visiting Chiure would find a place like this, with comfortable rooms”. 

RENAMO ELECTION DEMANDS WILL COST 35 MILLION DOLLARS

The demands by the former rebel movement Renamo for entirely politicized electoral bodies, and accepted by the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic in February, will cost the country about 35 million US dollars, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.The deal, arising out of the dialogue between the Mozambican government and Renamo, dramatically expands the size of the election commissions, and of branches of the executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) at all levels – national, political, district and city.According to Rogerio Nkomo, national budgetary director in the Ministry of Finance, the new structure involves the recruitment of around 3,000 people appointed by the three parliamentary political parties – the ruling Frelimo Party, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). All will be treated as state employees, and all will be entitled to wages and various other allowances.Nkomo said the calculations have been done, and the sum required is in the order of 35 million dollars.This will be a major component of the amended budget for 2014 which the government plans to submit to parliament during the current sitting. Finance Minister Manuel Chang has already announced that the amended budget must also include long overdue Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates for companies, plus the sum (an estimated 15 million dollars) required to finish projects that were included under the compact with the US Millennum Challenge Corporation (MCC), but were not concluded by the cutoff date of September last year.All this additional expenditure will be paid for out of the capital gains tax paid on shares transactions involving companies exploring the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

MOZAMBICAN ELECTRICITY TARIFFS “UNSUSTAINABLE”

The chairperson of Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company EDM, Augusto de Sousa Fernando, has warned that the current EDM tariffs are unsustainable and must be increased. Interviewed in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Fernando pointed out that the costs of purchasing energy have risen sharply, because EDM is now buying not only relatively cheap hydro-electric power from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi, but also much more expensive power from gas-fired stations.Mozambique’s power consumption is growing by 70 megawatts a year, said Fernando, which has obliged EDM to look for sources of electricity other than Cahora Bassa. He said that EDM pays about 50 million dollars a year for 500 megawatts from Cahora Bassa – which is the same sum it would pay for 150 megawatts from the gas-fired station at Ressano Garcia, on the border with South Africa, operated by the company Aggreko.Importing power from the South African electricity company Eskom is an even more expensive option. “Last year we purchased only four per cent of the energy needed for domestic consumption from South Africa – but it represented over 40 per cent of total expenditure”, said Fernando. “It’s very expensive but we have no alternative”.The total amount paid by EDM for electricity in 2011 was 63 million US dollars rising to 84 million in 2013. This year, because of purchases from the Aggreko power station, it will rise to 133 million dollars. The projection for 2017 is 470 million dollars.EDM’s peak demand is 761 megawatts. Cahora Bassa supplies only 500 megawatts – so, even with EDM’s own power stations at Chicamba and Mavuzi in Manica province (which are currently undergoing rehabilitation), there is no escape from buying power from Aggreko and Eskom.The difference in prices is staggering. EDM pays 1,080 meticais (35.8 US dollars) per megawatt-hour from Cahora Bassa. Power from Aggreko costs more than four times that amount, at 4,500 meticais per megawatt-hour. And Eskom sells its power to EDM for 7,500 meticais per megawatt-hour.But EDM’s average sales price to its clients is only 2,400 meticais per megawatt-hour. “This is what’s killing us”, said Fernando.

The planned coal-fired power station at Moatize will be cheaper than Aggreko or Eskom, but much more expensive than Cahora Bassa. Fernando put the Moatize price at 3,000 meticais per megawatt-hour. EDM will buy 55 megawatts from the first phase of the Moatize station, but that will not be ready until 2017.The increased expenditure is now calling into question EDM’s ability to pay HCB, the operator of the Cahora Bassa dam, on time. Until recently EDM paid HCB regularly, nut “now we are paying with difficulties”, Fernando admitted.EDM’s financial difficulties were now making repairs difficult. “Sometimes underground cables burn out, and the company does not have the immediate financial capacity to import new ones, and we have to use alternative solutions to ensure that electricity continues to reach the clients”, he said. “If the company continues to have no money, in the future we won’t even have the capacity to buy overhead cables”.The solution lay in raising the price of electricity, and encouraging savings. On average, he said, EDM was paying nine meticais per kilowatt hour, and selling electricity for eight meticais per kilowatt hour. The ideal would be an average price of 10 to 12 meticais per kilowatt hour.
Prices would be differentiated, he said, with industrial consumers subsidising domestic consumers. A tariff adjustment should “look after the most vulnerable strata by making the major consumers pay more”. Furthermore electricity should cost more at peak hours, after 19.00.Fernando said EDM is encouraging consumers to switch from incandescent to low energy light bulbs. “We have bought about 50,000 low energy light bulbs, for consumers to use and understand the advantages”, he stressed.Fernando wanted the government to ban the import and sale of incandescent bulbs. If each of EDM’s clients were to replace two incandescent bulbs with low energy bulbs “we would save 50 megawatts and almost 15 million dollars a year”, he said. 

