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Mob destroys tantalum mine in Zambézia causing millions of dollars in damage (see page 30 for more).
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OBJECTIVE
Offering seamless solutions for asset protection
in SADC political and security environment.
VISION Providing a network of political and security risk
advisers with first-hand knowledge of
Mozambique and each country in the SADC.
SCOPE OF SERVICES Country Risk Management
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AREAS OF OPERATION SADC
KEY PERSONS Dr. Leonardo Simão - Executive Chairman
Executive director of the Joaquim Chissano
Foundation, Chairman of United Bank of Africa
and Member of the SADC Mediation Team for
Madagascar, Leonardo Simão served as Minister
of Health from 1988 to 1994 and Minister of
Foreign Cooperation from 1994 to 2005.
Graduated in Medicine, Specialist in Public
Health, he is a founding member of the Medical
Association of Mozambique and member of the
Mozambique Medical Council.
Nuno Tomas - Director
A career diplomat, Nuno Tomas is Senior
Adviser to former President of Mozambique,
Joaquim Chissano since 2005. He has been
involved in special political missions across
Africa focussed on Conflict Resolution,
Sustainable Development, Accountability and
Good Governance.
Nigel Morgan - Director
For more than two decades, Nigel Morgan has
advised multinational companies, financial
institutions and private clients on political and
security risk related to foreign direct investment
in Africa. He served in the Irish Guards and at
the Centre for Policy Studies in London during
the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.
Joe van der Walt - Director
Former South African military officer, who has
specialised in private-sector security in Africa
and the Middle East, with particular expertise in
the oil, gas and mining sectors and working
experience in Angola, DRC, Liberia, Zambia,
Somalia, Iraq, to name a few.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ECONOMY & BUSINESS ............................................................................................... 9
GRAPH 1: MOZAMBIQUE CURRENCY EVALUATION ........................................... 9
Mozambique’s central bank raises key lending rate to 8.25% .................................... 10
Mozambican private sector threatens to increase prices of goods and services ........ 11
Depreciation of the metical “excessive” – IMF ........................................................... 11
Employers call for introduction of administrative currency exchange ......................... 12
Eni sells remaining 4% stake in Galp Energia ............................................................ 12
Government forecasts 7.8% growth in 2016 .............................................................. 13
AT expects to collect more than MT170 billion in 2016 .............................................. 13
Prime Minister opens dialogue on taxation ................................................................ 14
Members of Parliament attend hydrocarbon briefing ................................................. 14
“Armed conflict is a major concern” – Mozambican business confederation .............. 14
Peace and Reconciliation Fund to work through BCI ................................................. 15
Mozambique and EU to sign US$827 million co-operation agreement ...................... 16
Contracts for non-state actors signed ........................................................................ 16
UNICEF advocates urgent increase in social protection budget ................................ 17
European support for municipal development ............................................................ 18
The key investment areas in Mozambique according to the Dubai Chamber of
Commerce and Industry ............................................................................................. 19
Africa oil boom fades as US$50 crude shuts door on high-cost deals ....................... 20
Mozambique LNG deals stuck on domestic market offtake ....................................... 21
Mozambique’s natural gas contracts “problematic” – CIP .......................................... 23
ENI due to decide on natural gas investment in Mozambique ................................... 24
Mozambique has lessons to learn from PNG LNG .................................................... 24
KOGAS strengthens partnership in energy industry with Mozambique ...................... 26
Trafigura’s Puma: Matola terminals officially opened ................................................. 26
Ribáuè residents demonstrate for compensation ....................................................... 27
Triton makes 200 meter strike in maiden drilling campaign ....................................... 27
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Mustang Resources raising funds and drilling for graphite ......................................... 28
Metals of Africa makes large graphite find at Montepuez........................................... 29
Metals of Africa suspends operations in Mozambique as geologist dies at exploration
camp .......................................................................................................................... 29
Mob destroys tantalum mine in Zambézia .................................................................. 29
Mozambique needs a community-driven approach to electrification .......................... 31
KEPCO Builds Microgrid Facilities in Mozambique .................................................... 33
HCB launches development programme ................................................................... 33
Works on Moatize-Macuse rail link to start February 2016 ........................................ 34
Odebrecht announces US$200 million bus lanes' project in Maputo ......................... 34
Road linking Mozambique to South Africa to be widened .......................................... 35
Casa Jovem project is “moving forward” – Erik Charas ............................................. 35
Beira’s Casa dos Bicos to become tourist bureau following US$377,000 rehabilitation
project ........................................................................................................................ 36
Japan invests in Sofala fishing activities .................................................................... 37
Sofala government suspends two timber companies ................................................. 37
Intertek develops new agricultural testing laboratory in Mozambique ........................ 38
AGRA pledges to increase investment in Mozambique ............................................. 38
Banco Sol opens branches in Mozambique and Namibia .......................................... 39
LAM-TAAG seal partnership agreement .................................................................... 39
POLITICS ...................................................................................................................... 40
US Ambassador to Mozambique ............................................................................... 40
President Nyusi urges residents of Panda to embrace peace .................................... 40
President Nyusi tells Mayor Rafael to “keep his mouth shut” ..................................... 41
Brazil and Mozambique celebrate 40 years of bilateral diplomatic relations .............. 42
Motion to censure Ombudsman defeated .................................................................. 42
Society wants peace, freedom and stability – President Nyusi .................................. 43
Telecommunications Bill approved ............................................................................ 44
New Telecommunications Bill to penalise, not encourage, illicit tapping – Frelimo .... 45
New district administrators take office in Maputo ....................................................... 45
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Governor Taipo catches FIPAG in a lie ...................................................................... 46
Mozambique and East Timor sign co-operation agreement in the judicial sector ...... 47
German Foreign Minister on official visit to Maputo ................................................... 47
Renamo censure motion defeated by Frelimo majority .............................................. 48
Maputo hosts FLMSA Summit ................................................................................... 50
SECURITY .................................................................................................................... 51
“Mozambique is at war and needs international mediation” – Muchanga .................. 51
Rivalry in Mozambique erupts into violence ............................................................... 54
Renamo gunmen force closure of 10 schools ............................................................ 55
“Dhlakama should come out of hiding to resolve differences with the government” –
Macuane .................................................................................................................... 56
Governor of Niassa calls on Renamo men to surrender weapons ............................. 56
Dialogue is the road to peace – Frelimo Secretary General ....................................... 56
CNDH calls on Renamo to hand over weapons “voluntarily and peacefully” ............. 57
Renamo insists that Dhlakama is in Beira .................................................................. 57
President Nyusi presides over prison guard graduation ceremony in Moamba ......... 57
Mozambican sailors complete training at Cherbourg ................................................. 58
CRIME ........................................................................................................................... 59
MAP 1: KIDNAPPING INCIDENTS IN CENTRAL MAPUTO 2014 & 2015 ............. 59
GRAPH 2: REPORTED KIDNAPPINGS PER YEAR ............................................. 59
GRAPH 3: TIME OF KIDNAPPINGS 2014 & 2015 ................................................. 60
GRAPH 4: KIDNAPPINGS PER GENDER / AGE-GROUP 2014 & 2015 ............... 60
PRM dismantle gang in Maputo ................................................................................. 61
PRM confiscate six illegal firearms............................................................................. 61
Alleged albino trafficker arrested in Nampula ............................................................. 61
Woman raped in Maputo ............................................................................................ 61
Gang targets Nampula home ..................................................................................... 61
Matola man arrested for raping his daughter ............................................................. 62
Child’s body found in Machava six months after disappearance ................................ 62
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Albinos live in fear ...................................................................................................... 62
Minors take polygamist child abuser to court in Manica ............................................. 64
2,000 ‘ghost pensioners’ discovered .......................................................................... 65
WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ......................................................... 66
Pressuring the poachers ............................................................................................ 66
Is trophy hunting helping save African elephants? ..................................................... 68
Would a legalised horn trade save rhinos? ................................................................ 71
Crocodile attacks leave three dead in Macate district ................................................ 74
Experts concerned over indiscriminate fishing in Mozambique .................................. 74
Communities receive compensations from Gorongosa National Park ....................... 74
Gorongosa locals complain about land demarcations ................................................ 75
Government plans to suspend logging licences ......................................................... 75
OTHER .......................................................................................................................... 76
Road death toll tops 2,000 in 2014 ............................................................................ 76
Mozambique faces budget shortfall for flood reconstruction ...................................... 77
Heavy rains likely to isolate parts of Nampula ............................................................ 77
36,000 people affected by drought in Manica ............................................................ 77
Food security discussed at School Meals Seminar .................................................... 78
Mozambican academics against exclusivity regime ................................................... 78
“Child marriage major cause of suffering and poverty among children” – Isaura Nyusi
................................................................................................................................... 79
Striking minibus drivers bring Maputo to a halt .......................................................... 80
Former Portuguese ambassador to Mozambique dies in Lisbon ............................... 80
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BUSINESS INDEX
Accenture ...................................................................................................................... 34
Anadarko ............................................................................................... 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. ............................................................................................ 21
BP ................................................................................................................................. 20
BP Plc ........................................................................................................................... 20
BPRL ............................................................................................................................. 24
Canadian Pacific Wildcat Resources Corporation ......................................................... 30
China National Petroleum Corporation .......................................................................... 24
Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie, CMN .......................................................... 58
Didi Madeiras ................................................................................................................ 37
Economist Intelligence Unit ........................................................................................... 19
EdM ......................................................................................................................... 32, 47
Electricidade de Moçambique, EdM .............................................................................. 32
Empreesa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos, ENH ............................................................. 23
ENH ............................................................................................................. 23, 24, 25, 26
ENI .................................................................................................................... 22, 23, 24
Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, ENI .................................................................................... 23
Ernst & Young ............................................................................................................... 54
Exxon ................................................................................................................ 20, 21, 25
Exxon Mobil Corp. ......................................................................................................... 20
Galp Energia ................................................................................................................. 24
GEFI group .................................................................................................................... 39
Genel Energy Plc .......................................................................................................... 20
Gigajoule ....................................................................................................................... 23
Hen Xing ....................................................................................................................... 37
Instituto de Gestão das Participações do Estado .......................................................... 23
Intertek .......................................................................................................................... 38
KOGAS ................................................................................................................... 24, 26
8
Korea Electric Power Corporation, KEPCO .................................................................. 33
Korea Gas Corporation, KOGAS ................................................................................... 24
Lwini Foundation ........................................................................................................... 39
Metals of Africa ............................................................................................................. 29
Ming Fan Shan .............................................................................................................. 37
Mitsui ............................................................................................................................. 24
Mustang Resources ...................................................................................................... 28
Odebrecht ..................................................................................................................... 34
Oil India ......................................................................................................................... 24
ONGC Videsh ............................................................................................................... 24
PricewaterhouseCoopers .............................................................................................. 20
Public Investment Corp. ................................................................................................ 23
Puma Energy ................................................................................................................ 26
Rani Investment ............................................................................................................ 19
Rosneft OAO ................................................................................................................. 21
Royal Dutch Shell Plc .................................................................................................... 20
SacOil ............................................................................................................................ 23
Sansul ........................................................................................................................... 39
Shell .................................................................................................................. 20, 21, 22
Tantalum Mineracao e Prospeccao Limitada ................................................................ 29
Trans African Concessions, TRAC ................................................................................ 35
Triton Minerals ........................................................................................................ 27, 28
Tullow Oil Plc ................................................................................................................ 21
Vale ......................................................................................................................... 19, 27
Wood Mackenzie ........................................................................................................... 20
Yara ............................................................................................................................... 22
9
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Mozambique Exchange Rate and Fuel Prices: 18 November 2015
GRAPH 1: MOZAMBIQUE CURRENCY EVALUATION
Mozambique Fuel Prices
Fuel Type Price Per Litre
Petrol 47,52MT
Diesel 36,81MT
Prices only valid for Maputo, Beira and Nacala
Mozambique Metical (MZN) Exchange Rate
Currency Buy Sell
Euro (EUR) 50,05 50,27
U.S. Dollar (USD) 46,94 47,14
S.A. Rand (ZAR) 3,29 3,31
Mozambique’s central bank raises key lending rate to 8.25%
In an attempt to curb inflation and the depreciation of metical, the Bank of Mozambique has raised its key interest rates for the second consecutive month.
A statement from the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which met on Monday 16 November, announced an immediate increase in the Standing Lending Facility (the interest rate paid by the commercial banks to the central bank for money borrowed on the Interbank Money Market) by 50 base points. Therefore, this interest rate rises from 7.75% to 8.25%.
This is a return to the rate charged by the bank in 2013-14. It was reduced to 7.5% in November 2014, where it remained until last month when it was raised to 7.75%.
The statement also announced that the Standing Deposit Facility (the rate paid by the central bank to the commercial banks on money they deposit with it) increased by 75 base points, from 2% to 2.75%. The Compulsory Reserves Coefficient – the amount of money that the commercial banks must deposit with the Bank of Mozambique – increased by 150 base points, from 9% to 10.5%.
Explaining the increases, the statement said that: “faced with the growing risks of the external and domestic conjuncture, in a context where projections for inflation in the short and medium term point to the need for redoubled caution, the Committee thought it important to strengthen the current cycle of monetary policy, which will contribute towards ensuring that macro-economic stability is maintained in the country”.
Inflation increased sharply in October. According to the consumer price indices for the three largest cities (Maputo, Nampula and Beira), compiled by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the rate of inflation for the month was 2.1% – the highest inflation in a single month since December 2010.
This pushed the inflation rate since January to 3.63%. The yearly inflation rate (1 November 2014 to 31 October 2015) was 4.74%. The Monetary Policy Committee blamed the jump in inflation on the effects of the depreciation of the metical, and the increase in certain “administered prices”. By far the most important of these was the bread price, which rose by an average of 27.7% in the three cities in October.
The exchange rate of the metical on the last day of October was 42.01 to the US dollar on the Inter-Bank Exchange Market (which compares with MT40.04 to the dollar at the end of September). On the Interbank market, the metical had lost 35.05% of its value since October 2014.
But in the commercial banks and foreign exchange bureaus the metical fared worse. The average exchange rate in the commercial banks on 31 October was MT44.99 to the dollar, and in the exchange bureaus it was MT45.17.
Depreciation accelerated in the first fortnight of November. On Tuesday 17 November, the inter-bank rate was cited at MT46.5 to the US dollar. Also on Tuesday, the largest commercial bank – the Millennium-BIM – gave a buying rate of MT49.25 to the US dollar and a selling rate of MT50.24.
But the metical did not decline so severely against the South African rand, the
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currency of Mozambique’s main trading partner. At the end of October, on the inter-bank market there were MT3.04 to the rand, which represents an annual depreciation against the rand of 7.8%.
Mozambique’s net international reserves declined by US$92.7 million in October; at the end of the month they stood at US$2.027 billion, enough to cover 3.71 months of imports of goods and non-factor services, when the operations of the foreign exchange mega-projects are excluded. The Monetary Policy Committee also decided that the central bank will intervene in the inter-bank markets to ensure that, by the end of November, the monetary base does not exceed MT66.438 billion.
In October the monetary base fell by MT707 million to MT61.312 billion, well below the ceiling of MT62.025 billion fixed for the month. The amount of notes and coins in circulation fell by MT473 million in the month, and bank reserves shrank by MT233 million. Since January, the monetary base has increased by MT8.042 billion (15.1%).
In response to the latest interest rates increase, the Chairman of Millennium-BIM, José Reino da Costa, said on Tuesday that commercial banks will have no choice but to follow in the Bank of Mozambique’s footsteps.
“In just over a month, the Bank of Mozambique has raised interest rates yet again, signalling to economic players and commercial banks on how they should act”, said da Costa at a press conference at the launch of a new financial product.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Lusa
Mozambican private sector threatens to increase prices of goods and services
Local businesses are considering increasing the prices of basic goods and services over the Christmas season and into the New Year in response to the devaluation of the metical and the rise in interest rates.
“If we are saying that the cost of doing business is increasing, we are clearly saying that prices will rise, because companies will not produce at high cost and sell cheap, obviously”, said Luis Sitoe, executive director of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) at a press conference on Wednesday 18 November.
To keep prices at current levels, the CTA would require the Bank of Mozambique to keep the exchange rate unchanged for imports of raw materials and essential goods and improve incentives to domestic production.
Source: O País
Depreciation of the metical “excessive” – IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that the current depreciation of the metical is excessive, considering that the IMF itself had predicted that the exchange rate would stabilise at MT45 to the US dollar.
“We think that the depreciation of the metical and other currencies in sub-Saharan Africa was necessary to manage external shocks, but in Mozambique’s case it has reached excessively high levels. When it crosses the MT45 to the US dollar barrier, we began to see
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excessively high levels of depreciation”, said Alex Segura, IMF’s representative in Mozambique.
The IMF representative nevertheless believes that recent measures taken by the Bank of Mozambique are appropriate.
Source: O País
Employers call for introduction of administrative currency exchange
On Wednesday 18 November, the Vice-President of the CTA, Rogério Samo Gudo, said that the Bank of Mozambique should introduce an administrative exchange to facilitate the purchase of foreign currency to finance imports of inputs and essential goods.
Gudo said that the temporary measure could help address the current situation, characterised by the continual depreciation of the metical against the US dollar.
The appeal launched by the CTA came a few days after the Bank of Mozambique decided for the second consecutive month to increase benchmark interest rates, such as the marginal lending facility which was increased by 50 basis points to 8.25%.
