G4S ADMITS OWNERSHIP OF UNIFORMS

Some of the uniforms seized by the Mozambican police at a house used by criminal gangs as a hideout does indeed belong to the private security company G4S.The police raided the house, in the outer Maputo neighbourhood of Luis Cabral, on Monday, where they found a variety of weaponry, communications equipment, and uniforms. Some were green uniforms apparently identical to those used by the rebel movement Renamo, while others seemed to belong to G4S.A letter from G4S, cited by the Beira daily “Diario de Mocambique”, said that the uniforms were indeed G4S property, but had not been used by the company since 2008.G4S guards receive new uniforms regularly, and are supposed to return the old ones. The company’s logistics sector then destroys the old uniforms at the Malhempsene rubbish dump in the southern city of Matola.The company surmised that the uniforms found at the Luis Cabral house may have been stolen by the people who were supposed to destroy them. It admitted that this incident would oblige G4S to revise its procedures for disposing of old uniforms.The company insisted that the blue shirts, still wrapped in plastic bags, which the police had also found in the house have nothing to do with G4S.Renamo has also denied that anything found in the house has any connection with the rebel movement.