UN armored "tied" in Maputo

The Tax Authority of Mozambique ( ATM ) seized 16 tanks of the United Nations ( UN) imported from South Africa and circulating in Maputo and Matola , with the destination, Mali , within the peacekeeping mission . According to a document from the ATM , the company is ahead of the importing and shipping of vehicles , called OTT TECHNOLOGIE Mozambique , disregarded the customs procedures under the current legislation . " Do not be presented in the customs office for the actual customs clearance of goods " reads the ATM document that states that the license only if the company says that the company makes vehicle assembly and does not mention that these are military vehicles . The company underwent Frontier Ressano Garcia Manifesto load and had its tab, then not only presented to customs , having made direct discharge in a plant in Matola . This procedure , according to the Tax Authority , violates the customs clearance of goods regulation . The Tax Authority says in the document that we have been quoting that are ongoing representations to institutions such as the Attorney General's Office , the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Interior and the United Nations itself for clarification. In a statement issued on Monday , the OTT TECHNOLOGIE Mozambique recognizes that did not show the goods ( shielded ) for clearance and inspection . In a statement that is signed by its General Director , Clive Lewis the company apologizes to the Mozambican state and says that everything was due to a " confusion " of the company's responsibility .

EVERY WEEK, IT'S BEEN THIS

The police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) registered 51 traffic accidents that resulted in death 26 people, seriously injured 48 and 70 passenger cars, as a result of speeding, road kill, clash between vehicles, stripped and overturning and falling of passengers, between 08 and March 14, in several roads in the country.

The number of death certificates is lower compared to 38 deaths recorded in the same period last year and 45 occurred between 01 and 07 March underway, but still worrying, because the deaths caused by vehicles prevail a problem without brakes in Mozambique, mainly due to non-observance of traffic regulations on the part of motorists.In the first week of March, according to the spokesman for the General command of the PRM, Pedro Cossa, the traffic police (EN) inspected about 21,287 vehicles, of which imposed fines to 3,621 offenders of the highway code, seized 136 vehicles for various irregularities, confiscated 112 booklets and 96 licences that holders have driven under the influence of alcohol. 

According to Pedro Cossa motorists do not respect basic standards of conduct or pedestrians. These are in danger until on the sidewalks. The spokesman considered that insensitivity towards the dangers on the road longer and, through this, buy the ticket for passengers being transported to their destinations but pay your death.

The images report a crash between two vehicles of transport of passengers occurred early in the morning of Wednesday (26). The clash was frontal and went into overdrive the car that followed towards Maputo/Marracuene. Five dead and 15 wounded, some in serious condition

Last Minute

He died on the morning of Friday, the victim of disease Ululu Vicente, senior box Renamo and former vice chairman of the Assembly. Sources told the Renamo Canalmoz Ululu that lost his life in hospital after a heart attack. Ululu was during negiciações Peace of Rome, one of the fundamental parts. Ivone Soares, Renamo deputy in the National Assembly confirmed the death of senior Renamo box and says Vicente Ululu "shocked party members."

You do not learn from mistakes

Over half of the firefighters hired by the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) in the city of Quelimane, Zambezia province, to work as agents of civic education aimed at the general elections of 2014 were selected from a list submitted by the party Frelimo election to that body. These lists (photos) indicate to be around 43 firefighters who left an elaborate proposal and sent to STAE and are now working as agents of civic education. But STAE director of the city of Quelimane, Louis Mackerel, says 46 firefighters came by public tender and the selection was made based on documentary analysis of prerequisites. Cited by newsletter published by the CIP, the STAE director refused to provide the lists of selected candidates. (B. A.)