The private sector also suggested that the government should include specific transitional measures in the Economic and Social Plan and the State Budget for 2016 to encourage the productive sector, “in order to minimise the negative effects of the current economic climate”.
“In this context, the CTA encourages the government to consider reorientation of subsidies, focusing on production, as a transitional measure, and to consider the possibility of revising the contracts signed
with the private sector for provision of goods and services that have a high import component”, said Gudo.
Gudo also stressed that the recent increase in key interest rates by the Bank of Mozambique would have a negative impact on the private sector, worsening its debt to the banking system, which in the first half stood at MT203.087 billion (US$4.434 billion).
Source: Macauhub
Eni sells remaining 4% stake in Galp Energia
Eni SpA sold its remaining 4% stake in Portugal's Galp Energia for 325 million euros ($347.7 million) as the Italian oil and gas company continues offloading peripheral assets to confront cheap crude prices and free up funds for its core exploration and production arm.
Eni sold the Galp stake to institutional investors at EUR9.81 a share, 2.6% below Thursday's closing share price. Eni had previously announced that it would sell the stake, which was being held to cover a bond convertible, into Galp shares that expired earlier this month.
In its four-year plan presented in March, Eni committed to selling EUR8 billion in assets by the end of 2018. Like its competitors, Eni has struggled to adjust its strategy following the plunge in crude prices since the middle of last year and is the only major oil company to have cut its dividend in the wake of what analysts and executives expect to be a long period of depressed prices.
So far this year, including the Galp stake, Eni has sold EUR1.5 billion in assets. Chief Financial Officer Massimo Mondazzi
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said a month ago that the company wants to raise EUR3 billion in asset sales by the end of the year.
To reach its multi-year targets, Eni is also planning to sell stakes in some of its recent oil and gas finds. The first on that list is likely to be a portion of its 50% holding in a massive gas field off the coast of Mozambique.
Eni also has an 8% stake in Italian natural gas grid operator Snam Rete Gas. Eni has announced it will sell that stake, which has a market value of about EUR1.3 billion, once a bond convertible into those shares expires in January.
Since 2012, Eni raised EUR3.28 billion selling its entire one-third stake in Galp in a series of transactions. Eni shares traded down 1.4% at EUR14.72 while Galp dropped 3.3% to EUR9.73.
Source: MarketWatch
Government forecasts 7.8% growth in 2016
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, says that in 2016 the government plans to establish a centre of agricultural technology transfer, as well as to allocate more cattle to districts, to encourage traction in increasing cattle farming - since agriculture continues to be a priority of the country. In addition, next year the government will seek to intensify the production of cereals and revalue the cashew industry.
The Minister was responding to Members of Parliament at a hearing directed by the Committee on Planning and Budget.
During the hearing, MPs wanted clarification on the Proposals for the Economic and Social Plan and the State
Budget for 2016. Both documents, which are scheduled to go to Parliament during the first week of December, indicate that it is the intention of the government to achieve economic growth of around 7.8% for 2016.
“This growth will be supported by increased productivity in agriculture, expansion of coal production and the logistics base of Pemba, in Cabo Delgado”, Minister Maleiane said.
As for the public debt, Minister Maleiane says it will not have a greater impact because, in his words, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 will be about US$11 billion, including both the public and private sectors.
“Of the US$11 billion, 87% will be generated by the private sector, where we have 40% in foreign direct investment, 26% from private sector bank credit, 21% in private sector loans contracted abroad and 13% of government involvement”, he said.
Source: StarAfrica/Rádio Moçambique/Further Africa
AT expects to collect more than MT170 billion in 2016
The Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) expects to collect approximately MT170 billion in taxes during 2016.This was revealed on Friday 13 November, by the General Director of AT, Augusto Tacarindwa.
According to Tacarindwa, in 2014, revenue collection contributed 29.2% towards the country’s GDP, up from 15% in 2006.
Source: O País
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Prime Minister opens dialogue on taxation
On Monday 16 November, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário argued that the prevalence of fraud and ineffective tax collection, plus weak capacity to tax companies in the extractive industry, are the main problems facing tax administrations in Africa.
He was speaking in Maputo at the opening of the Seventh African Dialogue on Taxation.
According to the Prime Minister, other problems contributing towards the feebleness of African tax administrations include tax evasion and the failure to tax the informal economy.
“However, it is encouraging to note that, since the early 1990s, the average fiscal ratio in Africa has increased”, he added. “This means that many economies have made significant progress in tax collection”.
This increased taxation, he continued, provided improved conditions that allowed the various governments to fight poverty and develop their countries.
Prime Minister Rosário admitted that tax administration is often complex due to the increasing use of sophisticated technologies which are often not accessible in African countries. “We have to discuss the ways of achieving the most practical solutions”, he urged.
For her part, the Chairperson of AT, Amelia Nakhare, claimed that, through this forum, African countries could “harmonise procedures in their tax systems and guarantee the achievement of better results in tax collection”.
She told reporters that she also wanted to discuss the implications of foreign direct investment on taxation, and the legal framework for companies investing in the mining and petroleum sectors. “We want to reduce illegal fiscal benefits”, she declared.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Members of Parliament attend hydrocarbon briefing
During the course of the week 13 to 20 November, the parliamentary committees of Constitutional Affairs, Human Rights and Legality, and Agriculture, Economy and Environment, attended training on the effectiveness of the laws governing the mining industry.
The training is designed to help parliamentarians monitor the implementation of sector legislation.
Monday’s session was run by the Centro de Integridade Publica (the Centre for Public Integrity, CIP), which, in addition to demonstrating potential flaws in the law governing oil, drew attention to problematic issues in the negotiations currently under way around the exploitation of natural gas in the Rovuma basin.
Source: Folha de Maputo
“Armed conflict is a major concern” – Mozambican business confederation
The CTA has expressed its “profound concern” over the political and military instability prevailing in Mozambique, arguing that instability continues to contribute towards the economic disruption that threatens the country.
15
“This armed conflict [between the government and Renamo] is unsettling society and causing us great concern”, said the vice-president of CTA, Rogério Samo Gudo, who also pointed to the rising crime rates as another factor threatening the economy.
In addition to the political instability, Mozambique faces a sharp devaluation of the metical against the dollar, declining foreign currency reserves, rising inflation, falling foreign investment and external aid and an increase in the country’s debt.
Gudo also pointed towards an economic slowdown, caused by the October 2014 election and flooding, which earlier this year devastated infrastructure and crops, subsequently putting more pressure on the government accounts in a country that survives largely on imports.
Gudo stressed that perceptions of the economy and foreign investment play a critical role in Mozambique, where “business does not have the muscles and liquidity to walk by itself”.
Perception plays an important role in sectors such as tourism, “and the issue of security becomes very important” for those who consider travelling to or investing in the country.
“We cannot forget that Mozambique is competing with other countries in tourism and in investment, and, when they hear about insecurity, people will want to invest their resources and savings in a place where they can be more certain of getting a return”, he noted.
Foreign investment is falling and an important segment of tourism in Mozambique has also greatly diminished.
The usual tourism peak between November and January is approaching but, according to Gudo, “if the situation prevails, there will not be many tourists visiting the country”.
Gudo dismissed the notion that tour operators were shutting down en masse, but noted that: “the volume of business has dropped considerably, and they are making a great effort in the hope that next year will be better”.
Mozambique is currently experiencing political uncertainty caused by Renamo’s refusal to recognise the results of the general elections of 15 October 2014, and its proposal to rule in the six provinces where it claims victory, threatening to seize power by force.
The last few weeks have been marked by clashes between the parties in the course of a police operation to collect Renamo weapons in various parts of the country.
Source: Lusa
Peace and Reconciliation Fund to work through BCI
Mozambique’s second largest commercial bank, the Commercial and Investment Bank (BCI), has received MT150 million (approximately US$3.4 million) from the government’s Peace and National Reconciliation Fund. The funds are to be lent to former soldiers.
The Fund, currently budgeted at MT318 million, was established following the ratification of the Agreement on the Cessation of Military Hostilities (signed on 5 September 2014 by the then-president, Armando Guebuza, and by the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama).
16
The Fund is intended to finance the social and economic activities of veterans, including those who fought in the national liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule, and veterans of the post-independence war of destabilisation, from both sides – the government army of the time, the FAM/FPLM, and Renamo.
The Fund estimates that there are roughly 170,000 veterans who could be eligible for loans. The fund managers say that, to date, MT30 million has been lent to 100 veterans.
The agreement between the Fund and the BCI sets up two lines of credit. One is for small scale activities, involving loans of between MT10,000 and MT100,000. The second is for more ambitious activities for which sums of between MT100,000 and MT1 million would be lent.
The BCI will charge interest rates of between seven and 10% (significantly lower than the standard interest rates charged by commercial banks), and expects each loan to be repaid within three years.
To increase the amount available for lending, the BCI has added a further MT150 million to the sum received from the Fund.
Assuming that the beneficiaries do indeed repay the loans plus the interest, then the Fund could become self-sustaining.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Mozambique and EU to sign US$827 million co-operation agreement
The European Union (EU) and the government of Mozambique will sign a co-operation agreement worth US$827
million in Brussels (Belgium) at the end of November.
Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, head of the EU mission in Maputo, explained that: “the agreement is part of the European Development Fund, within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement which governs the relationship of EU co-operation with the countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific”.
The agreement will be signed by the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, and the Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Oldemiro Balói.
Source: Lusa
Contracts for non-state actors signed
On Monday 16 November, the Mozambican government, the EU and several civil society organisations gathered in Maputo to sign subvention contracts to the value of €5 million (approximately US$5.3 million), under the Programme to Support Non-State Actors (PAANE).
Signing the documents were Mozambican Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nyeleti Mondlane; the head of the EU delegation in Maputo, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff; and the representatives of the various civil society bodies.
According to Deputy Minister Mondlane, the contracts were awarded to organisations selected through a tender launched in 2014.
“The government agreed, without any hesitation, to co-ordinate the activities of PAANE, despite the countless challenges”, she said, “because it is
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genuinely convinced of the unavoidable and catalysing role that non-state actors play in the development of Mozambican society”.
PAANE is a partnership between the government and the EU, financed via the 10th European Development Fund, which aims to contribute towards improving governance and citizenship in Mozambique “through strengthening partnership and mutual responsibility between the public authorities, national non-state actors and citizens”.
The initial agreement with the EU on funding PAANE dates back to 2012, and Deputy Minister Mondlane said that the government has worked hard to ensure that it is implemented successfully and in accordance with the agreed calendar.
11 civil society organisations from across the country benefit from the contracts signed on Monday. Deputy Minister Mondlane said that the government would have liked many more to qualify for the funding “but the finite financial resources available constitute an impassable barrier””.
The deputy minister also called on beneficiary organisations to give greater attention to project implementation, especially as Mozambique has “huge potential” in relation to the quality of initiatives. Von Burgsdorff declared that Mozambican civil society needs more support for its activities. “It is important that civil society becomes ever stronger and acts as an indispensable partner between the citizen and the State”, he said.
“A recently published study traces the rapid growth of Mozambican civil society and its impact on national policies, a very
important element”, said von Burgsdorff, adding that continuing support would strengthen their capacity to assist.
Source: Portugal Digital/Jornal Notícias/Folha de Maputo/Lusa/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
UNICEF advocates urgent increase in social protection budget
On Tuesday 17 November, The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called for an urgent increase in Mozambique’s social protection budget, arguing that the MT4.5 billion (approximately US$100 million) provided by the government is not enough to address needs.
“It is urgent that the Mozambican government increases the percentage of GDP allocated to social protection programmes”, Mayke Huijbregts, head of UNICEF’s Mozambique child protection section, told reporters at a conference on early childhood support in Maputo.
According to data presented during the meeting, only 0.75% of the country’s GDP was allocated to social protection in the 2015 State Budget, a figure which represents an increase of 15% compared with last year, but which assists only 500,000 families across the country, a figure far below target.
“Most of these beneficiaries are the elderly, to the extent that no-one is worried about them anymore”, Huijbregts admitted, suggesting the diversification of the food base as a way of overcoming food insecurity – the main problem facing needy families. With 43% of children suffering from chronic malnutrition in Mozambique, a figure that has remained steady since 2008, Huijbregts says that the country needs to adopt social
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protection policies that prioritise the problem, as it will have “alarming consequences” for the future of the country.
“The fact that one in two children in Mozambique is malnourished is worrying, as it affects their cognitive development”, he said. In order to strengthen the social protection system in Mozambique, the government intends to introduce three programmes targeted specifically at the elderly, disabled and children.
But Huijbregts highlights the shortage of skilled labour as one of the main constraints on the extension of social protection, especially in the rural areas where most of the poor population live. He argued that capacity must improve before the government adopted any new social protection programmes.
Meeting to discuss programmes and social protection strategies in Mozambique, the conference on early childhood is part of the Week of Basic Social Protection, organised by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare. The event brings together students, experts and civil society organisations.
Source: Angop
European support for municipal development
Four European governments are providing a financial package of US$28.5 million for municipal development programmes to be undertaken in 26 municipalities in central and northern Mozambique.
The programmes will support the municipalities directly, through the transfer
of financial resources for investment, technical assistance and the exchange of experience between the municipalities in areas concerned with resilience to climate change, solid waste management, and municipal finance. The countries providing the funds are Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland. They were represented by Danish Ambassador Johnny Flento, who signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday 12 November, with the Minister of State Administration, Carmeliata Namashalua. The agreement is valid until 2017.
In addition to municipalities, the MoU also supports central ministries in strengthening inter-sector co-ordination; it also aims to strengthen forums of debate on municipal development, and to revise and update legislation on municipal management. Some of the funds will also go towards drawing up and revising manuals of good municipal management practices.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Namashalua said that the municipal development programme seeks to support the government’s efforts to reduce poverty and improve the welfare of municipal citizens, and to contribute towards improving town planning and the consequent establishment of a healthy environment.
She added that the programme will also contribute to the institutional strengthening of the municipalities, of central government institutions, and of the National Association of Mozambican Municipalities (ANAMM).
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
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The key investment areas in Mozambique according to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry
On Wednesday 18 November, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry published a report on the growth trends outside the natural resources and commodities sector in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report, entitled “Beyond Commodities: Gulf Investors and the new Africa”, was written by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It finds that Africa is resilient to the global recession, with East Africa being the most appealing region for non-commodity investment from the Gulf.
The report highlights opportunities in the development of shopping centres and hypermarkets, travel and tourism, and logistics. It points out that Gulf brands are among the front-runners in newer markets such as Mozambique.
Among the leaders in the field is Rani Investment, owned by Saudi businessman Adel Aujan. It is now the largest investor in Mozambique’s tourism industry – running luxury hotels in Pemba, Bazaruto Island, Maputo and Medjumbe Island. Rani Investment is also a partner in the US$206 million project to construct and run the Rani Towers and the adjacent Radisson Blu Hotel in Maputo.
A key facilitator of the tourism industry is air travel. The report points out that Gulf based airlines have been entering into partnerships with African airlines to improve services. Therefore, Emirates has taken over the management of the Angolan airline TAAG, and Etihad has bought a 40% share in Air Seychelles. Qatar Airways flies from Maputo to its hub
where many passengers transfer onto flights to locations worldwide.
The report laments that Africa’s poor infrastructure and complicated multi-country bureaucracy has made logistics expensive for companies in every sector. But it sees opportunities for investors, particularly in Mozambique and Tanzania while these two countries develop their gas industries.
The report maintains that retail presents a huge opportunity as the African continent’s population grows and becomes increasingly urban, although “historically a lack of suitable retail space has been a major barrier”.
However, the report points out that a dozen new shopping centres were opened in Africa last year with a similar number expected by 2017. Among these is the “Mall de Moçambique”, located in the southern city of Matola, which will be one of the largest on the continent (67,000 square metres) when it opens next year (although other sources put the opening date as 2017).
The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has over 150,000 members. Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates.
According to Mozambique’s Investment Promotion Centre (CPI), last year the United Arab Emirates was the largest source of foreign investment in Mozambique. However, much of that US$891 million in investment came from international companies which use Dubai as a financial centre. For example, the Brazilian company Vale used Dubai for the financing of its project to build the railway from the Moatize coal basin, in the
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western Mozambican province of Tete, to the mineral port at Nacala-a-Velha.
Dubai is looking to expand business links with Mozambique. According to the chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Majid Saif Al Ghurair, the Chamber plans to open an office in Maputo early next year.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Africa oil boom fades as US$50 crude shuts door on high-cost deals
“On the brink of a boom”, was the banner on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s review of Africa’s oil industry 16 months ago. Now, oil below US$50 has made more than two out of three investment projects on the continent non-viable.
“Capital markets are effectively closed to the oil and gas industry” in Africa, Tony Hayward, former head of BP Plc and current chairman of Genel Energy Plc, said at a conference in Cape Town last month. “A decade of exploration, with billions of dollars invested and only limited commercial success”.
When six of the 10 biggest global oil discoveries in 2013 were made in Africa, it underlined the potential of the energy riches that had lured companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc to Exxon Mobil Corp. Governments have been slow to react as the slump in crude makes the royalties charged from Libya to Angola look punitive. African production, already 19% below its 2008 peak of 10.2 million barrels a day, is set to drop for a third year.
While final investment decisions (FID) have been made on less than 10% of the 48 billion barrels of oil equivalent
discovered in the past decade, governments haven’t adapted to the new environment, Martin Kelly, director for sub-Saharan Africa research at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said in an interview at the Africa Oil Week conference. That means that some nations including Nigeria, the continent’s biggest producer, are proposing increasing royalties at a moment the industry can least bear it.
