COOPERATION WITH VIETNAM IN POLICE MATTERS

The Mozambican and Vietnamese governments signed an agreement in Maputo on Friday aimed at strengthening the operational and institutional capacity of the Mozambican police force.The agreement, signed by Mozambican Interior Minister Alberto Mondlane and Vietnamese Public Security Minister Le Hong Anh, envisages activities that seek to prevent and combat organised crime, including money-laundering, terrorism and cyber-crime.Staff training is envisaged to raise the technical and professional skills of Mozambican police officers. The police forces of the two countries will also exchange information and experiences. Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Mondlane stressed that friendship and cooperation between the Mozambican and Vietnamese peoples date back to the time of Mozambique’s struggle for independence from Portuguese colonial rule.He said that Mozambique recognises the development that Vietnam has achieved in crime fighting and prevention, and hopes to take advantage of this.As for staff training, the Mozambican government hoped to send police officers to Vietnam, as soon as all the necessary logistical conditions were in place.

REGIONAL PARLIAMENT SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED GRADUALLY

Mozambique is in favour of transforming the SADC (Southern African Development Community) parliamentary forum into a regional parliament, but warns that this can only be done gradually. Speaking on Friday during the 29th Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, held in the Angolan city of Lubango, the chairperson of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Veronica Macamo said “in relation to the institutionalisation of a regional parliament, we are in favour of gradual change, which presupposes phased steps with the establishment of deadlines”.During her speech to the Forum, Macamo stressed the need to consolidate its existing consultative functions and to strengthen its capacity to make recommendations to other SADC organs, as part of preparing the Forum for more complex functions.According to Macamo, the regional parliament should be independent and autonomous, and will need to cooperate and collaborate with the other SADC bodies and with the Pan-African parliament.As for the members of the regional parliament, Macamo said that these should be drawn from the national parliaments because this system guarantees the most legitimacy and an effective link with the citizens of the member states.On financial sustainability, Macamo advanced the opinion that the regional parliament’s budget should be allocated by a SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government.In relation to quotas for representation, Mozambique wants to maintain, for the sake of unity, the current setup of the Forum, whereby each country provides an equal number of members, irrespective of the size of the national population.Macamo also tackled the question of the regional parliament’s competency and mandate. She said that to begin with, parliament should focus on issues affecting the region as a whole, such as human rights, migration, industrialisation, agriculture, education, and AIDS.She argued that the regional parliament should pronounce about these matters before each Summit of Heads of State and Government.Macamo also expressed concern about events in North Africa, and Libya in particular. She said that certain countries and international organisations were taking decisions in the name of the United Nations, that “threaten the lives of the population of African states, without listening to the region in which they are situated, not even the African Union”.“We have to unite and defend our countries and peoples. We have to have, in fact, a united voice, the voice of Africans. A voice that all should respect, just as we respect the states of other continents”, declared Macamo.

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has obtained “highly satisfactory” results from the latest IATA (International Air Transport Association) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), according to a LAM press release received by AIM on Monday.The audit was held from 6-10 June. According to sources in the audit, quoted by the release, “the assessment held shows clearly that LAM is a company which in its operations complies with the technical and operational requirements established in the civil aviation industry. It is thus a safe company that its clients can trust”.IOSA is the internationally accepted and recognised audit system for civil aviation. 370 air companies, accounting for 93 per cent of world air traffic have IOSA certification.The audit looks at an airline’s business organisation and management system, flight operations, operational control, aircraft engineering and maintenance, cabin operations, ground assistance, cargo operations and operational safety.This is LAM’s third consecutive IOSA certificate. It was first certified in 2008, then again in 2009, and now in 2011.Despite this result, LAM is still not allowed to operate within the airspace of the European Union. Perversely, the European Commission paid no attention to the IOSA certification, or to LAM’s impressive safety record, when it decided in April to ban all Mozambican air companies from flying to Europe.In a press statement, the Commission announced that “all air carriers certified in Mozambique have been banned from flying into the EU ... because of significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action”.But these “safety deficiencies” were at the level, not of the air companies, but of the regulator, the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM). Despite the ban, LAM continues to fly to Europe, because its twice weekly flights from Maputo to Lisbon are operated under a “wet lease” agreement with a Portuguese ompany, EuroAtlantic Airways, which is not covered by the ban.