Mozambican government will react

The Mozambican prison services on Wednesday categorically denied a story carried by the South African newspaper, the “Sunday Times”, that South African women prisoners, jailed in Mozambique for drug trafficking, have been used by prison officials as “sex slaves”.At a Maputo press conference, Samo Paulo Goncalves, the head of operations of the National Prison Service (SERNAP), said that neither the prisoners themselves, nor the South African High Commission in Maputo, which has been in regular contact with the women for consular purposes, have complained of any such abuses to the Mozambican authorities. The “Sunday Times” claimed that prison guards had demanded sex from some of the jailed women in exchange for food and toiletries. The paper claimed that one of the women died in 2012 after she had been denied adequate medical treatment. It said that conditions in the prison were inhuman with the women surviving on a diet of “rotten beans and fish”.Goncalves said there are 14 South African women currently held in Mozambican jails. They were all arrested at Maputo International Airport on various occasions over several years, and found to be carrying cocaine in their luggage or in their stomachs.In general, convicted prisoners serve their sentence at the Ndlavela women’s prison in the southern city of Matola, while those awaiting trial are held in the women’s section of the Civil Prison in central Maputo.Goncalves said there was no discrimination between foreigners and Mozambican prisoners. “All receive the same treatment, and have the same rights”, he stressed.The only discrimination was on grounds of gender. Because there are fewer women than men in jail, the prisoners in women’s jails enjoy more space and have better

food. Goncalves said the women prisoners receive at least two meals a day.Furthermore, all the guards and other full time staff at Ndlavela are women. Male employees only enter the prison for specific, specialist tasks.Since the Mozambican authorities had received no denunciations of the abuses alleged by the “Sunday Times”, SERNAP regarded the charges as without foundation. Goncalves stressed that prison guards know that if they are caught abusing prisoners they face immediate expulsion from the prison service and criminal proceedings.If SERNAP did receive a denunciation of abuses, “we are willing to investigate, and any guard involved can be certain that he will be expelled, charged and brought to trial”.
Goncalves confirmed that one of the prisoners, 26 year old Andiswa Maucotywa, had died of AIDS in August 2011. He said that she had been receiving Anti-Retroviral Treatment in South Africa, but did not tell the Mozambican authorities this when she was arrested. When she fell ill in prison, after her trial, she was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and was put back onto anti-retroviral drugs. Through SERNAP’s contacts with the South African correctional services, her family was located, and relatives came to visit her in prison.When she died, in the Jose Macamo Hospital in Matola, her body was handed over to the family, who took her back to South Africa for burial. “She received all available medical care”, said Goncalves.Some of the women were pregnant at the time of their arrest, and gave birth while imprisoned. In these cases, the Mozambican minors’ Tribunal decides whether the baby should stay with the jailed mother, or be cared for by other relatives. One of the South Africans, Ouma Maleke, gave birth to a son in July 2012. He remained with his mother, but SERNAP says it received a request from the South African High Commission in October 2013, asking whether the child could be taken to South Africa. This will happen if the mother agrees and the Minors’ Tribunal decides that the transfer is in the child’s best interests. SERNAP admits that one prisoner, Thandeka Radebe, was not released at the end of her sentence in September, because she had not paid the fine of 30,000 meticais (slightly less than 1,000 US dollars at current exchange rates) which was also part of her sentence. The court than converted the fin into an additional one year and six months imprisoned, so that she will not be released until 2015.The claim in the report that she was not freed because she could not pay a bribe of 10,000 rands (the rough equivalent of 30,000 meticais in the South African currency) to the prison guards “is completely false”, Goncalves said. “The prisoner knows that she was sentenced to a fine of 30,000 meticais, which is to be paid to the court and not to the guards”.As for the case of a woman held in solitary confinement, Nosipto Ikegnagu, SERNAP said she was put into a disciplinary cell for 30 days because she tried to escape. Her case has not yet come to trial, but a court has validated her continued preventive detention. She is pregnant, and SERNAP says she receives regular ante-natal visits from the health services.Three other prisoners, a South African and two Zambian women, did escape, and SERNAP says that six prison guards who facilitated the escape face expulsion from the service. The claim that a prisoner named Adelaide Nxele was placed under house arrest was untrue, said Goncalves, because there is no such penalty as house arrest under the Mozambican legal system. What happened was that she was granted bail while her case goes to appeal, and she is enjoying provisional freedom while awaiting the decision of the appeals court.