Changed world:
“There are a raft of changes working their way through various parliaments around Africa at the moment and they’ve been primarily based on prices that were US$100”, Kelly said. “The world has changed since then”.
African governments’ profit share from deep-water oil projects off the continent ranges from 91.1% in Libya to about 60.7% in Gambia, according to data from Wood Mackenzie. That’s higher than elsewhere in the world, with the continent’s average onshore take of 66.1% sitting at 8.5 percentage points above the global one, the consultants said.
Persuading governments to cut their share of the spoils won’t be easy with the end of the oil boom destabilising economies as revenue slumps and currencies tank. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest producer, has imposed foreign-exchange restrictions to stabilise the naira, while second-ranked Angola has been forced to devalue its currency twice since June and slashed its budget by a quarter.
Nigeria has proposed increasing the government’s share of profits and plans to review offshore contracts signed with oil companies two decades ago. The last
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draft of a proposed petroleum law, stalled in parliament for the past seven years, seeks to raise offshore taxes to 73% and those for onshore to 87% from 50% and 83% respectively.
Nigeria exploration:
Exploration drilling in Nigeria is close to the lowest in more than a decade because of shelved investment plans, according to the Petroleum Ministry.
With oil below US$50 a barrel, only a third of US$270 billion of potential investment projects in Africa make economic sense, according to Obo Idornigie, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
Tullow Oil Plc, responsible for some of the biggest discoveries on the continent, is concentrating on safer projects in Ghana and Kenya after cutting jobs and trimming its annual exploration budget to about US$200 million from US$1 billion.
“We need a higher oil price” to meet future production requirements, Tullow Chief Executive Officer, Aidan Heavey, said in an interview, adding that companies need to react quickly to the current environment. “Do it quick, do whatever needs to be done and maximise the value of the core assets that you have”.
Bailing out:
Kenya is among the African nations that tried to respond after the slide in crude prompted companies to start withdrawing drilling rigs.
“The government has to look for ways of bailing them out”, Hudson Andambi, senior petroleum geologist at Kenya’s Ministry of Energy. “Some have been given extensions just as an incentive to make them stay”.
There are exceptions to the continent’s woes, including the Rovuma basin, where last month Mozambique awarded exploration licenses to applicants including Exxon and partner, Rosneft OAO, said Chris Bredenhann, a partner at PwC. The programmes proposed in Rovuma for the next four years may see investment of US$700 million, the nation’s exploration regulator said.
Clarity needed:
That optimism must be balanced against the need for further clarity on how a framework Mozambican law passed last year will be implemented, Bredenhann said. The absence of legislative and regulatory certainty has also halted investment of as much as US$5 billion by explorers including Shell in South Africa.
With PwC’s 2015 review of Africa’s oil industry showing that many oil explorers assumed prices higher than US$80 per barrel when modelling projects, additional risks are weighing on investment.
“Even without the oil price collapse, it was time for the industry and governments to take stock”, Hayward said. “I’m afraid the next six to 12 months will be very challenging to many industry participants and survival will become the name of the game”.
Source: Bloomberg
Mozambique LNG deals stuck on domestic market offtake
The price and volume of gas offtake for Mozambique’s domestic market from Offshore Area-1 are now major sticking points in negotiations between Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Mozambique
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government in the development of the 12 mtpa project.
When oil was priced above US$100 per barrel, the United States-based independent was happy to offer generous terms for gas from its giant offshore discoveries in northern Mozambique.
However, now the profits on the estimated US$26 billion project are looking slimmer, Anadarko is offering a quarter of the volume the government originally bargained for and is no longer able to offer it at such a low cost, Interfax understands.
“Anadarko can’t afford to lose money on the gas delivered into the domestic market, so it needs to be delivered at least at cost – maybe a little bit more”, one Maputo-based source who has spoken to the company said.
Minister of Economy and Finance Adriano Maleiane and Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy Pedro Couto are pushing against these new tougher terms. Securing cheap domestic gas is vital for Mozambique’s industrialisation programme, which will boost growth and employment in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Neither Anadarko nor ENI, operator of Offshore Area-4, are obliged to deliver any domestic market gas. Mozambique’s new petroleum law stipulates 25% of all gas production should be earmarked for the domestic market, but the exploration and production concession contracts the companies operate under were signed before the law came into force and have been grandfathered.
There are several projects the government is keen to promote – chief
among them a fertiliser plant by Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara, large enough to service most of sub-Saharan Africa, and a US$7 billion gas pipeline running the length of the country and into South Africa.
Interfax understands the government is also keen to push on with a GTL facility proposed by Shell that would help reduce Mozambique’s costly diesel import bill, as well as generate export revenues. The project looks increasingly attractive at a time when the government is struggling with a balance of payments crisis brought on by a decline in the prices of commodities it exports, and the weakening of its currency against the US dollar.
However, a GTL facility will require at least 85 billion cubic metres of gas, and Anadarko is reluctant to offer cheap feedstock to subsidise the development of such a plant when the economics of its own project have become harder to balance, the source said.
While producing fuel in the country will help lower the government’s debt, “without the LNG project there won’t be any gas at all, so the government’s focus needs to be on the LNG first, and then on downstream developments”, the source added.
In contrast, a fertiliser facility is only likely to require up to 28 billion cubic meters (bcm) and could be vital for stimulating growth in the agricultural sector. Mozambique has one of the least productive agriculture economies in the world, partly because of its limited use of fertilisers.
Yara – which told Bloomberg in 2014 that it was looking to make a US$2.5 billion
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investment in a fertiliser plant in either east or west Africa once gas reserves come on-stream at the end of the decade – has yet to commit to a project in Mozambique, a company spokesperson told Interfax. But there are at least three other plants proposed in Mozambique’s Gas Master Plan.
Pipeline plans:
There also seems to have been a resurgence of interest in the gas pipeline project to South Africa, following President Filipe Nyusi’s visit to Pretoria in October.
While analysts have said the 2,600 kilometre pipeline, which will link Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin fields with Richards Bay, makes little sense for South Africa from an economic or security of supply perspective, it is considered vital for promoting the industrialisation of cities along the pipeline route in Mozambique, as well as facilitating exports to Malawi and Zimbabwe.
However, there seems to be little movement on the project. A study by investment group Gigajoule and national oil company Empreesa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) into the construction of a 2,100 kilometre, 10 bcm/y pipeline running from Cabo Delgado to Maputo and regional markets was supposed to have been presented to the government in mid-2014, but is still under way.
South Africa-based independent SacOil, South African state-owned investment management company Public Investment Corp. and the Instituto de Gestão das Participações do Estado – a company that manages Mozambique’s equity participation in strategic projects – have
yet to start a pre-feasibility study into the construction of the South Africa pipeline, Tariro Mudzimuirema, a financial director for SacOil, said.
Source: Interfax Global Energy
Mozambique’s natural gas contracts “problematic” – CIP
As oil and gas prices continue to fall, Anadarko is driving a hard bargain in final negotiations, and CIP has warned that the Mozambican government is set to accept a bad deal.
Negotiations are over two issues – what price Mozambique pays for its share of the gas, and how Mozambique pays for its share of the development costs.
Interfax Global Energy reports that Anadarko is offering Mozambique only one quarter of the gas originally promised and at a much higher price. To accept this would compromise Mozambique’s industrialisation plans, including fertilizer and diesel fuel production and piped natural gas to industry. The new petroleum law says that 25% of all gas production should be for the domestic market, but contracts with Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI), and Anadarko were signed before the law came into force, so the government has to negotiate its share.
The government owns 15% of Anadarko’s Area-1 and 10% of ENI’s Area-4, and could take that proportion of the gas, but would still have to pay the costs of pumping and delivering it. However, Anadarko wants a price closer to the world market price, which is two to three times the production costs, according to CIP.
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As a 15% owner, Mozambique eventually has to pay for 15% of the exploration, development and gas liquefaction project. Estimated costs are US$26 billion, so Mozambique needs to find US$4 billion. So the other big question is how Mozambique pays its share. The obvious choice would be to effectively mortgage its share of the gas – money would be lent and if government did not pay, bondholders could take the gas. This is precisely the system that was used when Mozambique bought the majority of the Portuguese share of the Cahora Bassa dam in 2007.
But CIP says that instead the government has opted for what is known as “carry”, in which Anadarko carries all of the government’s costs, which are paid off once the gas is being produced. CIP argues that this would be much more expensive because Anadarko would need to arrange the finance and make a profit from it, and will expect double the interest rate that the government would pay on its own, and that Mozambique might not receive dividends from its share of the operation for 20 years or more. It adds that Mozambique followed the “carry” model with the Pande-Temane gas in Inhambane, which is one reason it gained so little from that gas.
Source: CIP/Further Africa/Lusa
ENI due to decide on natural gas investment in Mozambique
Italy’s ENI is expected to make a FID by December 2015 for the project to explore the natural gas reserves discovered in northern Mozambique.
The CEO of the group, Claudio Descalzi, said that a decision on an onshore project with Anadarko would only be taken in
2017, since it is a more complex process, and advance agreements with international natural gas buyers are needed.
“We continue to develop our Coral project, located in one of our offshore blocks, aimed at natural gas processing on a floating platform and must make an investment decision in December 2015, for starting in 2020”, said Descalzi.
The amount of natural gas discovered by two consortia led by ENI and Anadarko puts Mozambique among the five countries with the largest gas reserves, which total approximately 200 trillion cubic feet.
ENI maintains its intention to transform the gas on two floating platforms, while Anadarko plans to build a LNG plant on land, in partnership with the Italian oil company.
Anadarko Petroleum holds 26.5% of the consortium of Area-1, while the remainder of the area is held by Mitsui, ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroresources Limited (BPRL), Oil India and the Mozambican government’s ENH.
Area-4 is in turn led by ENI (with 50%), while the remainder of the area is held by China National Petroleum Corporation (with 20%), and Galp Energia, Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and ENH (each with 10%).
Source: Macauhub
Mozambique has lessons to learn from PNG LNG
Interfax recently spoke to independent petroleum adviser Michael McWalter about the challenges Mozambique may face in starting up its LNG industry and
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what the country could learn from the Exxon PNG LNG project.
Interfax: Do you think it matters that Anadarko has never built an LNG project before? Is it enough that they’ve chosen experienced EPC contractors?
MM: I’m not sure it is. You need to bring in one of the big boys that has the size and the planning capacities to actually manage all these contractors. Timing is so important – everything has got to fit in at the right time when you get going. Engineering was outsourced all over the world for PNG LNG, but you need to have the glue of a competent major to bring it all together.
Interfax: Anadarko says it has strong oil and gas project management experience, even if it’s not in LNG.
MM: As a government regulator, I wouldn’t necessarily accept that. I’d want surety. Admittedly, every company has to one day do something first, but why be the guinea pig? Every government wants the best it can get, and it paid off with ExxonMobil delivering PNG LNG some five months early and with very marginal cost overruns.
They managed that because of their intense planning. Papua New Guinea is, as we often say: ‘The land where technology comes to die!’ It is anecdotally said that they break anvils in PNG. But Exxon got their heads around that and brought in technology that is appropriate. They kept it simple and elected to run two parallel trains at 3.4 mt each. For the turbines, they used aero-derivatives ones. Unlike conventional in situ or fixed turbines mounted in cement, they can easily be taken out and sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed.
Interfax: What kind of role should an NOC such as Mozambique’s ENH play in the development of the LNG industry at this stage?
MM: Not much at this point other than to keep quiet and learn about the business of LNG from the major who’s leading it. There is a risk the NOC will try to become an interlocutor between the government and the operator, but you really want the ministry to be dealing with the operator directly, so regulatory issues can be sorted out properly.
All too often you see NOCs – and also the regulators – trying to recreate the work of the operators, such as subsurface or facility engineering evaluations, but there’s no point doing this. NOCs should focus on learning their business and regulators need to become experts in regulating, not operating, which means looking at all the data that’s been provided by the operators and querying it until they are satisfied.
You are in a privileged position as a government in that you can ask any stupid questions you like. Anything you don’t understand or don’t agree with can be gathered in a list of questions and gone through with the company – and they have to answer all of them carefully and fully. It can be a useful learning process, as well as the start of a professional dialogue, where you find out you may be right and they’re wrong, or vice versa, and so improve the project.
Interfax: How did the PNG government manage the impact of the project with locals?
MM: The PNG government did this very well and was actually pioneering in this aspect. Even before Indonesia started
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sharing its petroleum wealth with its provinces, PNG was developing a system of sharing with the landowners and affected provincial government and local authorities.
We have a big forum process where all the landowner representatives are brought together. When negotiating how to settle land ownership deals along the pipeline route, thousands of people were flown into Kokopo in New Britain and housed there for weeks on end, feasting while negotiations with the government and tribal assembly took place to get the basics of the deals and rights aligned. Then they all went to their specific areas to deliver the package to particular landowner groups on the ground and had a further set of forums at the village level.
Even then, in PNG, whatever you agree with the landowners one day will be slept on and next day it may not be quite the same, so you’ve got to pay constant attention to your community affairs, working with the people and reminding them what has been agreed and checking that it’s still agreeable. You have to work at it all the time and build strong sharing relationships with the people.
But there’s nothing wrong with that because these projects do impinge upon people’s lives.
Source: Interfax Global Energy
KOGAS strengthens partnership in energy industry with Mozambique
On Monday 16 November, KOGAS announced that the company is pushing ahead with a coast-to-coast piping construction project in Mozambique.
A KOGAS official said that: “Based on the close relationship with the Mozambican government, which is emerging as a new energy-rich country, we are planning to carry forward the projects to build a liquefied natural gas plant in Mozambique’s Area-4, and piping, which spans nearly 2,500 kilometres across the continent”.
The company invested a total of ₩42 billion (US$35.83 million) in the natural gas piping EPC project in Maputo. It said that KOGAS is expecting to turn over ₩150 billion (US$127.95 million) of profits in total when the company operates it for 20 years. Currently, the company is supplying natural gas of industrial uses to 14 plants in Maputo.
The President of KOGAS, Lee Seung-hoon, visited ENH on 12 November and had a meeting with ENH CEO, Omar Mithá.
During the talk, Seung-hoon stressed the roles of the Korean government and KOGAS in the African continent’s resources co-operation and technology exports. After the meeting, the two CEOs inspected the natural gas supply facility, which is jointly operated by KOGAS and ENH.
Source: Business Korea
Trafigura’s Puma: Matola terminals officially opened
Puma Energy’s Matola Bitumen and Fuel Terminals bring the mid and downstream energy company’s total capacity in Mozambique to 275,500 cubic meters – the company’s second largest storage capacity in Africa.
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The two new facilities comprise 11 new storage tanks, which took 12 months to construct and used more than 25,000 tons of steel.
Christophe Zyde, COO for Puma Energy Africa, said that: “Mozambique is a very promising market in Africa today. We have confidence in the country’s long-term commercial opportunities as well as the country’s strategic location to answer the supply requirements of southern Africa.
“We take a long-term view to our entry into any market and anticipate the future growth of these emerging markets. In Mozambique, we have invested in state-of-the-art fuel and bitumen infrastructure and storage facilities. This improves security of supply and acts as a catalyst for economic growth”.
Sophonie Babo, general manager for Puma Energy Mozambique, explains that the bitumen terminal means that Mozambique will no longer be dependent on imports from neighbouring countries while the fuel terminal will create a channel for the supply of fuel to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sub-region.
Trafigura, the third-largest independent oil trader, is the biggest shareholder in closely held Puma with a 49%.
Source: Tank Storage/Bloomberg
Ribáuè residents demonstrate for compensation
According to reports, approximately 50 residents of the Namigonha administrative post, in Ribáuè (Nampula Province), recently engaged in a two-day demonstration in protest against the fact
that they have not yet received compensation from Vale.
The residents are demanding that Vale distribute the agreed-upon compensation after locals were removed from their homes and relocated, so that the company could commence with the rehabilitation of the Development Corridor Norte (CDN) railway line.
The residents argue that their houses were subsequently destroyed by Vale to make way for the construction.
The demonstrators prevented the movement of machinery to and from the construction site, and blocked the company from transporting coal from the Moatize mine in Tete Province to the Nacala-Porto terminal.
The majority of the demonstrators are farmers who argue that the company has failed to adequately disburse compensation, six months after the residents were promised between MT30,000 to MT100,000 for their compliance.
However, Vale maintains that many families have already benefitted from the distribution of compensation.
Source: @Verdade
Triton makes 200 meter strike in maiden drilling campaign
Graphite company Triton Minerals continues to add impressive numbers to its Balama North project in Mozambique with a 197.5 meter strike at a new prospect known as Nicanda West.
The latest drill results indicated a total graphitic content of 4.6% TGC across the
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entire 197.5 meter strike length, starting just below surface from just 2.5 meters.
Another hole in what was Triton’s maiden drill campaign at Nicanda West also showed an impressive strike length of 108 meters, grading 5.1% graphite from just two meters below surface.
Selected zones within the total mineralised area showed up to 12.9% graphite.
The company says that the graphite mineralisation at Nicanda West, which is just 1.2 kilometres north west of Triton’s world class Nicanda Hill prospect, showed regular occurrences of large and jumbo flake graphite, which is suitable for the multibillion dollar battery market.