MOZAMBIQUE TO JOIN KIMBERLEY PROCESS

The preparations for Mozambique to join the Kimberley process of diamond certification are nearing completion, and the relevant documentation should be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly by December, according to the Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias.The Kimberley Certification Scheme is designed to ensure that diamonds sold on international markets do not come from conflict zones. It is aimed at preventing “blood diamonds” entering the market.The system was devised after the apartheid-backed UNITA rebels in Angola, and later, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone used diamonds to finance their murderous activities,Speaking last week at a meeting with companies that hold licenses to explore for diamonds, Bias said the government was speeding up moves to join the Kimberley process because of the “encouraging signs” that diamonds might indeed be discovered in the Mozambican subsoil.“Our preparations for joining are advancing”, she said. “Several technical staff have been trained, and, through attending various Kimberly Process general meetings, we are familiarizing ourselves with the practices adopted by other countries”.40 licences have been issued to 27 companies and individuals to explore for diamonds.

HUGE INVESTMENT LIKELY FOR LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS

The Houston-based oil and gas company Anadarko is proposing to the Mozambican government the establishment of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in the far north of the country, which could produce a billion cubic feet of gas a day.Of the various companies exploring for hydrocarbons in the Rovuma Basin, near the border with Tanzania, Anadarko is by far the most advanced. The block it was awarded covers both onshore and offshore areas in the districts of Palma and Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province – and in four of the seven exploratory wells that Anadarko has drilled, large deposits of natural gas have been found.
All the discoveries are in deep water offshore, and two are counted among the top ten gas discoveries world wide in 2010. The exploration is not cheap. Anadarko has so far invested 750 million US dollars in the Rovuma basin, and expects this sum to reach in excess of three billion dollars by the end of 2013. If plans for an LNG facility go ahead, that could raise investment to 15 billion dollars by around 2018. This would be by far the largest foreign investment in Mozambique to date.John Peffer, the Managing Director of Anadarko’s Mozambican operations, told reporters that he regards LNG as the only viable option. Only an LNG facility can provide the economies of scale that would make it economical to exploit gas fields that are under 1,500 metres of water and 40 kilometres out to sea.LNG is non-toxic and non-corrosive, and is generally regarded as the least environmentally damaging fossil fuel, since it has the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy. The LNG plant would be put somewhere along the Cabo Delgado coast. Highly specialised equipment would liquefy the gas at a temperature of minus 162 degrees centigrade, which reduces the product to one six-hundredth of its volume as a gas. Special cryogenic tankers would then carry it to the export markers, likely to be in the Far East, where it would be heated and turned back into gas. The tankers are used for journeys where a pipeline would be impracticable, Such operations would require a new, dedicated marine terminal. Adapting the existing port facilities at the provincial capital, Pemba, or in the town nearest the discoveries, Mocimboa da Praia, would be out of the question.Peffer is confident that the plant Anadarko has in mind can handle a billion cubic feet of gas a day. But the exact extent of the gas discoveries is not yet clear – and a billion cubic feet may turn out to be a modest target. Perhaps twice as much could be processed, which would require a second plant.For the next couple of years, Anadarko’s priority is to continue its exploration and drilling programme in an attempt to establish the size of the gas reserves, and the characteristics of the reservoir.Peffer adds that the company has not yet given up hope of finding oil. One of the Anadarko wells did strike oil – but not in commercially viable amounts. The geology was different – while the gas discoveries are in rocks of Eocene and Oligocene age (from 56 to 23 million years ago), the oil was in Cretaceous rocks, which are at least nine million years older.This part of the Rovuma Basin has been severely affected by rifting and volcanic activity – the heat involved seems to have evaporated liquid hydrocarbons. The gas discovered is described as “very dry”, lacking the condensate that can be found in the onshore gasfields in the southern province of Inhambane,But the Anardako block covers a vast area, and exploration will continue to both north and south of the gas discoveries. Peffer stresses that striking oil can by no means be ruled out – but it is clear that Anadarko’s main priority is to develop what is known to be present, which is the vast deposits of gas.At the moment one drilling ship, the Belford Dolphin, hired by Anadarko from the Norwegian company Fred Olsen Energy, is stationed off the Mocimboa da Praia cost, above the latest discovery, at the Lagosta well. Peffer says that Anadarko will bring in a second drilling ship by the end of this year, and possibly a third one in 2012.What is in this for Mozambique? Peffer stresses that Mozambique stands to gain large sums from royalties and taxes on profits, and on the incomes of the well-paid employees working on the rigs. Jobs will be created in significant numbers during the construction of the LNG plant, although the production phase is likely to involve only between 150 and 300 highly skilled staff. But over 1,000 new jobs could well be created in companies providing Anadarko with goods and services.Arsenio Mabote, the chairperson of the National Petroleum Institute (INP), wants to see at least some of the gas used in Mozambique. He mentions projects to produce fertilizers and methanol, and also the use of gas to generate electricity for consumers in the northern provinces.But Mabote is well aware that, at its current stage of development, Mozambique could only use a very small amount of the gas. To make it viable to extract the gas, a huge anchor project is required, which would provide an adequate return on the capital ploughed into the Rovuma basin by the investors. That anchor project is Anadarko’s proposed LNG plant. “Anadarko believes it has found real amounts that will be sufficient for this project, and it will present a proposal to this effect to the government”, says Mabote. He points out that the government is a partner in all the blocks being explored in the Rovuma. In the case of Anadarko’s block (known as “Area 1”), it has 15 per cent. But in the exploration phase the government invests no capital at all – all the risk is taken by the foreign investor. Only after the extent of the reserves is proven, and the production of the gas begins will the government be obliged to invest its own resources.