When we think act, it was late

The former President Joaquim Chissano took over on Tuesday , part of the blame because of Renamo, the largest political party in opposition, continuing with an armed faction , contrary to the spirit of the General Agreement on Peace of Rome , which established the doentão complete disarmament movement " rebel." in Great interview broadcast yesterday on Stv , Chissano believes that the achievement of peace was his proudest , but assumes that no disarmament Renamo was his " biggest mistake " over its governance."It was overconfidence terms allowed Renamo stay with weapons . When we begin to act , Renamo had already created a philosophy to keep weapons " Chissano said during the interview .Even after realizing the philosophy of Afonso Dhlakama , Chissano said he opted for persuasion, rather than force , in order to prevent the country returned to a new stage of war ." We did not know how many men , how many concealed weapons Renamo had . We prefer to play with time , with the persuasion, by approximation , and it lasted all these years , " stressed the former head of state.

Who is the FRELIMO candidate the presidency?

Nyussi Philip, was born February 29, 1969, in Namaua district Mueda, Cabo Delagado. In 1974 completed his primary studies in the educational center Tunduro (Tanzania). After studying at the school was FRELIMO in Mariri where 1980 completes the first cycle of secondary education. Did secundo cycle in secondary schools Samora Machel in Beira. Did his degree in mechanical engineering at the Academy of Vaaz Brno, in the Czech Republic in 1990. Made a post graduate of Victoria University of Manchester in 1999. Defense Minister arrived in the middle of the first term Armando Emilio Guebuza, after the dismissal of Tobias Dai​​, after the explosion of the powder magazine Malhazine. He is married and father of four children. Professes cristianismo.Na photo, Frelimo presidential is the eldest son of Nuysse family.

Whenever the government capitulates, Renamo puts another requirement

Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo has raised yet another pre-condition to be met before it will lay down its arms – the release of what it calls “political prisoners”.After the latest round of dialogue between the government and Renamo, on Wednesday, the head of the Renamo delegation, Saimone Macuiana, claimed that the release of these prisoners was essential for a return to peace.According to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, chief among those whom Renamo wishes to see freed is the head of its information department, Jeronimo Malagueta, who was charged with incitement to violence last June.Malagueta held a press conference to announce that Renamo would prevent the movement of vehicles along the main north-south highway between the Save river and Muxungue, in Sofala province, as well as the movement of trains along the Sena rail line between the Moatize coal basin and Beira. Malagueta’s statement was interpreted in some quarters as “a declaration of war”. At the press conference he was asked if that was the correct interpretation to put on his words, but he declined to answer.The police did not pick up Malagueta immediately after his incendiary statements, but only two days later, after Renamo gunmen really did begin ambushing vehicles, and murdering their drivers and passengers, on the Save-Muxungue stretch of the main road. Malagueta was charged with incitement but, thanks to the habitual lethargy of the Mozambican legal system, the case has not yet come to trial. Macuiana also demanded the release of the Renamo gunmen detained in a clash with the riot police in the northern city of Nampula in March 2012.This comes on top of another Renamo pre-condition – namely that there should be “international mediation” in future talks with the government. For the government, this is unacceptable. The head of the government delegation, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, told reporters on Wednesday that the dialogue with Renamo was an internal matter between Mozambicans for which no foreign mediation was required. The government had no wish to “internationalise” the discussions.These pre-conditions make Renamo promises to halt attacks once the appropriate mechanisms are put in place sound hollow. According to Macuiana, those mechanisms would include guarantees of inspecting and controlling a ceasefire.

The government, however, speaks not of a ceasefire, but of the unconditional disarming of Renamo. For Renamo has already signed one ceasefire – under the general peace agreement of 1992. Renamo has violated that agreement by activating units of armed men who ought to have been demobilised under the peace accord. The ruling Frelimo Party is clearly incensed at what it regards as Renamo’s bad faith. In February, Frelimo agreed to amend the electoral legislation to accommodate all of Renamo’s key demand, including staffing the electoral bodies with literally hundreds of political appointees. Since the excuse for the Renamo attacks was precisely the electoral legislation, Frelimo expected Renamo to halt the attacks, and that has not happened. Speaking in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday, the spokesperson for the Frelimo parliamentary group, Edmundo Galiza-Matos Junior, said he had assumed that Frelimo’s concessions over the electoral laws would bring the attacks to an end. But he was now convinced that the unanimity in passing the election laws, the applause, the embraces between the heads of the Renamo, Frelimo and MDM parliamentary groups was “all just a show – and, contrary to our expectations, we face more armed attacks”.