Given the dominance of large and jumbo flake graphite that forms the main mineral constituent of a gneissic host rock at Nicanda West, the company says that the minimum targeted average grade of this style of deposit range is just 5% TGC, whereas more typical deposits tend to target closer to 10% TGC.
Triton Minerals’ Managing Director, Brad Boyle, said that: “The positive initial drilling results, together with the consistency of the high-purity large-flake graphite recovered during floatation test work, represents another decisive milestone in the development of Triton’s Mozambique projects and adds and important new dimension to the TMG production range.
“The initial assays have confirmed grades that are expected for this style of deposit and the predominance of high-valued large flake graphite highlights the diversity of high quality graphite concentrates that
may be produced from an integrated Nicanda mining operation.
“The wide thickness of mineralisation and consistence of grade combined with the lack of any substantial overburden presents an ideal open pit mining opportunity which is located on the very doorstep of the world’s largest graphite and vanadium resource at Nicanda Hill. The proximity of Nicanda West to the main Nicanda Hill resource allows the sharing of infrastructure and processing facilities and thus improving overall project economics”.
Other notable results from the maiden drilling campaign include 10 meters at 10.2%, 24 meters at 8.2% and five meters at 12.9% TGC.
A total of 14 drill holes were undertaken in the campaign with results still pending from eight of them.
Source: Business News
Mustang Resources raising funds and drilling for graphite
Mustang Resources is currently drilling for graphite in its maiden programme at the Balama project (located in Cabo Delgado Province).
The programme will cover 3000 metres.
Adding interest, initial results could represent possible extensions of nearby world-class graphite deposits, including Triton Minerals’ Nicanda Hill deposit.
Mustang is now heading to market, after the company was granted an ASX trading halt pending funding agreements.
The halt will remain in place until the opening of trade on Monday 23
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November, or earlier if an announcement is made to the market.
Source: Proactive Investors
Metals of Africa makes large graphite find at Montepuez
On Monday 16 November, the Australian company Metals of Africa announced that it has discovered an estimated 6.3 million tons of graphite at its Montepuez Central Graphite Project (located in Cabo Delgado Province).
In addition, the company estimates that the resource contains 163,000 tons of vanadium oxide.
According to a statement from the company, the deposit contains “a higher percentage content of large and jumbo flake size than any published graphite resource in Mozambique”.
This is of particular importance as prices rise sharply as size of flake increases. In a presentation, the company said that jumbo flakes sell for approximately US$2,200 per ton; large flakes for US$1,250; medium flakes for US$1,100; and small flakes for US$900. It pointed out that more than half of the graphite at Montepuez consist of either large or jumbo sized flakes.
The Managing Director of Metals of Africa, Cherie Leeden, commented that: “this impressive maiden resource positions Metals of Africa as a major player in the global graphite space. Our flake size and quality is exceptional and our deposit clearly boasts the best ratio of large and jumbo flake of graphite deposits in Mozambique”.
The company plans to export the graphite through the port of Pemba, which is 250
kilometres away. It added that an alternative would be to ship the material through the port of Nacala, in the neighbouring province of Nampula.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Metals of Africa suspends operations in Mozambique as geologist dies at exploration camp
Metals of Africa has suspended operational activity at its Mozambique tenements following the death of an exploration geologist.
According to sources, the company said in a statement this week that the employee had passed away overnight.
According to the company, the death occurred suddenly after-hours at the exploration camp. Metals of Africa has suspended activity on site while it provided support to its remaining employees.
The company was exploring for graphite in Mozambique and was in the process of defining a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource for its Montepuez Central project.
Source: Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly
Mob destroys tantalum mine in Zambézia
During the course of the week 6 to 13 November, an angry mob attacked a tantalum mine in Gilé district (in Zambézia Province) and proceeded to destroy millions of dollars’ worth of equipment.
The mine, at Muiane, is operated by the company Tantalum Mineracao e Prospeccao Limitada, which is a wholly
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owned subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Wildcat Resources Corporation.
The ordeal began on 9 November, when police shot and killed an illegal miner who had been spotted entering the mine, allegedly with the intention of stealing mining material.
A group of rioters subsequently descended on the mine armed with rifles, machetes and pickaxes and proceeded to loot, vandalise and destroy company property. The rioters allegedly intended to lynch the South African director and other expatriates at the mine. However, they failed to do so when their intended victims fled the premises.
Rioters who spoke to reporters claimed this was not the first time that the local people had been shot dead at the mine. Another illegal miner, speaking on condition of anonymity, declared that: “We don’t want to see the managers of this company operating in the mine anymore. Otherwise we will take the law into our own hands. The director of the company does not respect us, and we cannot allow someone to come and enslave us in our own country”.
The local residents also complain that Tantalum Mineracao has not kept its promises to repair access roads and provide a school and hospital for the local community.
There were 70 Mozambicans employed at the mine, and all have now been thrown into unemployment. Another direct result of the destruction of the mine has been an explosion of child labour – the independent television station, STV, filmed dozens of children hacking away at a rock face at Muiane, in an attempt to extract tourmalines and other precious
stones (judging by the children interviewed by STV, they were largely unsuccessful).
The director of Tantalusm Mineracao, Shamim ‘Chippy’ Shaik, said the attack on the company made no sense, since it was the police, and not any company employee, who had shot the thief. “I don’t see why they are holding the company responsible, since we didn’t open fire”, he said
Shaik regretted both the death of the thief, and the fact that the police have not opened any investigation into the matter. He asked what guarantees of security investors have from the Mozambican government, when rioters could so easily overrun the mine.
Shaik said that, after the management had fled, looting at the mine continued, with no attempt by the authorities to restore order.
He put the value of the machinery destroyed at US$10 million. “Who is going to pay for the expenditure the company made over the last eight years in state-of-the-art machinery for extracting minerals?” he asked.
Conflicting reports published by Diário da Zambézia suggest that the protest was spurred by the exploitation of resources at the mine on 12 November.
The report suggests that a police officer was killed when the protesters invaded a local police station and stole weapons and other defence equipment. According to the same report, the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) subsequently opened fire on the protesters, killing at least four men (another report suggest that seven
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protesters and one PRM officer were killed, whereas a third report from the provincial director of Mineral Resources and Energy, Almeida Manhiça, suggests that only one person was killed).
According to unconfirmed eyewitness accounts, the commander of the police force for the protection of natural resources was severely injured and is currently receiving medical treatment in the city of Nampula. Additionally, the reports suggest that the village chief was targeted by the rioters and his house and motor vehicle were set on fire.
The Rapid Intervention Force (FIR) was dispatched to Gilé late on Thursday 13 November, to contain the situation.
Addressing the press following a visit to Luabo district, the Governor of Zambézia, Abdul Razak, said that he was concerned by the situation, but assured the public that everything would return to normal thanks to the police contingent sent to the site.
However, Governor Razak warned protesters not to call the province’s investment decisions into question and stressed the importance of keeping these matters under control.
On Wednesday 18 November, unconfirmed reports immerged that three additional bodies riddled with bullet wounds were discovered in the mine on Tuesday night.
Diário da Zambézia quotes an unnamed mine employee as saying that the bodies were found because they had started to smell. “We were looking for the cause of the smell, and found the bodies”, he said.
The discovery of the three bodies brings the number of people killed to 10 (according to Diário da Zambézia).
Meanwhile, the PRM have created a commission of inquiry to investigate the mine invasion. According to the police, the inquiry aims to determine the facts in order to hold individual perpetrators accountable.
“The investigation initiated at this point is to determine the actual circumstances behind the riots that resulted in widespread damage to the mining company operating legally in the district”, said the spokesperson of the General Command, Inácio Dina.
The Muiane area acquired by Pacific Wildcat covers 250 square kilometres. A primary tantalum processing plant was commissioned at the site in February 2011, followed by a secondary processing plant in early 2012.
Mine director, Shamim ‘Chippy’ Shaik, is the former Head of Acquisitions at Armscor. He is also the brother of South African businessman Schabir Shaik, who was found guilty of corruption and fraud in a controversial investigation which implicated the then Deputy President (now President) of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Diário da Zambézia/O País/Confidencial
Mozambique needs a community-driven approach to electrification
Mozambique has one of Africa’s lowest electrification rates. The national grid reached just 23% of the population in 2012. Around 68% of Mozambicans live in widely dispersed rural areas making
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extending access to electricity difficult. The national grid infrastructure is extremely limited and struggles to cope with rising demand.
Around 80% of the country’s residents rely on biomass resources like wood, charcoal and leaves as their sole energy source for cooking and heating. Ironically, this widespread energy poverty is happening against the backdrop of plentiful natural resources. In the past decade, significant coal and gas resources have been discovered in the country.
The wealth generated by this extractives boom represents a significant opportunity for Mozambique. It could provide the chance to address long standing challenges around limited electricity access and widespread energy poverty. Electricity needs to be sustainable, accessible and affordable to all. It should not be the sole preserve of industrial consumers or those in urban areas.
The politics and economics of electrification:
The State has increasingly prioritised the extension of the grid to rural spaces. Yet this effort has left the country with a critically under-maintained network. There is also a heavy reliance on a single energy source, hydro-power. Administrative, transmission and distribution losses – totalling 27% of power generated – exacerbate the country’s increasingly acute energy shortage.
Mozambique’s electricity quantity and quality deficit could emerge as the biggest constraint to continued economic growth. Rural electrification projects are thus heavily backed by donors who see them
as a promoter and enabler of economic development. What is rarely discussed with clarity is who and how many will benefit from rural electrification.
Complex financial and technical considerations are involved when extending a grid. This includes the cost and difficulty of extending the network across vast distances and varied landscapes. Yet it is also very much a political and economic process. It involves choices around tariffs, subsidies and which areas to electrify and when. Such decisions have an impact leading up to local and national elections.
The overstretched state-owned energy utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM) has been the subject of considerable political interference and exploitation. Some of its technicians have also been implicated in corruption.
Electrification has therefore become a source of business for private companies connected to Mozambique’s elites. Many of these firms have been awarded contracts without competition or with little transparency.
Decentralisation and renewable energy off-grid:
Over the past few years the State has been increasingly supportive of decentralised energy projects. This is seen as the most effective way to extend rural electricity access given the high costs and complexity of grid extension. These initiatives include mini-grids supplied by solar energy or micro hydro-power.
Such measures are viewed as a small-scale solution with potentially positive distributional and environmental effects.
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There is little expectation that renewable energy sources alone will universalise electricity access. Or eliminate energy poverty for that matter.
Since the early 2000s, renewable – particularly solar – energy has been included in projects using localised mini-grids or standalone systems. These projects seek to provide electricity for administrative centres like hospitals, clinics and schools. This process has been led by the State’s National Energy Fund.
Our research suggests that this model has so far succeeded in expanding electricity access in far-flung rural areas. The problem is that it is often undertaken with little capacity building. Local communities are also not always consulted properly or given a chance to participate in planning and implementation.
The fund’s approach is typically top-down. It relies heavily on state procurement and donor funding. It’s focused on the centralised delivery of electricity. It also focuses on connecting rural institutions. Typically it has often been more concerned with raising the number of connections than with understanding how energy matters in people’s daily lives.
Democratising energy access:
There is a pressing need to democratise energy access using off-grid, decentralised power generation. This would enable communities to have greater control and sovereignty over energy. The country also needs to reform and develop its key energy institutions.
The challenge is not the predominantly technical one of expanding generating
capacity. This is how it is often presented by state agencies and donors. Rather, it lies in developing and co-ordinating state institutions and orienting policy to deliver electricity to those who need it most. Open public debate about what and who energy is ultimately for is a necessity. Our research highlights the value of community engagement in designing and developing rural energy projects. This approach helps to foster greater local ownership. It will also empower ordinary Mozambicans and impart important skills. This is an essential step in ensuring sustainable energy access for all.
Source: Marcus Power, Professor of Human Geography, Durham University
KEPCO Builds Microgrid Facilities in Mozambique
On Friday 13 November, the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) held an event in Mozambique, celebrating the completion of microgrid facilities in the African country. The facilities, built as part of KEPCO’s first overseas microgrid project, will provide electricity to approximately 50 households and schools in a nearby rural village. Small back-up power systems, microgrids use renewable energy, such as solar power, and control the use of energy with a comprehensive energy management system.
Source: KBS World
HCB launches development programme
Approximately 250 businesspeople from Tete Province are scheduled to attend the launch of the local Supplier Development Programme, being held on 25 November, in Songo district (Tete Province).
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The initiative, implemented by the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Dam (HCB), follows on from a series of programmes aimed at promoting improved relations with local suppliers, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
According to sources, the programme is being implemented in partnership with Accenture, an international consulting firm with extensive experience in such activities in several other countries.
The programme aims to identify and analyse supply and demand, through direct contacts and surveys in order to identify the main problems encountered by SMEs when establishing relations. The programme also includes the definition of local content, focusing on the creation of added value within national borders; as well as the definition of a set of monitoring indicators, which will allow for the ongoing assessment of the evolution of the programme during its implementation.
Throughout this process, the HCB will be involved with various stakeholders, such as government institutions and representatives of the Mozambican entrepreneurial class. Incidentally, the programme envisages the installation of a governance structure that is composed of the actors of the production chain, especially the government, the business sector (SME suppliers) and demand (HCB).
Source: Jornal Notícias
Works on Moatize-Macuse rail link to start February 2016
The tender for the construction of a railway line between Moatize (Tete Province), and Macuse (Zambézia
Province), is expected to open in the next few days.
According to the chairman of the Zambézia Development Corridor, Abdul Carimo, “if no last-minute constraints arise, work should start in February next year”.
Carimo added that the project also provides for the construction of a deep-water port in Macuse, located in the Namacurra district, and for the building of 500 kilometres of railway ending in Sopinho, in the Nicoadala district of Zambézia Province.
Costs are estimated at approximately US$3.5 billion and will employ over 10,000 people in the first phase.
Source: A Bola
Odebrecht announces US$200 million bus lanes' project in Maputo
Brazilian construction company Odebrecht has announced that it will start building exclusive bus lanes in Maputo next year (2016), budgeted at more than US$200 million.
In a presentation to the press about future projects in Mozambique, Odebrecht’s Director of Public Relations, Miguel Paiva, said that the “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) network would involve the construction of 17 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes and 20 bus stops guaranteeing an average speed of 26 kilometres per hour. Additionally, Paiva revealed that the system would have the capacity of 18,500 passengers per hour.
“In addition to helping reduce traffic congestion in the city, the Maputo Urban Mobility Project aims to combine the capacity and speed of the bus with the
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flexibility and low cost of a transport system, as it has in the main urban centres of the world, significantly improving the quality of public transport”, said Paiva.
Maputo Municipal Council said that the project provides for the extension of some of the main avenues in the Mozambican capital and announced that it expects to buy 63 articulated buses, each capable of carrying 140 passengers.
Odebrecht will also develop a poultry project in Zambézia Province budgeted at US$65 million, and the Brazilian company plans to invest US$21 million in a cassava starch project in Gaza.
The Brazilian firms says that the cassava starch will be naturally-modified for cereal food products and more than 1,000 local farmers will be involved in the cultivation of 5,000 hectares each.
The company delegate administrator, Félix Martins, said that: “It is intended that this project will increase production and agricultural productivity through the use of sustainable cutting-edge technologies for tropical agriculture, promoting the integration of population, by qualifying via family farming oriented to the market”.
Source: Macauhub/Lusa/All Africa
Road linking Mozambique to South Africa to be widened
The government recently authorised the Trans African Concessions (TRAC) to widen National Highway Number 4 (EN4), in order to accommodate growing amounts of traffic on that road, which connects Mozambique to South Africa.
The authorisation is included in an addendum to the concession contract for
the road signed by the governments of Mozambique and South Africa and TRAC, said government spokesperson and Deputy Health Minister, Mouzinho Saíde,
The addendum approved by the Cabinet seeks to address the high level of traffic, especially in sections 19 and 20, which will be widened from four to six lanes, putting more resources in place for load control and compensation for damage caused by excessive goods in transit, among other works.
The road is part of the Maputo Development Corridor, designed to promote trade between Mozambique and South Africa.
Initially, the road spanned from Witbank to the port of Maputo in order to encourage the development of industry in the Mpumalanga region, but it was extended by 100 kilometres to reach Pretoria.
South Africa’s TRAC was selected through an international tender to manage the project for 30 years under a “Build, Operate and Transfer” system, which means that it will build and operate the road and then transfer it to the Mozambican State at the end of the contract.
Source: Macauhub
Casa Jovem project is “moving forward” – Erik Charas
Designed to solve the housing shortage for young people in Maputo, the Casa Jovem project, which involves the construction of approximately 1,500 affordable homes for young professionals, has been widely criticised and its sustainability questioned.
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But entrepreneur Erik Charas says that the project is well under way, insisting that: “For greater openness and transparency in the project, we set up a very good process of involvement with our customers, and have received a lot of solidarity and support from them in return”.
However, Charas recognises that the project faces difficulties. “There are suppliers who have experienced late payments and we are negotiating with them, and the whole country is going through a crisis due to the devaluation of the metical”.
Criticising a culture that seeks to push downwards those who attempt to climb up, Charas stressed that Casa Jovem “is a project involving 600 Mozambicans who bought houses with us and are actively involved in the construction process, but we have difficulties because sales fell to almost zero, which is normal considering some concerns”.
Criticisms of the project, which started some years ago, stem from the fact that so far no houses have been delivered, but Charas says that: “we are signing the first memorandum with a group of clients who have engaged in the initiative”.