MIXED FUELS COMPULSORY AS FROM 2012

As from 2012, Mozambican fuel suppliers must mix biofuels with the diesel and petrol that they sell to motorists.The initial regulations for the mixed fuels, approved by the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), sets targets for a mixture of 10 per cent ethanol and 90 per cent petrol, and three per cent biodiesel with 97 per cent conventional diesel.According to Energy Minister Salvador Namburete, cited in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, these figures were established by taking into account Mozambique’s installed capacity for producing biofuels.The targets may look modest – but the government expects this measure to knock 22 million US dollars off the annual fuel import bill. Currently imported fossil fuels are costing the country around 500 million dollars a year.The mixed fuels will also be beneficial for the environment since they have lower emissions than unmixed petrol or diesel. It is also claimed that they will be better for vehicle engines, and will lengthen their lives.

PLANNING MINISTER AT ADB MEETING

The Mozambican government’s strategy for the use of the funds made available by the African Development Bank (ADB) prioritises agriculture and infrastructures, according to the Minister of Planning and Development. Aiuba Cuereneia.Speaking  in Lisbon, where he was attending the ADB General Assembly, Cuereneia said that some of the 140 million euros (about 201 million US dollars) that the Bank plans to invest in Mozambique over the next three years takes the form of direct budget support.A further part of the ADB support will go to projects under way, mainly in the road sector. This includes the road between the northern cities of Nampula and Lichinga, and the road from Mueda to Negamano in Cabo Delgado province, also in the north“Right now, we are discussing further financing to rehabilitate the Massingir Dam”, said Cuereneia. “The work requires an additional 20 million dollars”. The dam is on the Elephants River, a major tributary of the Limpopo, in the southern province of Gaza. It has not functioned properly because of severe seepage problems.The Lisbon ADB meeting, held under the theme “Towards an Agenda of Inclusive Growth”, was dominated by the overthrow of dictatorial regimes in North Africa, and the urgency for African leaders to connect economic growth with social gains. In his speech to the meeting, Cuereneia recognised that the ADB has played an important role in the economic and social development of Mozambique, where “we are continuing with investments in infrastructures and services to increase economic activity, particularly in the rural areas, where programmes of rural electrification, water supply and sanitation, and the expansion of micro-finance institutions stand out”.For Cuereneia, the diversification of the economy and the promotion of small and medium industries, in the countryside and the towns, “is our strategy for the promotion of inclusive growth”.He also stressed the government’s recently approved Poverty Reduction Action Plan (PARP) for 2011-2014, in which the priorities are centred on increasing agricultural production and productivity, job creation and the development of human capital. “Our approach to increasing production rests on improving access to inputs, making available adequate technologies and improved seeds, increasing the capacity to control pests and diseases, and making the best use of water for irrigation”, he said.

LIBELLOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST AIM DIRECTOR CONTINUES