MINING COMPANIES FAILING TO FUND COMMUNITIES

Most of the mining companies operating in the western Mozambican province of Tete are not honouring their legal obligation to channel part of their revenues to the development of the local communities.Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, during a meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Planning and Development, the Tete provincial director of planning and finance, Maria de Lurdes Fonseca, said the mining companies should have paid 22.2 million meticais (about 719,000 US dollars) in 2013,But in reality only 7.2 million meticais was paid to the communities, and that came from just one company, Vale of Brazil.According to Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina, speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, the state budget, for both 2013 and 2014, stipulates that 2.75 per cent of the revenues generated by mining companies should be used for community development in the areas where the mines are located. This is covered by laws on mining taxation of 2007 and 2013.But Fonseca said that most of the companies have so far paid nothing at all. The other coal mining companies that ought to have paid are the Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto, Jindal of India, and Minas de Moatize (owned by the British company Beacon Hill). “We have to work harder to convince the companies to hand over the revenue”, she said. Several meetings with company representatives have been held, but the three companies are still not respecting their legal obligations to the communities. “Because there’s been no consensus, we’ve asked for support from the central authorities to overcome the problem”, added Fonseca.However, the money paid by Vale had made it possible to finance 14 community projects in agricultural marketing, general trade, and poultry farming. 320 permanent and seasonal jobs were created, and an agricultural service centre was set up in Tete, equipped with seven tractors to assist peasant farmers. 

LOW INFLATION RATE IN FEBRUARY

The rate of inflation in Mozambique in February, as measured by the consumer price indices for the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira), was 0.39 per cent, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Friday.This is a decline on the January inflation rate which was 0.98 percent, and it is a much lower rate than in February 2013, when prices rose by 1.16 per cent. Most of the significant February price rises were for foodstuffs. The rises which had most impact on the consumer price index were for tomatoes (15.4 per cent), cabbage (12.4 per cent), lettuce (14.2 per cent), and coconuts (2.7 per cent). Between them these four products pushed the overall level of prices up by 0.47 per cent. Tomatoes alone were responsible for pushing the consumer price index up by 0.32 per cent.On the other hand, several key foods fell in price – the price of cassava flour declined by 6.7 per cent, while potatoes and onions were 4.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent cheaper respectively.The accumulated inflation so far this year is 1.37 per cent. At the same time in 2013, it was 2.52 per cent.Comparing prices this February with prices in February 2013, the increase has been 2.38 per cent. The average 12 monthly inflation rate over the past year was 4.14 per cent – down from 4.29 per cent in January.There were significant differences in the inflation rate between the three cities. Maputo saw the sharpest price rises in February, of 0.66 per cent, while in Beira and Nampula price rises were minimal. In Nampula the consumer price index rose by 0.13 per cent, and in Beira by 0.11 per cent. But when the entire past year is taken into consideration, Nampula had the highest inflation rate of the three cities, at 3.43 per cent, followed by Maputo with 2.26 per cent. In Beira, however, prices only rose by 0.63 per cent

DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR FACES CORRUPTION CHARGES

Mozambique’s Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC) has charged the administrator and the permanent secretary of one of the districts of the northern province of Nampula of embezzling 1.1 million meticais (about 36,000 US dollars).Addressing a Maputo press briefing, the GCCC spokesperson, Bernardo Duce, did not reveal the names of the suspects, or the district concerned. He said the two claimed that the money had covered expenditure concerning travel on duty inside and outside the district.“During the investigation, the administrator and the permanent secretary could not present any documents justifying their claims”, said Duce. “For this reason, they have been charged and presented to a magistrate”. He said that in February, the GCCC processed 47 cases, four of which have been sent to courts for trial. No corruption trials were held in February (which is part of the judicial holidays when courts do not hear any new cases). There were also no reports of the arrests of any allegedly corrupt officials. One of the cases that has been charged concerns a former director of district education, youth and technology services, in the central province of Zambezia who, on learning that a teacher was ill, set up a mechanism to steal his wages. He managed to steal 105,000 meticais that belonged to the teacher before he was found out and sacked.Another case concerns an official in the Inhambane provincial government who demanded bribes of 8,200 meticais from two people who were seeking teaching jobs. Meanwhile, the national director of the Legal Aid Institute (IPAJ), Justino Tovela, has announced that ten members of the Institute have been caught extorting money from clients. IPAJ is supposed to provide legal services to people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, but several of its members were found to be making illicit charges for work that should be free of charge.Tovela said the ten have been suspended from duty and will be taken to court. 

PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX COST 71.8 MILLION DOLLARS

The new presidential complex in Maputo cost 71.8 million US dollars, financed by a loan from the Exim Bank of China, Finance Minister Manuel Chang told the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.Answering a question from the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Chang said the loan has a maturity of 20 years, and a period of grace of seven years. It carries an interest rate of 1.5 per cent.The complex includes offices and a residence for the President, a room for meetings of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), a banqueting hall, a car park, and access paths and gardens.The government had asked for the Chinese loan in 2010, but the project was only funded in 2013, the year when it was included in the state budget. Dispelling the idea that there was an

ything secret about the arrangements, Chang said the funding agreement was ratified by the Council of Ministers on 1 October 2013, and published in the official gazette, the “Boletim da Republica”, on 15 October.

The Minister said that the state apparatus has become “more robust in terms of the number of staff it employs and the greater demand for public services by citizens – hence the need for new public buildings in line with the new dynamic and new technologies”.This included not only the presidential complex, but new buildings for several ministries, the National Statistics Institute (INE), the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT), and the Administrative Tribunal.Chang noted that the Assembly itself has asked the government to finance a new parliamentary complex, including accommodation for deputies, which would be built on the other side of Maputo Bay, in the municipal district of Katembe, at a cost of 443.4 million dollars.The government has approached the Chinese authorities with this request for funding, and was awaiting a reply.

Desperate Renamo

Was seconded to the village of Inhaminga ( 03/04/14 ) a large contingent of the Armed Forces of Mozambique reinforced the Zimbabwean military. Yesterday ( 03/05/14 ) , 200 heavily armed men followed towards the base of Dimba , located 30 km inland from the village . In the next area , along the main road , the group began a long march on foot through the bite guided by one of the Renamo men recently captured in Inhambane in possession of weapons hidden in 15 bags of maize . Following the maneuver men Afonso Dhlakama mounted an ambush a few miles before the first base letting the troops pass and attacking from the rear. Government troops caught unaware regrouped immediately to face close-range shots and immediately opened the way to the woods near the road . Casualties as a result of this match point to close to 100 men and captured armaments . The corpses were seen by natural long abandoned by the forests and military trucks were used for the wounded at unspecified number. Other military units of the Armed Forces in response launched an offensive in support of Renamo zone , which resulted in the burning of huts and cut the fiber optic system. In the late afternoon Renamo tried to attack a position FADM in Madzamba , at a distance 17 km from the village of Inhaminga attack which was fought back . The situation is tense in Inhaminga and citizens are fleeing . Inhaminga is a village that was occupied by Renamo during the war of 16 years .

Quelimanenses, a people who have always celebrated with joy!!!!!!!!!!

MAN FOLLOWING

Filipe Jacinto Nyusi was born on 9 February in Namua district Mueda , Cabo Delgado province . He is the son of peasants and fighters for national liberation and Angelina Daima Jacinto Nyusi Chimela , both deceased struggle. He is married and father of four filhos.É member of the Political Committee of the Frelimo party . Philip Nyusi is influential among the fighters for national liberation struggle , taking into account that , since childhood , has been linked to this grupo.Nyusi Makonde ethnic group belongs to one of the groups that contributed to the fight against Portuguese colonialism and has a large influence within the Frelimo party .

1990 - he did a degree in mechanical engineering in Czechoslovakia , now the Czech Republic .

1999 - Makes a postgraduate degree in management from the University of Victoria in Manchester , England , and attended other complementary courses in management in India , South Africa , Swaziland and the United States.