Customers “will take possession of the first 16 houses this year, then we will have two more batches of 32, which will raise the numbers first to 48 and then to 80”.
Charas said that the numbers are economically sound, and that the project is looking for further funding partners “because there is a good return, although the project comprises the most affordable houses in the country”.
“What I have to say is that, contrary to malicious media reports which stirred up concern among our customers, the project is moving forward. We are finding solutions and we are progressing every day”.
Source: VOA Português
Beira’s Casa dos Bicos to become tourist bureau following US$377,000 rehabilitation project
The government recently announced that Beira’s iconic Casa dos Bicos will be rehabilitated next year and transformed into a tourist bureau and showcase for Sofala Province.
The project, the cost of which was initially estimated at MT17 million (around US$377,000 at current rates), was announced during the 15th Ordinary Session of the Sofala government by Governor Maria Taipo.
It was built during the colonial period, by the then Board of Foreign Trade, as a permanent exhibition space for economic activities. Designed by architect João Afonso Garizo do Carmo, the project has a unique modern feel.
The building’s unusual design and structure have made it a Beira landmark, but the property has serious structural problems and has been abandoned for approximately 20 years. There are only two similar structures across Africa, and five in total in the whole world, making its conservation a matter of historical interest for society as a whole.
The government has made several attempts to rehabilitate the building, handing it over to various companies in the attempt to have it meet public needs.
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A recent proposal for the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM) to take it over fell through, and now the Sofala government has opened a new chapter in the building’s history.
Source: Notícias
Japan invests in Sofala fishing activities
In the coming years Japan plans to invest in Sofala Province, specifically in the fishing sector. This announcement was made following a recent meeting between the Governor of Sofala Province, Maria Taipo, and a Japanese business mission.
The business mission travelled to Sofala with the aim of assessing the province’s fishing potential. The mission intends to invest in the procurement, processing and transportation of fish, as well as in cutting-edge technologies for the fishing sector.
During the meeting, Governor Taipo informed the mission that the province procures approximately 100,000 tons of fish per year, and that fishing plays a vital role in the economy of the region.
According to Governor Taipo, the sector directly employs roughly 19,000 people via numerous artisanal fisheries, the majority of which are based at Beira Port.
The governor further stressed that the province boasts approximately 1,086,363 hectares of available space for tanks and hatcheries.
The border districts of Dondo, Nhamatanda, Mwanza and Cheringoma hold great potential for the cultivation of shrimp, mullet, mangrove crab and fish-telapia.
In turn, the head of Japan’s mission, Maki Imazu, said that he is satisfied with Sofala’s potential in the fields of fishing and aquaculture.
The mission of the International Cooperation Agency of Japan was composed of 10 members. The mission conducted working visits to the provinces of Sofala and Maputo.
Source: Jornal Notícias
Sofala government suspends two timber companies
During the course of the week 6 to 13 November, the authorities of Sofala Province suspended the operations of two timber companies for violating the country’s labour legislation.
These two companies, Ming Fan Shan and Didi Madeiras, are both located in Beira and join Hen Xing, a company that was suspended earlier this year for repeatedly ignoring health and safety norms, and failing to provide its workers with work contracts.
The provincial government has set up a team which is looking into the operations of all timber companies working in the province.
At Ming Fan Shen, they found that the workers had no changing room, no kitchen and no canteen. Three foreign workers were found to be illegally employed because they were in excess of the permitted quota for expatriates.
10 of the Mozambican workers had not been enrolled in the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
At Didi Madeiras there were no toilets or changing rooms for the Mozambican
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workers, one foreign worker had no contract, and there were no facilities for processing the timber.
The spokesperson for the Sofala provincial government, Helcio Canda, said that the government has decided to suspend the activities of these companies until all the irregularities have been corrected.
According to figures released by Canda, in the first nine months of this year, Ming Fan Shen exported 4,125 cubic metres of timber, earning MT6 million (approximately US$140,000). Didi Madeiras exported considerably less – 2,399 cubic metres, which brought in MT4 million.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Intertek develops new agricultural testing laboratory in Mozambique
Intertek, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, has expanded local services and capabilities at their laboratory in Beira (Sofala Province) to offer support to local agricultural businesses throughout Mozambique and within the East African region.
The new laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, staffed by experienced technicians and will provide analytical support for clients requiring microbiological and chemical analysis. The laboratory offers fast and accurate screening to detect, identify, and quantify the presence of harmful aflatoxins and is now equipped to test grains and pulses for genetically modified organisms.
David Du Plessis, Country Manager of Intertek Mozambique, said that: “These
new testing capabilities are a welcome addition to our growing network of laboratories and capabilities in Mozambique, giving our clients added technical support, expertise and solutions”. Intertek has six laboratories and offices across Mozambique that support local and international client activities in the region. These include agricultural testing as well as petroleum, industrial and energy sector services.
Valentin Rossel, Global Business line leader for the Agricultural Division, said that: “The new testing capabilities will assist our clients in the region, to protect their business and minimise the risk of negative health impacts, and maintain recommended standards for the control of harmful Aflatoxin levels in agricultural products”.
Source: Business Wire
AGRA pledges to increase investment in Mozambique
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has announced that it will invest approximately US$30 million in Mozambique’s agricultural sector during the current five-year period.
According to AGRA’s eastern and sub-Saharan representative, George Bigirwa, the initiative forms part of an investment plan which focuses on the areas of seed production, markets, land, and political and human capacity building.
Speaking during the national meeting of producers, traders and seed cultivators, which took place in the province of Nampula, Bigirwa said that AGRA’s commitment to invest in the country is based on the fact the organisation has
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witnessed good government policies in the agricultural sector.
Over the past seven years, AGRA has invested over US$47 million in Mozambique’s agricultural sector. The alliance has also distributed over 44 seed varieties, some of which are drought-tolerant. According to Bigirwa, AGRA is banking on support of both the public and the private sector in terms of additional investment.
In turn, the Governor of Nampula, Victor Borges, said that Mozambique will continue to focus on the development of the agricultural sector. Specifically focusing on seeds, the governor called for the fortification of partnerships between various actors.
According to the statistics provided by AGRA, Mozambique is ranked seventh in Africa in terms of seed production.
Source: Jornal Notícias
Banco Sol opens branches in Mozambique and Namibia
Angola’s Banco Sol plans to open branches in Mozambique and Namibia in the first quarter of 2016 in a bid to strengthen its presence in the international market.
The announcement was made by the bank’s chief executive, Coutinho Miguel, on the side-lines of the opening of another branch in Luanda, in the Rangel district.
Banco Sol currently has registered capital of US$18.3 million and its main shareholders are Sansul, of the GEFI group, with 45% and the Lwini Foundation, with 10%.
Source: Macauhub
LAM-TAAG seal partnership agreement
On Wednesday 11 November, Mozambique Airlines (LAM) and Air Transport of Angola (TAAG) concluded an agreement in Luanda designed to facilitate affordable and convenient air travel for passengers of both airlines.
According to a press release, the agreement allows passengers from Maputo travelling via LAM to Luanda to choose between returning to Maputo on a direct flight or via Johannesburg on the TAAG flight and then from Johannesburg to Maputo with LAM.
The agreement also allows passengers from Maputo with LAM tickets to fly LAM to Luanda and from there connect with TAAG flights to domestic destinations in Angola or onwards at affordable prices.
From now on, LAM will also offer daily flights, either direct (twice a week) or via Johannesburg (with TAAG as carrier, at no additional cost). Under the agreement, LAM passengers with intercontinental destinations (Lisbon, Porto, Havana, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), domestic destinations in Angola (Lubango, Malanje, Cabinda, Catumbela, Huambo, Saurimo, Soyo, Ondjiva, Menongue and Luena), as well as regional destinations (Sao Tome and Principe, Lusaka, Brazzaville, Bangui, Douala and Praia) can make the connections through Luanda.
Passengers from Luanda can connect in Maputo to flights operated by LAM serving Nampula, Nacala, Pemba, Tete, Quelimane, Inhambane, Vilankulo and in Johannesburg to Maputo, Beira, Vilankulo, Inhambane, Pemba, Tete and Nampula flights.
Source: Folha de Maputo
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POLITICS
US Ambassador to Mozambique
On Tuesday 10 November, Dean Pittmam, the ambassador appointed by President Barack Obama to Maputo, said that Mozambique faces enormous challenges, such as “insecurity, weak democratic institutions and borders unable to contain all kinds of international trade”.
Speaking in the Foreign Policy Committee in the US Senate, Pittmam called for greater co-operation between the United States and Maputo in the fields of health and education.
Pittman said that for Mozambique to partner with the United States, the country “needs a climate of peace, strong and democratic institutions, a healthy and educated population, an engaged civil society and inclusive economic growth which benefits all Mozambicans”.
The Senate must first approve the appointment before Pittman can be sworn in as an Ambassador by President Obama.
Pittman, a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counsellor, currently serves as Senior Advisor in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, a position he has held since 2014.
Previously, Pittman served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 2010 to 2014 and served concurrently as Acting Assistant Secretary from 2013 to 2014.
Prior to that, he was Senior Diplomacy Advisor to the Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review from 2009 to 2010, Member of the Office of Policy Planning from 2007 to 2009, and Consul General at the US Consulate General in Belfast (United Kingdom) from 2004 to 2007.
He also served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State from 2002 to 2003. Pittman was Director for Balkan Affairs on the National Security Council staff from 2000 to 2002, Political Counsellor at the US Embassy in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) from 1999 to 2000, and Legislative Management Officer for East Asia and Pacific Affairs from 1997 to 1999.
Source: VOA Português
President Nyusi urges residents of Panda to embrace peace
On Friday 13 November, President Filipe Nyusi urged the population of Panda district (in Inhambane Province) not to accept war and to denounce those who promote war.
During a working visit to the district, he urged its residents to live in reconciliation and concord in order to promote the country’s development. In a clear reference to members of the former rebel movement Renamo, he called on the public to persuade “the promoters of instability” to join the development project.
Reiterating the need to live in peace and stability, President Nyusi encouraged
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his audience to centre their attentions on work and on food production.
“Without food, hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructures we cannot be at peace with ourselves”, said the President. “In peace, we can do everything”.
Speaking in the locality of Massalane, President Nyusi encouraged the population to continue to produce more, and to diversify agricultural production in all areas, using all possible solutions.
In Panda an innovative fish farming project is under way, helping to boost food security and provide a balanced diet. The fish tanks are of particular importance in periods of drought – such as the one currently underway in southern Mozambique – where agricultural production is inadequate.
The fish farming project visited by President Nyusi forms part of the government’s project for the expansion of aquaculture, and to reduce the food deficit, particularly in animal protein.
In these initiatives, the government intervenes through support for technical assistance, the training of fish farmers, and the management of the earthen fish tanks. The project prioritises the interior of the country, making use of water from rivers, lakes, springs and low lying areas.
In Panda, the project currently involves 37 fish farmers, of which 28 are women, and is benefitting at least 112 people. The district expects to produce approximately 160 tons of fish in 263 tanks, covering an area of 49 hectares, and generating income of around MT13 million (roughly US$302,300).
President Nyusi praised the forward-looking attitude of the Panda fish farmers, and urged the replication of this experience throughout the country.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
President Nyusi tells Mayor Rafael to “keep his mouth shut”
On Friday 13 November, the Mayor of the southern city of Maxixe, Simao Rafael (who is under investigation on corruption charges), attempted to justify himself at a meeting addressed by President Filipe Nyusi, but the President told him, in no uncertain terms, to keep his mouth shut.
The Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC) is investigating accusations of corruption relating to tenders for road construction involving Mayor Rafael and the Maxixe councillor for town planning, Jacinto Chauque.
Mayor Rafael is also accused of physically assaulting the Maxixe district police commander.
Nonetheless, Mayor Rafael attended a meeting addressed by President Nyusi in Panda district on Friday, and attempted to defend himself.
However, President Nyusi asked him: “Are you the man who’s appeared on television? I think you should keep quiet. Don’t speak”.
President Nyusi announced that a team from the Central Committee of the ruling Frelimo Party will visit Maxixe to investigate what has been happening in the municipality, including the charges of corruption, and the hostile relations between Mayor Rafael and Frelimo first
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secretary in Inhambane Province, Helder Francisco.
Francisco has called for Mayor Rafael’s dismissal, which would precipitate a municipal by-election in Maxixe.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Brazil and Mozambique celebrate 40 years of bilateral diplomatic relations
On Sunday 15 November, Mozambique and Brazil celebrated 40 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.
According to the government of Brazil, over the years the two countries have successfully maintained a very constructive relationship, characterised by positivity and friendship.
It should be noted that the flow of investments between the two countries has grown in recent years. According to Brazil, this increase highlights the fact that the country looks to Mozambique as a reliable destination and a very important partner.
Source: O País
Motion to censure Ombudsman defeated
On Wednesday 18 November, the National Assembly rejected a motion of censure, put forward by the Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM), against the report submitted by Ombudsman Jose Abudo.
The MDM argued that Abudo’s report to the National Assembly, delivered on 28 October, was a “shoddy piece of work”, which paid no attention to the plight of
victims of abuses committed within the public administration.
Presenting the censure motion, MDM deputy Silverio Ronguane claimed that to approve Abudo’s report “would be a betrayal of those whom we represent”. He claimed that Abudo had only mentioned abuses committed at the lower levels of the state apparatus, and had ignored crimes committed at the higher levels.
The former rebel movement Renamo backed the MDM motion, but the majority Frelimo party came to Abudo’s defence. Frelimo claimed that Abudo had done all that was required of him under the Constitution and the Assembly’s own standing orders.
Frelimo deputy Joao Chacuamba said that, if the Ombudsman had indeed concentrated on the lower levels of the public administration, it was because he was looking into the decentralisation of state functions.
Patricio M’pangai pointed out that the Ombudsman only makes recommendations and “cannot give orders to the public administration”. He said that the MDM’s motion presented no facts on which the accusation that Abudo had violated his constitutional duties could be based.
However, some of the Frelimo arguments were merely formal, such as the claim that the Mozambican parliamentary system does not envisage motions of censure. Strictly speaking, this is true – but the standing orders do say that motions can be presented rejecting reports, which comes to much the same thing.
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MDM deputy Armando Artur declared that Abudo “should have listened to the cries of the victims of the public administration”, while Juliano Picardo of Renamo claimed that: “the report did not say what sort of complaints were made or where”.
Frelimo deputy Agostinho Chipindula called the opposition deputies “anti-patriotic”, and accused the MDM of “time-wasting manoeuvres, attempting to cripple our institutions”.
The motion was defeated by 128 votes to 92. Ronguane immediately claimed that this meant that Abudo had lost the confidence of Parliament, since the appointment of the ombudsman requires a two thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Speaker of the House, Veronica Macamo, retorted “we are not voting on the appointment or removal of the Ombudsman, but only on the censure motion”.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Society wants peace, freedom and stability – President Nyusi
On Wednesday 18 November, President Filipe Nyusi once again warned that the lack of stability can lead to setbacks in the country’s development.
Speaking at the close of a High Command course in the Armando Guebuza Higher Institute of Defence Studies, President Nyusi said that: “our society wants peace, freedom and stability. These are indispensable values for the sustainable development of our country. Currently these values are
upset, and this could hold back the growth of Mozambique”.
The President argued that the best way to create stability lies in the production of wealth and the promotion of social justice.
“Creating stability also means the sustainable management of nature”, he said. “It means ensuring that floods and droughts cease to be a threat to national security by taking lives and destroying infrastructure”.
President Nyusi stressed that the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) have the responsibility of contributing to the prevention of any conflict that might affect the country, and they should possess the resources to avoid conflicts from erupting, or from spreading.
The defence and security forces as a whole, he added, “must preserve, even when facing armed aggression of any kind, our people and our national sovereignty. They must defend our frontiers, our independence and our constitutional order. These are the most precious victories of the Mozambican people, and they are not negotiable”.
“Military defence is the manifestation of a critical phase of any state under armed threat”, President Nyusi continued. “It is the defence and security forces who have the exclusive responsibility of using weaponry in the defence of national interests”.
Addressing the officers who had just graduated from the course, President Nyusi said they should be “true messengers of peace and national reconciliation”. They should also “be able to interpret phenomena –
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economic, social and cultural – that might have an impact on national defence”.
“Factors of a geo-strategic nature are changing constantly and sometimes profoundly, because international relations are permanently mutating”, the President noted. “The challenges facing our country have evolved. But it is about questions of hunger, poverty, social differences or interests foreign to those of the nation that we should deepen our assessment in order to find ways of confronting and defeating them”.
President Nyusi wanted to see the Higher Institute of Defence Studies “transformed into a national and international reference point, by investing in improving the quality of the curriculum”. He called on the institute “to prioritise research and the development of a national strategic way of thinking, applicable throughout our national territory”.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Telecommunications Bill approved
On Wednesday 18 November, the National Assembly passed the first reading of a government bill amending telecommunications legislation so that telephone operators will be obliged to share facilities.
Introducing the bill, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Carlos Mesquita, said that technological change “has led to the emergence of a new paradigm in the telecommunications sector, which is that of technological convergence”.
Convergence, he continued, is a worldwide trend “for the use of a single infrastructure to provide services which previously required autonomous equipment, communication channels and licensing systems”. That “single infrastructure” can be used “to carry various communications services such as telephone, internet, data, images, radio, television and computer networks”.
Minister Mesquita said that: “in order to improve the functioning of the telecommunications market and guarantee the basic rights of consumers” it would now be obligatory for phone companies “to share the existing infrastructures”.