The Mozambican government’s press office (GABINFO) has ordered an inspection of the management of the Mozambique News Agency (AIM), following a libellous campaign in parts of the gutter press against the AIM director, Gustavo Mavie.Accusations of mismanagement and corruption have appeared in two sources – anonymous letters, and articles appearing under the byline of a convicted criminal in the weekly paper “Publico”.The man whose name appeared on the first two articles in “Publico”, Osvaldo Tembe, served an eight month prison sentence for extortion in 2006. At the time, he was working for another weekly, “Zambeze”, and was caught extracting a bribe from a family in exchange for not publishing supposedly damaging information about one of its members. The family went to the police, and the editors of “Zambeze” then set a trap for Tembe. On 14 March 2006, Tembe was surprised on the paper’s premises receiving an envelope containing 35 million old meticais (about 1,170 US dollars at current exchange rates) . Asked what the money was for, Tembe confessed to the crime of extortion.The then director of “Zambeze”, Salomao Moyana, expelled Tembe from the paper. The case went to court, and Tembe received an eight month sentence.It is a good indication of the ethical standards of “Publico” that this paper was prepared to give Tembe a job. The paper’s director, Rui de Carvalho, also has a track record of disgracing the profession – he was the only reporter whom the country’s top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, threw off the independent newsheet “Mediafax” in the mid-1990s for unethical behaviour. But after Cardoso left “Mediafax”, the new management readmitted Carvalho. In February 2001, he published an entirely false and malicious article in “Mediafax”, claiming that Mavie, then AIM’s correspondent in Britain, had been expelled from his house in London for non-payment of rent. (In fact, Mavie lived from his arrival in London in 1997 until his return to Maputo in June 2001 in the same house, with his rent paid by direct debit without any problems).The latest idiotic move in the 'Publico' campaign is to publish a forged letter supposedly written by Mavie that circulated in AIM and GABINFO in February. This letter boasted that Mavie would remain director for a further ten years and would increase the workers’ wages by 300 per cent.The letter, bearing no official stamp and with a falsified signature, was an obvious forgery, and was denounced as such at the time. Yet four months later, “Publico” revives it – from which one can certainly deduce that somebody opposed to Mavie’s leadership slipped the paper a copy, and that it made no attempt to check its authenticity.Prior to the “Publico” articles an anonymous letter circulated, claiming to be from a “group of colleagues” of AIM, which contained many of the same allegations that resurfaced in Tembe’s articles. Mavie and his wife have also been the victim of insulting and threatening e-mails and mobile phone messages. The GABINFO inspection will look at how AIM is functioning, and how the Agency is organised. Mavie expects it to clear him of any wrongdoing.There was something similar last year, when a letter was sent to the Prime Minister’s office with 27 accusations against Mavie. A commission of inquiry was set up, which looked into all the allegations – and could find no substance in any of them.

PRESIDENT CALLS FOR RESPECT FOR CITIZENS

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday stressed that state workers have a responsibility to convey a message of respect to citizens.The President was speaking at a rally in the administrative post of Machoca, Namuno district in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, at the end of his “open and inclusive presidency” tour of the north of the country which began on 4 June. “The fight against poverty demands respect for human dignity. State organs are required to explain concerns presented by the citizens”, stressed the President. During the rally Jose dos Santos, a resident of Namuno district, complained to the President about the poor performance of some state institutions and government officials at district and provincial level, including the Namuno administrator himself, Casimiro Calope.“The officials of the administration of Namuno threaten us without just cause. And these threats worsen when there is an impeding visit of a government official, to prevent them from raising issues contrary to the interests the district administrator”, complained Jose dos Santos.The administrator was also accused of diverting money from pensioners and teachers’ salaries to buy a maize mill.President Guebuza stressed the need for the residents, as well as representatives of state bodies, to deliver messages showing the achievements made in the district, while also explaining the problems faced.“It is not an easy task to explain the contours of the fight against poverty. It is not easy to link this fight to our history”, said President Guebuza.According to President Guebuza, there is still a long way to go to win the fight against poverty as it demands “firmness, courage, determination and the conviction that we will win”. He criticised those who show scepticism, lack confidence and do not believe that poverty can come to an end. He explained that this struggle dates back to “when we united to fight against colonialism, won independence and later achieved peace. Today we must continue to fight together to end poverty”. During the rally, residents called for the construction of a bridge over the Lurio River, the construction of more schools and hospitals, the opening of an office to issue identity cards and the completion of the new health centre.

MAPUTO RECEIVES OVER 300,000 TOURISTS ANNUALLY

More than 300,000 tourists visit the Mozambican capital of Maputo each year, bringing in revenue of about 95 million US dollars.This fact was revealed on Wednesday by the Minister of Tourism, Fernando Sumbana, during the launching of the Maputo Tourism Observatory.Sumbana, citing a study on the tourism value chain in the city of Maputo carried out by the Dutch non-governmental organisation SNV, said he believed that these figures could grow as a result of better services.According to the same data, the city of Maputo has a quarter of the country’s guest accommodation, with 9,500 beds.Sumbana expressed scepticism about national statistics that indicate that the annual income from tourism nationwide stands at 197 million dollars, and stated that there is a need to work rigorously throughout the country to improve the data. (Currently, many tourist resorts use bookings made outside the country to evade Mozambican taxes. The money the tourists pay for their reservations remains outside the country, and is not included in the revenue figures that the resorts declare for tax purposes in Mozambique).Regarding the Observatory, the Minister of Tourism said that it will be an instrument of extreme importance for the evaluation and development of tourism in the capital.“The Tourism Observatory in the city of Maputo aims to promote the monitoring, analysis, and dissemination of information on the evolution of tourism in a responsible and proactive manner, allowing for the identification of strengths, weaknesses, threats and tendencies, and offering the public and private sector, including potential investors, relevant information in time to be used in taking decisions”, explained Sumbana.Recently seminars have taken place in Maputo and Inhambane looking at the need for a better flow of information, which requires improving the collection, processing and analysis of data on hotels and tourism.“I would like to appeal to all businesses in the sector for better collaboration, systemisation and provision of data to the relevant institutions, because only then can we provide reliable and useful information for the management of the sector and demonstrate its impact”, he said.Sumbana revealed that the tourism sector will soon be monitored by a “satellite account for tourism”, an instrument that will enable the quantification of the supply and demand of tourism in the national accounts, through indicators and ratios that explain how tourism, in each of its forms, act in the national economy.He said that he believed that the joint work already initiated between various institutions, culminating in the creation of the Observatory, will transform the city of Maputo into a more competitive tourist destination in terms of attracting investment and increasing the flow of tourists.Achieve these objectives, Sumbana said that it is necessary to direct the efforts of all actors to promote the city’s historical and cultural heritage and the national cuisine, and monitor and improve the basic infrastructure to improve the image of the city.He also stressed the need to create new products in the suburban zones to diversify supply and allow for a better interchange between tourists and the local community.

