OLICE DENY THAT MOATIZE MAYOR KILLED TRUCK DRIVER

The Mozambican police have denied reports that the mayor of Moatize, in the western province of Tete, Carlos Portimao, shot and killed a truck driver last Thursday.According to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, the 30 tonne Freightliner truck caused an accident in Moatize. Instead of stopping, the truck driver attempted to leave the scene, but in doing so damaged other cars, including scraping the side of the Toyota Surf belonging to Portimao.The police gave chase to the truck, and Portimao joined the chase. A report circulated that Portimao caught up with the truck and shot the driver five times. He died in hospital a few hours later.However, the spokesperson for the Tete provincial police command, Deolinda Matavele, said that after a few minutes Portimao abandoned the chase, and left it up to the police to catch the fugitive truck driver.The chase went on for about 20 kilometres, and then the driver, and a woman accompanying him, jumped out of the moving truck and made an attempt to escape through the bush. The pursuing police opened fire, hitting the driver in the thigh and the woman in the foot.When “Mediafax” asked Matavele why the driver had died from a thigh wound, she replied that only the hospital authorities could answer that question. As for Portimao’s alleged ownership of a pistol, Matavele said that the mayor does not use a firearm and is not authorized to carry one. “So I can assure you that Carlos Portimao was not among the group of police who gave chase to the truck”, she added.