Public policies in this sector, he added, “should contribute to an increase in coverage of rural areas, an increase in the number of citizens served by high performance fibre-optic networks, and continual improvement in the average Internet speed”.
The government hoped “that we will raise access to the Internet in our country to a new level, compatible with the importance of information and communications technologies, and as a response to the demand from Mozambicans for information, knowledge and services”.
Minister Mesquita pledged that the legal framework of the amended legislation “seeks to guarantee the licensing and operation of communications services in an environment of technological convergence and the flexibility to deal with rapid changes and to stimulate competition in the telecommunications market”.
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The bill is uncontroversial except for the clause on phone-tapping, which states that wire-taps must be authorised by “the relevant authority”. As jurists explained to Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique, the “relevant authority” in this case means a magistrate (which, in the Mozambican system, can be either a judge or a public prosecutor).
This was not good enough for Renamo deputies, who insisted that the bill should stipulate that only a court can order a phone tap. Without that explicit guarantee, Renamo voted against the bill, while the majority Frelimo Party and the deputies of the MDM voted in favour.
The bill therefore passed its first reading by 144 votes to 70. It will now be amended in committee before returning to the National Assembly plenary for a final vote.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
New Telecommunications Bill to penalise, not encourage, illicit tapping – Frelimo
The government bill on telecommunications is not intended to open the door to illicit wire-tapping, the spokesperson for the parliamentary group of the ruling Frelimo Party, Edmundo Galiza-Matos Junior, told reporters on Thursday 19 November.
Renamo had claimed that the bill might allow any official to order phones to be tapped, and for this reason voted against the bill.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference, Galiza-Matos claimed that the bill went in exactly the opposite direction to that
suggested by Renamo. Far from facilitating wire-taps, it increased the penalties for illicit interception of communications.
The bill is an amendment of the 2004 law on telecommunications. Galiza-Matos pointed out that the clause on confidentiality of communications has been strengthened. The 2004 law states that: “confidentiality is guaranteed”, but the new bill goes somewhat further, by declaring “it is obligatory to guarantee confidentiality”.
The article which Renamo claimed opens the door to widespread wire-tapping, in fact increases the penalties for unauthorised wire-taps, Galiza-Matos said. If the bill is enacted into law, the penalty will be between eight and 12 years imprisonment plus a fine of up to MT2 million (approximately US$42,500).
Wire-taps could only be authorised by “the competent authorities”. But this does not mean that any official could declare himself competent to order phones to be tapped. Galiza-Matos said that: “the competent authorities” are defined in law, and that, under the current legislation, courts or the public prosecutor’s office are the bodies which can approach the regulator, the Mozambique National Communications Institute (INCM), and ask for specific phones to be tapped.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
New district administrators take office in Maputo
On Wednesday 18 November, five new district administrators took office in Maputo under the leadership of the
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Governor of Maputo Province, Raimundo Diomba. The new administrators were nominated in separate orders by the Minister of State Administration and the Public Service, Carmelita Namashalua.
These new administers are:
The administrator of Marracuene: Avelino Pinto Muchine;
The administrator of Boane: Teresa Helena Boaventura Maúaie;
The administrator of Manhiça: Cristina de Jesus Xavier Mafumo;
The administrator of Moamba: João Raiva; and
The administrator of Matola: José Júlio Parruque.
During the swearing-in ceremony, Governor Diomba appealed to the new administrators to always keep in mind that their appointment is an unequivocal sign of the confidence that the government has placed in them. He made it clear that this trust must be matched by the administrators’ commitment and dedication to improve the quality of life for all Mozambicans, and to the Constitution.
Source: Jornal Notícias
Governor Taipo catches FIPAG in a lie
On Wednesday 18 November, the Governor of Sofala Province, Maria Taipo, conducted a visit to the outer suburbs of the provincial capital, Beira, to see for herself the critical water shortage in these parts of the city. It was during these visits that the governor
discovered that the local branch of the government’s Water Supply Assets and Investment Fund (FIPAG) had been lying about the situation.
According to reports, the FIPAG data indicated that 11,299 Beira households experience problems in receiving water, and the shortages are critical for 4,795 households.
FIPAG boasted that it would solve the crisis with 15 new standpipes to be installed in Beira by the end of the year. However, the director of the FIPAG commercial area in Beira, Augusto Chipenembe, told Governor Taipo that only three of the standpipes are ready.
But the governor found that even these three do not truly exist. When she reached the location where one of these standpipes were supposed to have been erected, in the Macarungo-2 neighbourhood, Governor Taipo saw that there was nothing there but a tap buried in mud, and pipes vandalised by local residents in desperate attempts to obtain drinking water.
Governor Taipo promised that the provincial government “will work to solve the problem. I came here because I was told there was a standpipe – but I don’t see anything. We are going to study the case to find out who is lying”.
A crowd welcomed the governor to Macarungo chanting: “We want water! We want water!” One of the residents, Claudia Afonso, told the governor that the situation has been critical since August. To add insult to injury, FIPAG has been billing Macarungo households for water that they have not consumed. FIPAG sends out invoices, sometimes
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for large sums, even at times when no water at all trickles from the taps.
“Sometimes we go for a month without water”, Afonso told the governor. “One of our solutions has been to cut open the pipes to see if we can get anything. But sometimes not even the pipes we cut into have any water”.
Governor Taipo also visited the local EdM offices, because one of FIPAG’s excuses is that the water shortages are caused by power cuts. The director of EdM client services in Beira, Luis Gange, assured the governor that, despite restrictions in power supply, EdM always prioritised basic services such as FIPAG and the city’s hospitals, to ensure that they were not affected.
He told reporters that water supply “is our priority”. Therefore, FIPAG never went without power, he claimed, and any problems must be internal to FIPAG.
“Instead of throwing the blame onto us, FIPAG should build more reservoirs to increase its capacity, since water does not flow directly from the river into people’s houses”, Gange said.
Gange said that EdM is working to keep power cuts to a minimum, even though Beira only has 40 megawatts of power rather than the 60 it requires. He told Governor Taipo that, provided here was no major breakdown, EdM would be able to keep Beira households fully supplied with power for the Christmas and New Year festivities.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Mozambique and East Timor sign co-operation agreement in the judicial sector
Mozambique and East Timor recently signed an agreement which aims to strengthen co-operation within the sphere of the judicial sector, specifically in terms of research, training and information exchange.
The agreement was signed in Maputo by the Attorney General of both countries, José da Costa Ximenes (East Timor) and Beatriz Buchili (Mozambique).
This five-year agreement extends on the first co-operation agreement in the sector, signed by both countries in 2011.
Source: Correio de Manhã
German Foreign Minister on official visit to Maputo
On Thursday 19 November, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, arrived in Maputo ahead of an official two-day visit. The minister is accompanied by a delegation of parliamentarians, businessmen, scholars and artists.
According to a statement issued by the Mozambican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the visit is aimed at strengthening friendly relations and co-operation between the two countries.
Minister Steinmeier is scheduled to meet with various Mozambican politicians and political role-players during his trip. The visit will commence with a meeting with his Mozambican counterpart, Minister Oldemiro Balói, followed by a visit to Parliament and a
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courtesy meeting with President Filipe Nyusi.
During his meeting with Minister Balói, the two politicians discussed strengthening the ties between the two countries.
“During the meeting, we expressed our desire to strengthen relations of co-operation and friendship between the two States and people”, Minister Steinmeier told reporters.
The German minister said that his country wants to boost business contacts with Mozambique in various areas of activity. “We want to identify more business opportunities with Mozambique because we believe this is a country of opportunities’, added Minister Steinmeier.
“This is my fifth visit to Africa in two years, as Foreign Minister””, he added, “and this visit comes at a time when there are conflicts in the Middle East, and also here in Mozambique, between the government and Renamo, the largest opposition party. We hope that the political leaderships achieve consensus”.
For his part Minister Balói said that the relations of friendship and co-operation between the two countries are healthy, and increasingly promising, since Germany is continuing to invest in Mozambique.
“In these talks, we discussed bilateral matters, and the existing relations between the two countries which are illustrated by the parliamentary, business and scientific components to this visit”, Minister Balói added. “We also looked at what is going on in the
world, in questions of a universal nature, such as questions of terrorism, the environment, the reform of the United Nations and the international economic situation”.
Germany has withdrawn from the group of donors and financial agencies known as the Programme Aid Partners (PAPs), who provide part of their aid to Mozambique in the form of general budget support.
Despite dropping out of budget support, Germany remains a major donor, providing approximately €60 million (roughly US$64.3 million) a year, to various sectors. Of this sum, €15 million is allocated to education.
Source: A Bola/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Renamo censure motion defeated by Frelimo majority
On Thursday 19 November, the National Assembly defeated a motion of censure moved by the Renamo party against the response given by the government to questions raised at the beginning of the month.
Renamo was clearly still agonising over the tough line taken by Interior Minister Jaime Monteiro on 4 November, when he insisted that the government will disarm Renamo’s illegal militia.
Minister Monteiro was responding to a question from the Renamo parliamentary group, which accused the government of attempting to murder Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama. The Renamo bench asked: “does the government think it is legally, morally and politically justified to resort to the defence and security forces for actions
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which seek to assassinate the Renamo leader, while at the same time expressing a will to hold a dialogue with Renamo?”
Minister Monteiro categorically denied that the government intended to murder Dhlakama, but stressed that the defence forces will continue to collect weapons held illegally, including those in the possession of Renamo. He promised that the collection of weapons will continue “until the last firearm in unauthorised hands is collected coercively or handed over voluntarily” to the defence and security forces, since “the possession and use of weapons of war is the exclusive prerogative of the State”.
In the motion of censure, read out by the spokesperson of the Renamo parliamentary group, Jose Carlos Cruz, Renamo once again claimed that the peace agreement it signed with the government in October 1992 allows it to keep an armed force.
The clause in question states: “Renamo shall be responsible for the immediate personal security of its topmost leaders. The Mozambican government shall grant police status to the Renamo members charged with guaranteeing that security”.
The agreement lists this as one of the “specific guarantees for the period between the ceasefire and the holding of elections”. The first multi-party general elections took place in October 1994.
Cruz claimed that the government was resorting to “state terrorism” and intended to return to a one-party state. “Nobody in their right mind can accept
the decision to disarm Renamo”, he declared.
He alleged that the two previous presidents, Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza, “never said the Renamo security force was illegal”.
Not only is this untrue, but Chissano has gone on record as saying that one of his biggest mistakes was failing to disarm Renamo.
In its written opinion on the Renamo censure motion, the Assembly’s Commission on Constitutional and Legal Affairs pointed out that armed political parties are banned under the Constitution which states that: “political parties are forbidden from advocating or resorting to armed violence to change the political and social order”.
The Commission said that it was the government’s duty to guarantee public order and the security of citizens. This duty imposed the need “to completely remove threats to the security of the people and the State, which unavoidably involves collecting firearms which are in illegitimate hands”.
Carrying that out was not “a declaration of war”, as Renamo claimed, but “the responsible acceptance of a Constitutional obligation”.
“The existence of Renamo armed men violates the constitutional order”, said the Commission. “The government’s action to disarm the Renamo men is a measure seeking to restore the constitutional order”.
In the brief debate that followed, Renamo continued to accuse Minister Monteiro of lying, and demanded a
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parliamentary commission of inquiry into the two ambushes on Dhlakama’s motorcade in Manica Province on 12 and 25 September, and the disarming of Renamo’s bodyguards in Beira (Sofala Province) on 9 October. However, this demand was not included in the Renamo motion.
When the censure motion was put to a vote it was defeated by 125 to 77. In the vote, the MDM joined forces with Renamo, but the combined opposition was outnumbered by deputies of the ruling Frelimo Party.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Maputo hosts FLMSA Summit
On Friday 20 November, Maputo hosted the ‘Cimeira Anual dos Presidentes dos Partidos Antigos Movimentos de Libertação Nacional da África Austral’ (Annual Summit of the Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa, FLMSA Summit).
The aim of the summit is to deepen and preserve the relations of friendship and co-operation that were formed between these various organisations during the national liberation struggle.
According to the spokesperson of Frelimo, Damião José, the Maputo meeting is also expected to further consolidate responses to common challenges in Southern Africa.
Representatives of former liberation movements from different countries were invited to attend the annual summit by president of the ruling Frelimo Party, Filipe Nyusi. Those in attendance were:
The president of the African National Congress (ANC), President Jacob Zuma;
The president of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Jakaya Kikwete;
The president of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), President José Eduardo dos Santos;
The president of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), President Hage Geingob; and
The president of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF), President Robert Mugabe.
The representatives discussed how best to develop the economies of their respective countries.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said that: “The struggle now is about how to improve the economies of African states. Liberation movements should make sure they represent the aspirations of [the] people”.
Frelimo secretary-general Eliseu Joaquim Machava said that: “One of the biggest problems that is common now is corruption, but we are making inroads in fighting the problem”.
The summit also discussed the importance of peace and security in the region. Most states have held peaceful elections recently, among them Tanzania and Mozambique.
A call for the lifting of sanctions on Zimbabwe was also made.
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Zanu-PF’s secretary for Administration, Dr Ignatius Chombo says, “The former colonisers are coming up with new strategies of recolonising us, we need to guard against such and alert one another”.
Young people have been encouraged to familiarise themselves with liberation history. Delegates attending the summit have emphasised the need for African states to work together in addressing their own problems.
Poverty and unemployment remain the biggest challenges facing African States.
The summit takes place in Mozambique, as per the rotation agreement, which saw the previous leaders’ meeting take place in Tshwane (South Africa), in March 2013. The summit will be preceded by meetings of social organisations linked to former liberation movements, in particular Veterans, Women and Youth leagues as well as party general secretaries.
League meetings took place on Wednesday, and the general secretaries met on Thursday.
Source: Jornal Notícias/South African Broadcasting Corporation
SECURITY
“Mozambique is at war and needs international mediation” – Muchanga
Mozambique is facing the prospect of a return to war following clashes between Renamo militants and state security forces. The government has threatened to disarm Renamo by force if necessary. Renamo says that the elections of October 2014 were fraudulent and demands to rule in regions where it claims to have achieved electoral victory.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Renamo spokesperson, António Muchanga, conducted by Euronews interviewer Michel Santos, published on 12 November 2015.
MS: Good afternoon, Dr. Muchanga. What is happening in Mozambique? Has the country not learned from the tragic war that cost millions of lives and created millions of refugees?
AM: What is happening is a number of political disagreements. The first issue is that the government has delayed the integration of Renamo forces into the Defence and Security Forces of Mozambique (FDS). It is not complying with what is enshrined in agreements already reached.
There are armed Renamo elements who have been expecting to receive police status since 1992. To date, the government has failed to integrate these people. We had problems in 2013 and 2014. An agreement was signed stating that Renamo elements should integrate into the FDS, namely the police and the military, but the government wants to integrate them as if they were just anyone. Renamo, for its part, thinks that these elements should share the leadership and command of the FDS, because we too are Mozambicans. This is the main disagreement. And the government is attacking the places
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where the people who are waiting to be reintegrated are concentrated.
MS: With regard to elections, do you continue to contest them?
AM: The elections were contested and we went ahead with a proposal that we think could help the country through the decentralisation of power, changing the law to enable the party that wins in certain constituencies to govern in those regions. They have this model in South Africa. Some provinces are governed by the ANC and there are others run by opposition parties. There is reluctance on the part of the government to accept this proposal.
MS: And did you win the elections in these regions?
AM: That is the premise. Mozambique is divided into constituencies. Our party, our candidates, won the elections in Sofala, Nampula, Zambézia, Tete, Niassa and Manica.
MS: About a month ago the Renamo leader was surrounded in his home in Beira and even before this he was the target of ambushes. What, in fact, happened?
AM: The president was ambushed on 12 September. There was an attack on his entourage. Thank God no one was killed but there was material damage to vehicles. On September 25th, around eleven o’clock, he was again attacked. There were clashes involving Dhlakama’s guard and the attackers lost three weapons.
MS: And were there casualties? Killed or wounded?
AM: There were many dead and wounded.
MS: Can you quantify the number of casualties?
AM: I cannot, because I was not there.
MS: And then there was the siege...
AM: We went to fetch president Dhlakama. We reached Beira at 10:00hrs. Around 6:00hrs the next day he was surrounded. They [the government forces] said that they had come to recover the weapons lost on the 25th [of September]. After these had been surrendered, they then said they needed all the weapons, those that the president’s security forces were using. We think it was an undignified attitude that only helped create tension. The situation became clear: you cannot trust these people, which is why we think that in order to bring peace to Mozambique, the international community has to engage in mediation now more than ever. The Catholic Church, which demonstrated experience in helping to achieve peace in 1992, has to be involved in the negotiations. The other side [the government] says it is not necessary to involve foreigners, but we believe that when people are dying it is no longer a domestic issue.
MS: When you say in international mediation, do you mean any specific entity?
AM: We are talking about the United Nations, the European Union, SADC (Community for the Development of Southern Africa) and the African Union. We are talking about governments of recognised merit that can help us. The Italian government could help, as we
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saw in the past. We believe that if Britain, South Africa and the United States are involved, among other countries with recognised merit in talks, we can quickly find a solution to our problem.
MS: Among all these countries you did not mention Portugal. Do you not trust Portugal to help?
AM: Portugal is part of the EU, and has historical relations with us. When I talk about the European Union, Portugal is included.
MS: But would you like the mediation to take place in Brussels or Lisbon?