2002 - Nyusi was professor of mathematics at the Pedagogical University delegation in Nampula , where he remained for five years.

2008 - He was appointed defense minister in the middle of the first term Armando Emilio Gueguza and currently has under its management the " dossiers " on military procurement and the politico - military tension in the center .

In the absence of official information...

Ambushed " and flees fire " occurred on the morning of Monday ( 03/03/2014 ) , in the Mussicadzi - 2 zone , the exact 92 km from the village of Gorongosa headquarters , along the National Road Number One , 27 military were affected and 11 were seriously injured . Renamo attacked the column of Mozambique's Armed Forces , consisting of a truck full of troops and a jeep with an anti - air , at a distance of less than 10 feet, even in the densely wooded roadsides . Of the injured , four eventually succumbed on the way to hospital in village headquarters of Gorongosa . Unconfirmed reports refer to 7 wounded and disfigured treated in critical condition. Some users of the hospital especially women turned away in horror before a Dantesque scene. The ambush took place for the first time , the leg - Nhamapaza Gorongosa and in EN - 1 which shows a change of strategy in the ranks of the guerrillas , because the vast majority of fights are usually made indoors stings . ( U.Cambuma / facebook )

FRELIMO WILL UNITE AROUND NYUSSI - GUEBUZA

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Sunday night that the ruling Frelimo Party will now rally round Defence Minister Filipe Nyussi as the party’s sole candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 15 October.Addressing the closing session of a four day meting of the Frelimo Central Committee, Guebuza said the members of the committee will leave the room “determined to unite around him so that, though our words and acts, particularly among the electorate and in the media, we shall make him the victorious candidate”.As President of Frelimo, Guebuza added, “I reaffirm that we shall give you, Comrade Nyussi, all the support necessary to win an overwhelming victory in the presidential election”.In the election of its candidate, he said, Frelimo had shown that it possesses “an unbreakable internal democracy. The debates were heated, always full of comradeship and impregnated with the responsibility that we have and we feel for the destiny of our Mozambican motherland”.During the meeting, Guebuza added, “each of us put forward our points of view freely, openly, frankly, and without time limits. Obviously they did not always converge with the views of other comrades”.Nonetheless, consensus had been reached “informed by realism and by the maturity and experience of a party that is fifty years old”. That consensus “has once again contributed to the internal cohesion of our Frelimo and to its vitality as a force that binds together all social strata”. “Thanks to the consensus achieved, we swore that the candidate emerging from this democratic process within Frelimo would be the candidate of all of us”, he stressed.He pointed out that Nyussi, born within a Frelimo family, had grown up and studied within the ideals of Frelimo. Guebuza cited Nyussi himself who had said “I am a worker who became a manager and then a politician, a child of Frelimo, with an appropriate profile to be a candidate for the Presidency”.Guebuza said Nyussi was a tribute to Frelimo’s strategy of training young Mozambicans “including those, like him, of peasant origin, to master science and technology, so that they can become the cadres of tomorrow, faithfully serving the people and the cause of the nation. Thus Comrade Nyussi represents Frelimo’s investment in youth”.Nyussi’s candidacy had been legitimised by “a fair, transparent and credible election” in the Central Committee. This was not a process in which there were winners and losers, Guebuza stressed – instead “we focused our attentions on strengthening internal cohesion and on the imperative of consolidating national unity”.“Through internal cohesion, we shall always be in better conditions to close our ranks against all the forces plotting to sow suspicions, confusion and misunderstandings amongst us, and divert us from what is essential right now, which is to win the 15 October elections”, he declared.“Cohesive, we complement each other in building this victory”, he added. “Cohesive, we strengthen our vigilance against those who might try to distort or subvert the norms by which our party operates”.Unity did not mean eliminating diversity, Guebuza said. “Amongst us, it is not a problem that each of us belongs to this or that ethnic group, speaks this or that language, or professes this or that religion”. The problem, he continued, “begins when citizens with interests opposed to our healthy coexistence and to national unity try to manipulate our differences in order to divide us. In the final analysis, undermining national unity means destroying the nation itself”.The Central Committee had therefore “reaffirmed the need for all of us, for Frelimo, to continue fighting, without any complacency, and with all our strength against tribalism, racism, regionalism, localism and nepotism. Each one of us should ask every day how we have been contributing to national unity”.