MOZAMBIQUE RATIFIES AFRICAN CHARTER ON DEMOCRACY

The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) on Tuesday ratified the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which allows the African Union (AU) to take action against heads of state and governments that make unconstitutional changes or that refuse to hand over power after losing elections.Mozambique joins Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Rwanda, South Africa and Sierra Leone who have already ratified the charter.The ratification will further strengthen democracy in Mozambique, as AU members that accede to the charter commit themselves to establishing and strengthening independent and impartial national electoral bodies responsible for the management of elections, and to ensure that there is a binding code of conduct during and after the election period.The charter also provides a framework for the international prosecution of people who take power by force.Political parties involved in such crimes are suspended from the African Union, banned from participating in elections and from having significant positions in the new government while subject to prosecution at the AU court based in Arusha in Tanzania.The charter requires ratification by at least 15 of the 53 member states of the AU for it to become operational. Therefore a further seven countries must sign up before it comes into force.The African Charter was adopted by the 8th ordinary session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital city, on 30 January 2007.

The Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the country’s third largest political party, has called on its former Secretary General, Ismael Mussa, to step down from the post of deputy head of the party’s parliamentary group due to a “loss of confidence”.The call came in a resolution passed on Tuesday by the party’s National Council which met in the northern city of Pemba, Cabo Delgado province. However, the resolution specifically stated that it was not calling for him to stand down as a deputy in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.MDM has eight seats in parliament, whilst Renamo holds 50 seats and the ruling party Frelimo has 192 deputies.MDM spokesperson Jose de Sousa told the daily newspaper “Noticias” that the decision was taken because Ismael Mussa had chosen in April to resign from the post of Secretary General of the party.“The National Council believes that the positions of head and deputy head of the parliamentary benches should be held by people who do not have reservations about the guiding principles of the party. That is, the posts should not be held by members who have doubts about what we want. Therefore, it is time for Ismael Mussa to understand that he should not be holding such a sensitive position” said Jose de Sousa.The National Council did not question the contribution of Ismael Mussa as an MDM deputy, nor his MDM membership, and accepted his right to express his opinions within the party. However, it criticised Ismael Mussa, Joao Colaco and Dionisio Quelhas for not attending the meeting and presenting their concerns about the state of the party.At the meeting’s closing session MDM president Daviz Simango said that “we leave the historic province of Cabo Delgado with clear ideas about our political motives and the challenges that the party faces on the road to a Mozambique for all”.He added that “our success as a political party will not depend on appropriating the state administration and the public purse. Our main wealth resides in hope, based on socially relevant ethical values and the desire for real change”.The National Council of the MDM met over four days to discuss the crisis that has developed in the party and to outline its future strategy. On Monday it appointed Luis Boavida to the post of Secretary General.