AM: We think that if it is at the level of the European Union or the United Nations it would be better. Failing that, the government of some other country could help find a solution.
MS: Returning to the siege on the Renamo leader’ house, Dhlakama came out of hiding to meet with mediators and establish a dialogue with the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, did he not?
AM: When we asked for the international community to join us, the response we got was that the government did not want it involved. I myself was in the group of negotiators and the answer was: if the international community is involved, the government will withdraw and will not be responsible for what might happen.
MS: Was any reason provided for not wanting the international community to be involved?
AM: They said it was a domestic issue. But then we realised that they wanted to do shameful things like they did on 9 October [the siege on Dhlakama’s house]. And they did not want the international community to witness them.
MS: Do you think the government is willing to talk?
AM: I do not know if it is willing, but if it is, it has to demonstrate it with concrete acts. We want to move towards a process of negotiations, witnessed by relevant persons such as the countries I mentioned, the international organisations I have listed, with the involvement of the Catholic Church as a respected entity in the world.
MS: How many attempts have been made to establish dialogue between Renamo and the government?
AM: Right now there is exchange of correspondence. We wrote a letter to the Church and interest was expressed. On Sunday [8 November] the Church went to the presidency and submitted proposals. We understand that the Church presented solutions. Unfortunately, some people think that the Church did not present proposals. The Church provided resolutions calling for an end to the bloodshed. We cannot continue to fight, we must stop the war and negotiate. The Church has shown its availability, but the other party did not answer.
MS: Are you afraid that Mozambique will slip back into war again?
AM: Mozambique is at war, only it is a low intensity war, because every day clashes between the FDS and elements
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of Renamo awaiting integration into the FDS are reported.
MS: Is there any relevant information you would like to share with us?
AM: Once again we appeal for sincerity. This is our country. No one is a Mozambican of first, second, third or fourth rank. We all need to work for our country.
Source: Euronews
Rivalry in Mozambique erupts into violence
The Right Reverend Dinis Sengulane understands better than most the tensions involved in mediating between Frelimo and its arch rival Renamo.
So when the Anglican prelate received a text message from a Renamo member calling him a “traitor” and another from a Frelimo figure asking why he was treating a “bandit” with gentleness, he was not surprised.
“My theory is if you get it from both sides … probably you got it right”, says Sengulane, who was central to peace efforts in the 1980s that led to the end of Mozambique’s civil war.
Yet his optimistic response cannot mask the unease he feels after more than 20 people were killed in attacks on Renamo followers and Afonso Dhlakama.
Renamo has accused ruling party hardliners of wanting to assassinate Dhlakama, who angered some when he called for greater autonomy in Renamo heartlands. President Filipe Nyusi has accused Dhlakama of wanting to govern by force in these areas.
“I would say people are concerned, very much concerned, and they keep on praying for peace”, Sengulane says.
With political tensions heightened, his concerns reflect those of many in the southern African nation. The attacks have spooked businesses and investors facing a more challenging economic environment and dashed hopes of a more enduring peace after last year’s elections.
Ismael Faquir, Mozambique country head at Ernst & Young, says that: “Even if we trust that common sense will prevail … when you have those issues you have to sort them out because of the message [it sends to] foreign investors”.
Sengulane, like other Mozambicans, does not believe civil war will erupt in a country that has mostly been stable since 1992. But there are fears of a return of the sporadic violence in central Mozambique that disrupted the flow of traffic and goods on the key north-south highway in 2013 and 2014.
“On both sides of the conflict there are people who think the solution should not be negotiated. There are people who believe in a military solution”, he says. “Or at least they haven’t got the same sense of urgency as their leaders”.
Sengulane witnessed Dhlakama coming out of hiding after he had fled following two attacks on his convoy in September.
Yet the day after Dhlakama arrived in the port city of Beira, security forces surrounded his house and forced his guards to disarm.
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Renamo saw this as a betrayal – hence the text message to Sengulane. Dhlakama has since left Beira and his whereabouts are unknown. “It is very clear as we went and tried to mediate that both sides could not trust a word coming from the other”, Sengulane says.
In September 2014, Dhlakama returned from more than two years in the bush to sign a peace accord with the then-president, Armando Guebuza. In elections the following month he won approximately 37% of the vote in a close contest with President Nyusi.
At a meeting between the two men in February, the Renamo leader sought greater autonomy in six provinces where Renamo performed best. However, in March, the Frelimo-dominated assembly rejected a bill pushing for the reforms.
Analysts say that Dhlakama’s decision to continue to call for regional autonomy at public rallies infuriated hardliners.
“Dhlakama went too far in terms of pushing President Nyusi to the limit … all these attacks are meant to get him out of the political scene in terms of moving around and addressing gatherings”, says Adriano Nuvunga, director of CIP. “Some people in the army took the order too far. Some believed the order was to kill him”.
The attacks have raised the question of whether President Nyusi is in full control of Mozambique’s security apparatus. Officials with Frelimo, which has been in power since independence in 1975, did not respond to questions.
Ivone Soares, Renamo’s chief whip in Parliament and Dhlakama’s niece, says
that Dhlakama is seeking a peaceful solution. She says her party wants the Church and international mediators to intervene, and accuses Frelimo of “doing everything to provoke him, to push him [Dhlakama] into a corner”.
“Frelimo people think they can kill him and buy the other Renamo members and control the situation. But with the [Renamo] president alive, they have a powerful enemy”, she adds.
Source: The Financial Times
Renamo gunmen force closure of 10 schools
10 primary schools in Tete Province, near the border with Malawi, have been closed since the end of June, due to the presence of Renamo gunmen in the immediate area.
The schools are in the Chabaene and Monjo locales in Tsangano and Moatize districts. The closures are depriving 10,585 children of their education.
The Tete provincial director of education, Joaquim Mepe, recently said that because the schools have been abandoned for months, opportunists have been vandalising the classrooms. Most of these schools were rebuilt after the Peace Agreement was signed between the government and Renamo in October 1992.
“We are trying to persuade the parents and guardians to take the children to safe areas with functioning schools so that they do not lose the school year”, said Mepe.
But most of the parents have paid no attention to these pleas. So the children,
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instead of studying, are staying at home, or are involved in informal trade. Mepe admitted that one reason for this is that the parents do not have enough money to transport their children to other areas.
Mepe said that Renamo attacks and threats have also affected adult education and literacy classes in these parts of the province, due to the constant movements of people seeking safety.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
“Dhlakama should come out of hiding to resolve differences with the government” – Macuane
On Thursday 12 November, Political analyst José Macuane argued that the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, should leave his place of hiding in order to resolve his differences with the government.
Macuane accused Renamo of lacking direction, which can be clearly seen in the party’s tendency to announce pending meetings with the government, only to reject the proposed locations of said meetings.
Source: O País
Governor of Niassa calls on Renamo men to surrender weapons
The Governor of Niassa Province, Arlindo Chilundo, has publically appealed to the armed Renamo men throughout the country to follow in their leader’s footsteps and surrender their weapons to the government.
The appeal was made on Friday 13 November, in the town of Entre-lagos, Mecanhelas district. Governor Chilundo reiterated that the only forces permitted to bear arms remains the FDS, and as such, Renamo is acting illegally by refusing to hand over its weapons.
Governor Chilundo subsequently called on the local population to remain vigilant and to report all persons who are suspected of being in possession of illegal weapons and of “dubious behaviour”.
The governor reiterated the government’s call for peace and national unity in order to ensure the development of the country.
Source: Folha de Maputo
Dialogue is the road to peace – Frelimo Secretary General
On Saturday 14 November, the Secretary General of Frelimo, Eliseu Machava, reaffirmed his party’s belief that dialogue remains the only way through which the country can achieve common good, particularly peace.
Machava said that the leadership of Frelimo is always available for dialogue with the aim of securing peace. In the meantime, he invited all forces in society to strive for the preservation of peace.
Machava said that President Filipe Nyusi’s visit to Gaza Province was aimed at acquainting him with the work carried out by the various party organs in Gaza, as well as strengthening social cohesion among party members.
Source: Folha de Maputo
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CNDH calls on Renamo to hand over weapons “voluntarily and peacefully”
On Tuesday 17 November, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Mozambique publically appealed to Renamo to be “consistent with the words of your leader” and “disarm peacefully and voluntarily”, while at the same time calling on the government not to “choose the path of force or violence to disarm Renamo”. The message comes in a CNDH press release in which the institution offers “a diagnosis of the current political and social situation of the country”.
“Taking into account what Renamo president Alfonso Dhlakama said on 9 October when he handed over weapons to Sofala Governor, Maria Helena Taipo, we think Dhlakama expressed a strong desire to disarm peacefully and voluntarily”, reads the document. The document, signed by the president of the CNDH, Custódio Duma, similarly calls on the Maputo executive not to “choose the path of force or violence to disarm Renamo”.
In the same document, the CNDH expressed its deep concern over the growing phenomenon of albinos being killed and trafficked for their body parts.
Source: A Bola
Renamo insists that Dhlakama is in Beira
On Wednesday 18 November, the head of the Renamo parliamentary party, Ivone Soares, assured the public that Afonso Dhlakama is safe and well and in Beira city (Sofala Province), adding that he will appear to the public as and when he deems appropriate.
“As soon as he feels that he has something to say to the press or anybody else who has ears to hear, he will of course re-appear in that way of his – charismatic, lively and cheerful”, she said. Soares added that: “The president [of Renamo] says that, for any war, conflict or disagreement between individuals or governments to end, there has to be dialogue, because wars do not end by themselves, even if people get tired of them, and the sooner consensus is reached the better, because that avoids casualties and other damage”.
Source: Folha de Maputo
President Nyusi presides over prison guard graduation ceremony in Moamba
On Thursday 19 November, President Filipe Nyusi presided over the closing ceremony of a prison guard training course at the Escola Prática in Lhembe, Moamba district (Maputo Province).
The ceremony was the culmination of a training course that had been running since May this year. The event was marked by cultural performances and the presentation of papers written by the trainees. The event highlights the ongoing work of the justice sector to equip correctional services officers with the skills they need to meet the challenges they will face.
It is expected that the graduates will strengthen special intervention units which will assist to restore order in penitentiaries and in defending the public interest through the rehabilitation and social reintegration of prisoners.
Source: Folha de Maputo
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Mozambican sailors complete training at Cherbourg
A group of 34 Mozambican sailors have completed their training on the new HSI32 interceptors that the country is scheduled to receive from France. French shipyard Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN), which is building the vessels at its facilities in Cherbourg, completed the training of 34 Mozambican sailors on Friday 13 November, after six weeks of theoretical and practical training.
Over the course of two weeks, the sailors made a dozen voyages, with the final trips being under complete Mozambican crew control. After their training, the Mozambican sailors were awarded diplomas at a ceremony. With the completion of personnel training, the first three HSI32 vessels will be delivered to Mozambique by early next year. They will be transported to Africa via a cargo ship. Deliveries are expected to begin in December.
On 5 September 2013, the Mozambican government signed a €200 million deal with CMN to build the three Ocean Eagle 43s, three HSI32 interceptors and 24 fishing vessels over a two-year period. In January Mozambique ordered another three interceptors, which will be delivered from December 2015 at a rate of one every two months. The first Ocean Eagle was launched on 22 January 2015 and the first HSI32 was launched at CMN’s facility in Cherbourg on 18 March. The HSI32s have a length of 32.2 metres and a width of 6.4 metres. Crew complement is 12. The type of vessel is made from aluminium for light weight and agility. Sensor options can include a surveillance radar,
electro-optical sensors and a satellite link for transferring images and other data. The HSI32 interceptors are able to reach speeds of up to 43 knots and can undertake patrols for three days, with a range of 800 nautical miles at 12 knots or 580 nautical miles at 33 knots. Weapon options include a remotely operated 20mm cannon and two 12.7mm machineguns. A 4.8 metre rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) can be launched from the back of the boat. Crew complement is 12. These vessels are ideal for anti-piracy, anti-terrorism and anti-smuggling missions.
The Ocean Eagle 43 patrol vessel features an innovative trimaran design ideal for shallow waters. The model has a top speed of 30 knots and a range of 3,000 miles at 20 knots or 5,000 miles at 12 knots. Crew complement is seven, but another eight people can be accommodated aboard. A small helipad can accommodate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the Schiebel Camcopter, while a seven metre RHIB can be launched from a ramp at the back of the vessel. Weapons options include a 20 or 30mm cannon above the bridge and two 12.7mm machineguns at the stern.
The new vessels ordered from France will provide a major boost to Mozambique’s navy, especially in light of recent offshore oil and natural gas finds. Currently the country’s small navy comprises of a single Conejera class patrol craft (Pebane), donated by Spain; a couple of Namacurra class harbour patrol boats, donated by South Africa; and approximately 10 small patrol craft, including RHIBs.
Source: Defence Web
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CRIME
MAP 1: KIDNAPPING INCIDENTS IN CENTRAL MAPUTO 2014 & 2015
GRAPH 2: REPORTED KIDNAPPINGS PER YEAR
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GRAPH 3: TIME OF KIDNAPPINGS 2014 & 2015
GRAPH 4: KIDNAPPINGS PER GENDER / AGE-GROUP 2014 & 2015
*Please note: the data present in the graphs and maps is not 100% accurate owing to the high number of unreported cases and irregularities in the documentation of these events. This graph illustrates the successful kidnapping incidents ONLY and not attempted/aborted/intercepted kidnapping
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PRM dismantle gang in Maputo
During the course of the week 6 to 13 November, the PRM of Maputo Province dismantled a gang in the Polana Cimento neighbourhood. The gang, which consisted of four members, was dedicated to the manufacturing and distribution/sale of Cannabis Sativa (hemp). During the operation the PRM seized 64 distribution size bags of Cannabis Sativa.
Source: Folha de Maputo
PRM confiscate six illegal firearms
During the course of the week 6 to 13 November, the PRM recovered a total of six illegal firearms.
According to police spokesperson, Inácio Dina, the weapons were recovered from the hands of Renamo men and armed criminals in separate incidences in the provinces of Maputo, Nampula and Sofala. 13 criminals were arrested in connection with the seizures.
Source: Folha de Maputo
Alleged albino trafficker arrested in Nampula
During the course of the week 6 to 13 November, the PRM of Nampula Province apprehended an unnamed individual and charged him with grave robbing.
According to the police report, the detainee stands accused of exhuming the body of an albino and removing the bones. The grave in question is located in Anchilo district.
The detainee was arrested and found to be in possession of an unspecified number of human bones.
The perpetrator immediately confessed and claimed that he was contracted by another individual to acquire the bones of an albino. However, the accused did not reveal any information about the alleged mastermind.
This is the first recorded case of this nature in Anchilo. Cases such as this are commonly recorded in the districts of Malema, Ribáuè, Moma and Angoche.
Source: @Verdade
Woman raped in Maputo
On the morning of Sunday 15 November, a 20-year-old woman was attacked and raped in her home in the city of Maputo.
The victim was admitted to the gynaecology ward of the José Macamo General Hospital. The case has been referred to the PRM for investigation.
Source: Folha de Maputo
Gang targets Nampula home
On Tuesday 17 November, a gang of 15 men, armed with blunt objects, raided a residence in Carrupeia district (Nampula Province), and fled with various goods.
The gang entered the residence and neutralised the occupants, some of which were already asleep.
According to the homeowner, who is a local nurse, the men assaulted the occupants of the house before fleeing the scene with various valuables.
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This is the third residential robbery to have occurred in the area in less than two weeks. Locals are fearful for their safety as large gangs frequently terrorise the area.
No arrests have yet been made in connection with this case.
Source: @Verdade
Matola man arrested for raping his daughter
A 40-year-old Matola resident was recently arrested in the Tsalala district and charged with raping his 14-year-old daughter. According to police reports the abuse began in 2014.
The perpetrator (who has not been named in order to protect the identity of his daughter) allegedly confessed to repeatedly raping his daughter, but insisted that he was possessed by evil spirits.
According to the victim, she did not report her father when the abuse began because he offered her money and gifts in exchange for her silence. The victim told the police that she decided to report the abuse because her father’s sexual advances were becoming more frequent.
Source: @Verdade
Child’s body found in Machava six months after disappearance
On Thursday 19 November, the decapitated body of a three-year-old child was found stuffed down a water tank a few kilometres from his home in Machava (Maputo Province).
According to reports, the child disappeared six months ago.
The body was discovered by homeowner, Argentina Alfredo, who opened the tank in order to evaluate the water levels leading up to the rainy season. Alfredo’s young son noticed the body and called his mother for help.
Alfredo said that she has no idea as to how the body got into her tank and how long it has been in there; all she knows is that the head was severed from the body.
Source: O País/Folha de Maputo
Albinos live in fear
In some African countries albinos are killed or trafficked for their body parts. This is due to the erroneous and widespread belief that albinos possess magical powers. In Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), the Pan Africa Albinism Conference is campaigning for their safety and dignity.
Representatives from almost 30 African countries gathered at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam for the first ever three-day Pan Africa Albinism Conference, which commenced on Thursday 19 November.
Albinism is a hereditary condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes.
People with albinism face discrimination. Regular attacks on albinos in Tanzania, fuelled by superstition, were described by President John Magufuli as a “national shame” during the recent election campaign.
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The superstitions are numerous. Fishermen believe that their catches will be bigger if albino hair is fastened to their nets. Miners are convinced that powdered albino bone turns into diamond when it is buried in the ground. Some believe that albino body parts are charms that bring the wearer riches, love or luck.
