“a political war”

The traffic lights in the city of Nampula are back working after a three-week “blackout” caused by Mozambique Electricity (EDM) installing prepaid metres in the robots so as to pass the energy costs on to the city council – which simply did not buy electricity to recharge the devices. There is now talk of a “political war”. Eduardo Pinto, EDM representative in the capital of Nampula province, told ‘O País’ that the installation of the prepaid metres on the city’s traffic lights had been preceded by a meeting at the end of last year between the heads of the electricity supplier company face-to-face and municipality representatives.

“We said what our intentions were – to bill for the electricity that should be paid for by the municipality itself. They agreed, and even raised other concerns [at the meeting]. Since then, they have been silent. We wrote a letter to the municipality about the meeting and what we were doing, and set up the electricity metering system. The electricity ran out, but the municipality did not buy any more,” Pinto explained. EDM says that the prepaid system for traffic lights is nothing new and is in use, for example, in both Chimoio and Tete cities. At the end of Wednesday afternoon, the traffic lights returned to work, suggesting that the municipality had purchased the necessary electricity. But Ossufo Ulane, head of the Nampula mayor’s office, claims that only on the 8th of this month did the municipality receive a document confirming the actions [already carried out], with EDM not observing its duty of social responsibility.

“Traffic lights form a part of social responsibility. The municipality’s social responsibility is to put them there, and EDM’s social responsibility is to supply the electricity. We believe, as we have always said, that there is a political war in governance here, and we know its starting point,” Ulane said. According to lawyer Alberto Langa, the starting point for any analysis is establishing who decides on the placement of traffic lights in the city, and to whom they belong.

 

“The light signals are part of the assets of the city [municipality]  and the city has administrative, patrimonial and financial autonomy. These traffic lights are part of the city’s assets, which should be, at least, for the city to manage. Looking at the functioning of even provincial government buildings, in whatever province, electricity consumption will be invoiced for, and will be paid for,” he explained.