LICENCES FOR HEAVY SANDS COMBINED

The London-based company Pathfinder Minerals has announced that the Mozambican Ministry of Mineral Resources has notified it that the Ministry intends to combine into one licence the two separate licences currently held by Pathfinder in the central province of Zambezia.Both licenses concern titanium bearing mineral sands. One is for exploration and research at Moebase, and this licence will now mirror exactly the terms of the 25 year Mining concession at Naburi that was granted in 2004.Taken together, the two licenses, which were once held by subsidiaries of BHB-Billiton, cover 32,780 hectares of land. Results of a scoping study, released in mid-May, showed that between them Moebase and Naburi could be expected to produce 1.245 million tonnes of ilmenite (iron titanium oxide), 24,000 tonnes of rutile (the most common form of titanium dioxide) and 65,000 tonns of zircon (zirconium silicate) a year. These are the same minerals currently being produced by the Irish company Kenmare Resources at its dredge mine in Moma district, in the neighbouring province of Nampula.The scoping study put estimated annual revenue from Moebase-Naburi at 246.5 million US dollars. This is based on prices of 125 dollars per tonne of ilmenite, 677 dollars per tonne of rutile, and 1,148 dollars a tonne of zircon.Pathfinder notes that the commodity prices used in the study are well below forecast market prices for the three minerals. Hence, by the time mining starts, potential revenue could be considerably larger.The capital cost of developing the mine is put at 533 million dollars. The study gave the mine an estimated life of 30 years and put the Internal Rate of Return at 18.8 per cent.The study, undertaken by engineering consultants URS/Scott Wilson, was based on historical geological information from BHP-Billiton.Pathfinder has announced that it intends to carry out “a confirmatory drilling and metallurgical test work programme to allow conversion of the historic mineral resource into a current estimate. This will enhance the Company's understanding of the mineral resource potential, the process flowsheet, final product qualities and confirm the prospect of economically producing saleable product streams”.According to the company’s Chief Executive Office, Nick Trew, the Ministry’s decision to unify the two licences “enables Pathfinder Minerals to move forward with certainty of tenure on this world class asset”.

ISLANDERS ASK GUEBUZA FOR ELECTRICITY

 Residents of Quirimba island, in Ibo district, off the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on Sunday asked President Armando Guebuza to ensure that they too can benefit from the national electricity grid based on the Cahora Bassa dam.Quirimba is one of the largest islands in an archipelago of 27 islands. Their wild life and natural beauty has ensured them a place on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2002, the government established the Quirimbas National Park, which covers the 11 southern islands and a large stretch of coastal forest and mangroves on the mainland.But the residents of the archipelago are asking for electricity, and for facilities for which they currently have to travel to the mainland. They asked Guebuza for a secondary school, a hospital, nurses, and an ambulance, as well as an institution that could issue identity documents.They also wanted a boat for passenger transport to the mainland, and improvements in the mainland road leading to the provincial capital, Pemba. Guebuza replied that all the problems presented at this rally showed that poverty, defined as the lack of the minimum necessary for a decent life, persists in Mozambique. “Poverty means that there are things that are important for our life which we cannot obtain”, he said. “Poverty is not having food, schools, hospitals, water, electricity, telephones. Poverty is also not knowing how to read and write. Poverty is suffering from diseases such as malaria and diarrhoeas. These are signs of poverty”.Guebuza declared that nowadays “having a telephone is not a luxury, it’s a necessity, and not having one is a sign of poverty”.“The government wants to see all these problems solved”, he stressed, “but there is a contradiction between the needs and the means available”.Problems would this be solved as and when the means to solve them became available. Guebuza warned that the fight against poverty would take a long time, but there were various ways of fighting against poverty – at school, in the fields, in the hospital, wherever work is needed to overcome problems.“There are the so called diseases of the poor, such as malaria and cholera, provoked by mosquitoes and flies”, he continued. “So piles of rubbish and pools of stagnant water ate also signs of poverty. Cleaning our houses is also a way of fighting against poverty”.“The government considers all the problems, but cannot solve everything at once”. Guebuza said. “It solves those that it can solve, while seeking solutions for the problems that are more serious”.

HOSPITAL DENIES FOOD SHORTAGE FOR PATIENTS

Despite facing budgetary constraints, Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the largest health unit in Mozambique, on Friday guaranteed that it has enough food, in quantity and quality, for all its patients.This promise was made by the HCM administrator, Zacarias Zindoga, at a press conference called in response to rumours that patients are going hungry in the hospital.“Our budget is not sufficient for all our needs, but we have never had problems with food or with hygiene and cleaning material”, said Zindoga. “We are continuing to provide all meals, including fruit when necessary. Nothing has changed, although it is true that we would like things to be better, depending on our financial capacities”.He stressed that the HCM is operating normally, and that there are considerable amounts of foodstuffs in its warehouses. But he admitted that the hospital’s budgetary difficulties mean that it has been running up debts to its suppliers of food and cleaning materials,The HCM entered 2011 with a debt of 62 million meticais (slightly more than two million US dollars) from the previous year. When it received this year’s budget, it paid off the 2010 debt, but has now run up further debts to suppliers of between 20 and 30 million meticais.Zindoga thanked the suppliers for taking an understanding attitude and continuing to provide the hospital with the goods it needs, even though they know there will be delays in receiving payment.“There are prospects that the money will be paid, but we don’t know when”, he said. High level meetings have been held between the health and finance ministries to analyse the problems of the HCM.At first sight, the HCM budget for 2011 looks larger than the previous year’s budget. But the increase is only for wages. The line in the hospital budget earmarked for goods and services has actually declined by between 10 and 20 per cent.

