“And nowadays what happens?”

The former Minister of State Administration, Oscar Monteiro, on Wednesday warned that some leaders in today’s Mozambique choose to appoint less skilled people who will not outshine them, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.Monteiro, who was giving a lecture in Maputo on the life and work of the country’s first President, Samora Machel, recalled that Machel deliberately surrounded himself with the best people available – but some of today’s leaders prefer to choose cadres who are weak.Monteiro, who was a member of the Frelimo Political Bureau under Machel, said “Samora knew how to gather the best around him. I ask you: do we let ourselves be surrounded by the best, or do we call on those who will not put us in the shade?”

“There are people who think they should not have near them people who are more skilled than they are, because this will expose their weaknesses”, he added.Monteiro attacked those who use their positions inside the state to feed their private business interests.“The assets of the state must be defended because they belong to all of us”, he said. “There are people who have the knack of being rich. Fine – but let them do their business outside. Using their position in the state for business to their own benefit is to be condemned”.“This is becoming a disease which does not allow the State to stand up straight, and it’s no longer a hidden disease. It’s in the faces of all of us, because the people who do this sort of thing need to show it off”, he accused.

Monteiro said that Samora Machel kept a distance between himself and the state’s money. State property was sacrosanct “and once, when somebody, on changing his residence, took some state goods with him, Samora called a meeting, and said the goods belonging to the State must not be privatized”.Machel was never involved in questions of money, Monteiro recalled, “and in his speeches, he used to say ‘if you see me become rich, ask me where the money comes from’”

“And nowadays what happens?”, Monteiro asked his audience.