Mozambique will have labour mediation and arbitration centres operational in all provinces by next year.Currently seven of these centres exist – in Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Sofala, Nampula, and Cabo Delgado provinces. Their purpose is to reach solutions to labour disputes without going through the courts.According to the chairperson of the Labour Mediation and Arbitration Commission (COMAL), Mario Ussene, it is urgent that such centres should function in all provinces, so that they can intervene speedily when necessary.“If we can ensure that the physical structure exists in all the provinces, then we can have the mediation and arbitration centres operating by the end of this year”, he said. “But we shall certainly have them all functioning by 2012”.Ussene was speaking to reporters during a meeting held to standardize COMAL’s working methods and procedures in Lindela, in the southern province of Inhambane. Officials for the centres in the three southern provinces attended the meeting, and drew up a balance sheet of the work done so far by the mediation and arbitration centres. “We want to see what has been done since the centres were established, the advantages and the disadvantages”, said Ussene. “We want to look at the existing difficulties, to correct them, and thus improve our organisation, and harmonise our working methods”.Ussene said that the main problems facing the centres concern their small number of staff, and lack of adequate training. On average there are six mediators in each provincial centre. But to respond to all the requests reaching the centres, at least 20 would be required.“The number we have at the moment is too small to satisfy the demand”, said Ussene. “But since we are just starting, we shall go on training, and we will be able to reach the ideal number. When mediation is undertaken by somebody who has the capacity to bring people together, the results are good”.Last year, 7,000 cases entered the mediation centres, which managed to reach an agreement between the parties in around 5,000 of them. The remaining cases, where no agreement was possible, were remitted to the courts.Ussene recalled that, before the appearance of the mediation and arbitration centres, labour disputes were long drawn out because they tended to end up in the courts, where there was a huge backlog of cases.“The number of cases that entered the courts was very large, and it took a long time, even years, before any decision was reached”, he said.“Extrajudicial mediation brings employers and workers closer together”, argued Ussene. “Today the employer and the worker have begun to understand each other. This way of solving labour disputes has led to a reduction in the number of cases sent to the courts”.The Italian government, through the NGO ISCOS (Trade Union Institute for Development Cooperation), has financed both COMAL, and the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating body between the government, the unions and the employers’ associations.According to ISCOS delegate Igor Felice, about a million euros (1.4 million US dollars), has been spent on training representatives of the provincial consultative forums and the mediation centres.“We are pleased with the results”, he said. “We know that in training projects results are seen in the long term. But people’s participation in the various forums today is good. The centres have mediated many conflicts, and this facilitates the business environment”.But the ISCOS project ends this year, and there is no guarantee of further funding. “This is the last month of activity”, said Felice. “It’s been four years of work supporting the CCT and COMAL. It’s a good starting point, but there’s still a lot to do. We think we can give more support, but continuation depends on the donors. It’s not easy with the financial crisis”.

PLAN APPROVED FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

The Mozambican and Italian governments on Thursday approved the first operational plan for the Rural Development Support Programme (PADR) for the central provinces of Manica and Sofala.The plan was approved in the Manica provincial capital, Chimoio, at a ceremony attended by Mozambique’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Limbau, the Manica provincial governor, Ana Comoane, and the Director of Cooperation at the Italian Embassy, Mariano Foti.According to Friday’s issue of the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, under this programme four new agricultural and livestock processing industries will be set up in Sofala. There will be a pineapple processing unit in Chibabava district, and a tomato processing factory in Nhamatanda. A new sawmill and timber processing plant will be built in Gorongoa.There will also be a unit to produce bran for chicken feed, as part of a poultry production scheme.The PADR national coordinator, Sergio Muteia, said the programme has three components – institutional support, support for services linked to agriculture and support for micro, small and medium companies.Lines of credit, with preferential interest rates, have been set for small producers, in order to ensure that the programme reaches the goals outlined in the bilateral agreement.

SAUDI FUND PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR COASTAL PROTECTION

Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang and the Managing Director of the Saudi Development fund, Yossef Ibrahim al-Abdulrahman, on Thursday signed an agreement under which the fund will provide ten million US dollars to finance work on protecting Maputo from coastal erosion.The Saudi Fund is the second agency to support this project. Funds have also been pledged by the Arab Bank for Development in Africa (BADEA). Together the money promised is 22.5 million dollars.The Indian Ocean is visibly threatening the Maputo coast road. The sea defences are in a parlous condition, and many of the remaining trees on the edge of the beach have their roots exposed and are in danger of falling. Rising sea levels resulting from climate change could make matters much worse, threatening the very existence of coastal neighbourhoods such as Triunfo and Costa do Sol.Chang said the project will mitigate the effects of coastal erosion and guarantee the safety of public and private infrastructures. This would contribute to improving environmental conditions and to promoting tourism and leisure.This is the first agreement between Mozambique and the Saudi Development Fund. Chang said the Fund is also willing to finance the construction of two technical institutes and two technical schools in the northern provinces of Niassa and Cabo Delgado, as well as a new general hospital in the city of Nampula.

FIVE SENTENCED FOR THEFT OF STATE FUNDS

The Nampula Provincial Court in northern Mozambique on Thursday sentenced five people to jail terms of between 3 and 16 years for the theft of 1.4 million meticais (about 47,000 US dollars) from state coffers.The longest prison term, 16 years, was imposed on Zaituna Reendra an official of the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) who works in the unit dealing with major taxpayers. Another tax official, Ana Marquesa, received six years.Two workers at the country’s largest commercial bank, Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique), Celso Junior and Dionisio Mugabe, were sentenced to 12 and 4 years. An accomplice, Domingos Popoleque, who is a barber, received a three year sentence.Reading out her verdict and sentence, judge Nateria Mendes said Natercia and Junior received the longest sentences because they behaved “in a premeditated and fraudulent way”. The other three accused had cooperated with the court, and had shown repentance for their acts.The theft took the form of diverting cheques for tax payments which several Nampula companies had deposited with the AT’s Large Taxpayers’ Unit. This required the connivance of both tax officials and bank workers, to divert the money into private hands.It is suspected that others were involved in the theft. According to a report in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the director and deputy director of the Nampula Large Taxpayers Unit, Comanda Momade and Ismael Adamo, are now under investigation, and may be questioned by prosecutors in the coming days.Similarly some employees of the companies whose cheques were diverted will also be questioned in an attempt to ascertain whether they were involved.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) on Thursday formally launched its report on the peer review of Mozambique, at a ceremony in which Amos Sawyer, President of the Interim Government in Liberia in the early 1990s, and now a member of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons, delivered a copy of the report to President Armando Guebuza.The report has in fact been ready for about two years. It was first unveiled at the African Union summit in Sirte, Libya, in 2009. But the subsequent steps – the launch in Mozambique, and implementation of the recommendations of the National Programme of Action – were delayed, first by Mozambique’s 2009 general elections and then by changes in the composition of the APRM Panel.Kenyan diplomat Bethwell Kiplagat had been the panel member responsible for accompanying APRM implementation in Mozambique, and he was replaced by Sawyer.Sawyer claimed that publication of the report was “a landmark achievement in the promotion of good governance in Mozambique”.He said the country had emerged from a troubled past “to find peace, reinvent itself and make progress in all fields of governance”. Among the successes in governance that he listed were the implementation of the 1992 peace agreement between the government and the rebel movement Renamo, “policy dialogue with civil society”, and a reduction in the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their children,But the report also pointed to various challenges, added Sawyer, including separation between the ruling Frelimo Party and the state, a high crime rate, domestic violence, a high level of illiteracy, gender inequality and over-dependence on foreign aid.He hoped that the report “will be widely read by the Mozambican people and that the government and the people will use it as they dedicate themselves to implementing the programme of action that flows from it. The report is of little value unless the issues it raises are tackled”.The chairperson of the Mozambican National APRM Forum, Lourenco do Rosario, said that the country is incorporating the recommendations from the report into its programmes of governance. Members of the government have been appointed who will work with the National Forum in producing regular progress reports that monitor implementation of the recommendations.
One of the functions of APRM reports, Rosario said, was to forecast possible social problems that might occur, so that governments were forewarned and could take corrective measures.For instance, in Kenya the APRM Forum warned the government of the problems that could result from the unjust distribution of resources. The government paid little attention to such warnings, and as a result the post-election violence of 2008 exploded. Guebuza pledged the government’s continued commitment to multi-party democracy and to a culture of dialogue at all levels. The principles of political and economic governance enshrined in the APRM, were now “part of our political culture”, he said.Guebuza stressed the government’s programme of decentralization of powers to local and municipal level, and the role of the local Consultative Councils “which allow transparent management of public assets”.He added that the government was determined to show that “corruption and crime don’t pay” – and the evidence for this was the increasing number of corruption cases that have come to court.Guebuza pledged that the government will carry out the recommendations of the APRM report, and he challenged the National Forum “to prepare for the implementation and monitoring of the National Plan of Action”.