The choice of Tanzania as the venue gives added poignancy to this conference, which the organisers say “will focus on empowering people with albinism”.
Albinos don’t only face problems in Tanzania. So far this year at least 15 albinos have been kidnapped or killed in Mozambique. The true figure could be a lot higher, because fear prevents the victims from reporting such crimes to the authorities.
“One of our members has already been burgled”, says Laurinda Tembe. An albino herself, she campaigns with a group called Àmor a Vida (Love of Life) for albino rights in Mozambique. “In one case, a two-year-old baby was saved by the police at the last moment. In another case, a mother was able to escape [from kidnappers] but her daughter was later found dead”, she said.
Traditional healers are often blamed for albino murders. But the spokesperson of the Mozambican Association of Traditional Healers (AMETRAMO), Fernando Mathe, denies all knowledge of any such incidents. He said that traditional healers would not use body parts because albinos “do not possess anything special that would distinguish them from the rest of us”. However, he added that human traffickers misuse the
name of the traditional healer for their own purposes.
Many albinos have been kidnapped or murdered in Nampula city in northern Mozambique. It lies close to the border with Tanzania where the government has already declared albinos “an endangered minority”. Pedro Cossa from the Nampula police force says that the threat to albinos could have come from Mozambique’s neighbour but insists that: “these crimes are not being committed by foreign nationals”. Those foreign nationals do, however, incite Mozambicans to “persecute albino brothers and sons”.
The climate of fear is stopping many children with albinism from attending school in Nampula. Their parents recently asked for permission to send their children to a school in Quelimane, which is some 500 kilometres away. This prompted teachers and students in that city to stage a protest against the abuse of albinos. “When albinos are forced to flee for safety in their own country, then we are dealing with a clear violation of human rights”, said teacher Shara Ofumane. “The criminals responsible should be punished in accordance with the law”.
A number of kidnappers have already been detained by the police and there have been prosecutions. The government is counting on prevention and has appointed a committee to draw up measures for the protection of people with albinism. The public prosecutor in Nampula has reinstated a commission for the combating of human trafficking. Security along the borders between Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi is to be tightened. Public awareness
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campaigns about albinism – including radio commercials – are also going to be launched.
Tembe remains pessimistic. “We have been calling for equal rights day in, day out, but nothing really changes”, she said.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Minors take polygamist child abuser to court in Manica
A nine-year-old girl was forced to live as the wife of a polygamous man in fulfilment of the “biblical commandments” of a local sect. According to the sect’s scripture, church pastors are obliged to marry any women (regardless of age or marital status) if she appears in his dreams.
As a result of this, three children under 14 years old are fighting a lawsuit in Manica Province, contesting marriages imposed by parents and the leaders of the Johan-Marangue religious organisation.
The nine-year-old girl was forced to join a her pastor’s three other wives in 2012 in order to legitimise her father’s membership of the church, and, now 14 years old, she is fighting to annul the “covenant” marriage.
Two other minors, who are also members of the same sect, have also been fighting since 2013 to annul their marriages, imposed on them after the church pastor had a dream about them and compelled parents to approve the unions in compliance with church regulations.
These are the first court cases of this nature to come to light in Manica, although the practice of premature marriage is very common among members of the organisation, who also refuse conventional medical treatment.
“Justice itself does not help us much and actually ends up creating weakness for us, because when we press charges and have no satisfactory outcome, we end up just getting frustrated”, noted Cecilia Ernesto, an official of the Lemusica organisation, which supports victims of sexual and domestic violence in Manica.
Ernesto, who is also assisting the girls legally, claims that the procedural delays in the courts are “destroying their future”, as, in addition to dropping out of school, they are forced to become mothers at an early age and therefore increase poverty among the victims.
“In one case, a girl from Mutinha was forced to return to her husband’s house, and became pregnant and had a baby. But as she was still a minor, the baby ended up dying and still she is there today”, said Ernesto, asking for justice to act synergistically and “save” the children.
Ernesto says several other religious organisations share the same tradition.
“There were two other cases in Messica”, she says. “Real justice would have the children back in the home of their parents and the perpetrators facing sanctions. That’s what we want”.
Latest UNICEF data indicates that, in Mozambique, 48% of girls marry before age 18 and 14% before 15 years of age, putting Mozambique in second place
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behind Malawi. Marriage before age 18 is particularly common in the provinces of Niassa, Cabo Delgado and Manica.
Early marriage is one of the most serious human development problems in Mozambique, but is still largely ignored in the context of the development challenges the country pursues and deserves greater attention from policy makers, UNICEF warns.
Source: VOA Português
2,000 ‘ghost pensioners’ discovered
Mozambique’s National Social Security Institute (INSS) has discovered widespread fraud, with benefits were being paid to approximately 2,000 ‘ghost pensioners’ in Maputo alone.
According to the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Vitória Diogo, the fraud came to light during the “proof of life” campaign, launched in July, when all those claiming state pensions had to prove that they exist.
Speaking at the opening session of a meeting of the INSS Coordinating Council, Minister Diogo said that: “about 2,000 pensioners were not found in Maputo city, according to our data. This means that throughout this period, we have been giving pensions to people who don’t exist”.
After the fraud was discovered, the payments were suspended, but the matter will not end there. Minister Diogo promised that those responsible for the fraud will be held accountable for their actions.
She did not say exactly how much money had been stolen, but insisted that: “we must carry out a thorough investigation, in order to understand how this happened, and to punish those responsible”.
She did not rule out the possibility that the same thing may have happened elsewhere in the country. “I have only spoken about Maputo, but we want to have data from the entire country”, said the minister. Minister Diogo also called on INSS managers to rationalise resources and to avoid wasteful expenditure, stressing that the INSS “is the guardian of the money of other Mozambican workers”. “We, the staff and managers of the INSS, are not the owners of the system – we are just its guardians”, she said. “We have been entrusted with the mission of managing the contributions made by workers and employers. We have been entrusted with the mission of ensuring that the thousands of workers who, with so much sacrifice, discount money from their wages as contributions to the INSS, can be confident that they will have their pensions”.
“We have to fight against needless expenditure”, insisted Minister Diogo. “That which is superfluous should not form part of our way of working”.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
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WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Pressuring the poachers
At one of Hanoi’s priciest restaurants, a group of Vietnamese businessmen meet their new American partners to celebrate their latest venture. “A toast!” someone exclaims. They raise their glasses, filled with the finest scotch, which has been sprinkled with a fine powder. Not gold powder, as lesser moguls might offer, nor even the purest cocaine. No, this is far rarer and costlier: it is pulverised white rhino horn.
A half-century ago, white rhinos thrived in Africa. Today, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that only 25,000 still roam the continent – predominantly in South Africa – with a handful in Namibia and Kenya. The population of elephants – another of Africa’s most iconic animals – is also dwindling fast, having fallen from approximately 20 million a half-century ago to just 470,000 today.
The proximate cause of these precipitous declines is poaching. But the real reason is those businesspeople in Asia. Thanks to demand from people like them, the going rate for elephant tusks in Asian markets is around US$1,500 per pound. Rhino horn fetches US$45,000 or more. With prices like these, it is no surprise that poaching has become a US$20 billion mega-business, reaching high into the political leadership of many African countries.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that roughly 400 tons of ivory – taken from about 50,000 elephants – was trafficked in 2013. There are now roughly 50,000 elephants left in all of
Central Africa. Farther east, Tanzania’s elephant population declined by two-thirds, or more than 25,000 animals, from 2009 to 2014, while Mozambique’s fell by 40%. All of Mozambique’s white rhinos have already been wiped out.
Conservationists have been sounding the alarm for years. But the poaching industry has only grown. Far from a bow-and-arrow affair carried out by local tribes, it has become a kind of mechanised warfare, featuring gangs equipped with AK-47s, electronic tracking gear, and sometimes even helicopters. This industrial-scale destruction of animal species is enabled – indeed, encouraged – by collusion with national park authorities and government officials.
The numbers clearly illustrate this transformation. In South Africa, Save the Rhino International reports that poachers killed 1,215 rhinoceroses last year – one every eight hours – compared to just 13 in all of 2007. At this rate, the organisation predicts, deaths will overtake births as early as next year, meaning that, for South African rhinos, extinction is not far off.
The militarisation of poaching makes it increasingly difficult for conservation groups to protect animals, even within wildlife sanctuaries. For example, armed guards must patrol Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy 24 hours a day to shelter the 133 rhinos living there (the largest herd in East Africa, and one that includes three of the world’s last four northern white rhinos).
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But there is reason for hope. Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama agreed to impose a near-total ban on the ivory trade. While the agreement will not be implemented overnight, it represents important progress, not only because China is the world’s largest ivory consumer, but also because this is the first time that the US and China have made a specific joint commitment to protect wildlife.
There is also progress on the ground. In Kenya, rhino poaching fell by nearly half last year, claiming only 34 of 1,024 rhinos; in the first nine months of this year, poachers killed only six rhinos. Fewer of the country’s elephants are being killed as well. In 2013, roughly 60% of the country’s elephants died at the hands of poachers; this year, that proportion has been about one-third – a significant improvement, if hardly a pretty picture.
In Kenya, this progress can be explained partly by the need to revive tourism, which has been badly eroded by security threats in the last two years. But it may also be a response to growing global scrutiny. As Richard Vigne, the chief executive of Ol Pejeta, put it, the government “got embarrassed”. Reinforcing this interpretation is the recent re-appointment of Richard Leakey, the no-nonsense conservationist who founded the Kenya Wildlife Service, to head the agency.
Another major driver of progress in Kenya has been a strategic shift at the local level. Many of the country’s private conservancies (which rival its national parks in terms of wildlife) have
abandoned their old “fortress mentality”, which prohibited human incursions, in favour of a community approach. Ol Pejeta, for example, allows herders to graze their cattle within its borders during the dry season, and in exchange, the herders and their communities must report poachers in the area.
This innovative approach to policing has already produced results. Ol Pejeta has not lost an elephant in many years, and very few rhinos have been killed.
Action at the international, national, and community levels is of course good news. But if poaching is to be limited to the point needed to ensure the long-term survival of Africa’s rhinos and elephants, action must also be taken at the individual level. People – say, those wealthy Asian businesspeople, or their Western partners – must not only refuse to purchase products derived from poaching; they must also reject them when they are offered.
Just as finger-pointing helped to spur real action by Kenya’s government, individual shaming could help bury the pointless traditions that fuel poaching. Add to that efforts to give local communities a shared stake in saving endangered wildlife, and one has all of the elements of an effective strategy – call it “blame, shame, and share”. With elephant and rhino populations dwindling fast, there is no time to waste in implementing it.
Source: Michael Meyer, Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at Aga Khan University in Nairobi/Project Syndicate
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Is trophy hunting helping save African elephants?
African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen from as many as 10 million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Recent losses are largely from poaching for the illegal ivory trade (some 30,000 elephants a year), but also because of the shrinking habitat for elephants, as people open up land for farming and development.
Killing more elephants to help save the species is one counterintuitive strategy for preserving them. Here’s the thinking: invite hunters from rich countries to pay generous fees to shoot specified numbers of elephants, and use that money for conservation and to help give local communities a boost. Do that and (theoretically) poor villagers won’t need to poach elephants to feed their families.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, an internationally recognised organisation that sets the conservation statuses for species, supports this idea. “Well-managed trophy hunting can provide both revenue and incentives for people to conserve and restore wild populations, maintain areas of land for conservation, and protect wildlife from poaching”, its guiding principles say.
But a closer look at trophy hunting in Africa shows that the industry employs few people and that the money from hunt fees that trickles down to needy villagers is minimal. Government corruption can be a factor. In Zimbabwe, for instance, individuals associated with President Robert Mugabe have seized lands in lucrative hunting areas. Trophy hunting isn’t stopping poaching,
especially in countries that have a poor record of protecting their wildlife.
Six countries – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, and Tanzania – house most of the remaining savanna elephants. Along with Cameroon and Gabon, these nations allow sport hunting regardless of the level of decline in their elephant populations.
According to the latest figures, Tanzania’s elephant population has fallen from nearly 110,000 in 2009 to just over 43,000 at the end of 2014 – a 60% drop. Mozambique’s elephants declined from an estimated 20,000 to 10,300 during the same period. In Zimbabwe, a recent survey shows massive losses in some parks.
In Tanzania and Mozambique, elephants are now considered at risk of extinction, which means that none of their products can be traded commercially. But trophies aren’t considered commercial products.
Here’s how many tusks that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) allowed hunters to export from the big six countries in 2015:
Zimbabwe: 1,000 tusks
Namibia: 180 tusks
Zambia: 160 tusks
Tanzania: 200 tusks
Mozambique: 200 tusks
South Africa: 300 tusks
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Trophy hunting in Zimbabwe made the news in October when an unidentified German hunter shot what may have been one of the continent’s largest bull elephants. From 2003 to 2013, trophy hunters exported more than 28 tons of tusks from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe and Namibia’s sport hunting programmes provide contrasting examples of the benefits of this form of conservation.
Zimbabwe’s CAMPFIRE:
Supporters of trophy hunting often cite Zimbabwe’s Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), in which rural district councils allow locals to sell safari operators access to their wildlife. In turn, safari operators sell sport hunting opportunities, mostly to foreigners.
“Since its inception, CAMPFIRE has been very successful”, reads the foundation’s website. It says that households participating in CAMPFIRE increased their incomes by an estimated 15 to 25%.
But the benefits from the programme are not equally shared within the communities, according to a 1997 study analysing CAMPFIRE, and corruption has eaten away at revenue.
Rural councils in Zimbabwe are notoriously underfunded and almost always have nothing in their coffers to support the communities in their districts. For example, revenue from sport hunting in the Chiredzi Rural District (where the hunter shot that big bull elephant) was negligible, according to a 2014 end-of-year report.
In the report, the council’s chairman suggested it would be better to switch from hunting to more profitable non-consumer-based tourism, such as sightseeing and photography.
While a portion of the hunting fees foreigners pay (which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars) is earmarked for community projects such as CAMPFIRE, Emmanuel Fundira, chairman of Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, told CBS News in October that rural councils get “nothing”. In most cases, he said, corrupt government officials take the money.
CAMPFIRE CEO, Phindile Ncube, told CBS News that his rural district, Hwange, made more than US$158,000 in hunting fees during the past year. He claimed that the money goes to infrastructure and food programmes for local communities.
But when CBS interviewed local villagers, they said they haven’t received a cent from the council.
Furthermore, hunting operations in wildlife-rich areas are being seized by Zimbabwe’s land-hungry political elite, according to a 2014 report from Born Free, a wildlife conservation non-profit, and C4ADS, a non-profit conflict and security analysis firm. Safari and game reserves are one of the few remaining lucrative industries in Zimbabwe, both for legal and illegal hunting.
The takeover of these lands has coincided with overhunting and poaching, as the political elites who have come to manage them are driven more by profit than conservation. Revenue is more likely to go into
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personal and foreign bank accounts than into conservation and community programmes.
For instance, the chief of staff of Zimbabwe’s army, Major General Engelbert Rugeje, is linked in the report to land seizures in Save Valley Conservancy, home to 80% of Zimbabwe’s rhinos. Poaching in the area has already begun, the report says. Rugeje is also alleged to have been involved in the eviction of 350 villagers at Matutu conservancy in Chiredzi.
Namibia’s conservancy approach:
In Namibia, elephant numbers have been increasing, and the nation’s conservancy approach is applauded as a factor in this success.
Established by the Namibian government in 1996, the programme grants communities the power to manage wildlife on communal land and to work with private companies to develop their own tourism markets.
The latest government statistics indicate that the estimated contributions from trophy hunting exceeded US$70 million. The vast majority of this income is returned to operators and spin-off beneficiaries such as airlines, hotels and tourism facilities, but there is a trickle-down effect.
In 2000, the total income to communal conservancies from all forms of wildlife use, including trophy hunting, amounted to US$165,000. Six years later, this had increased almost tenfold to US$1,330,000. Though small compared to the overall income from trophy hunting, it does provide one in seven Namibians with US$75 a month.
Conservancy lands given over to trophy hunting have the added benefit of keeping the wild, wild. If these areas were farmed, for instance, the incentives for conservation would undoubtedly wane, and habitat loss would reduce wildlife numbers. The ecological footprint of trophy hunting – even of a safari lodge catering for groups of wildlife watching tourists – is far lighter than that of commercial farming.
Conservancies offer hunt operators land largely devoid of people – a draw for hunters who want an African wilderness experience. Camps are small, with few overheads other than equipment and licenses.
The Namibian model has critics, however.
As reported in Africa Geographic, some government officials have handed out elephant hunting permits in an effort to get political support from the communities, especially in the Kunene region, which is renowned for its rare desert elephants.
Plus, the country’s export quota of 90 elephants doesn’t include permits to hunt “problem animals”, but Namibian law allows hunters to easily obtain permits to shoot elephants judged to be in conflict with people.
According to a 2014 CNN report, these permits are sometimes granted even before a “problem” animal has been identified. A hunter can then shoot any elephant a community declares to be a problem, whether it’s actually a problem or not. CNN reported that several desert elephants have been shot either for their meat or for the cash from hunt fees.
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In a letter posted online, Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism strongly denied these claims. The ministry argues that Namibia has more elephants now than in the past 100 years, and “one of the reasons for their increase in numbers is that they have a value”.
The money story:
According to an IUCN report, the sport hunting industry does not provide significant benefits to the communities where it occurs. Across Africa, there are only about 15,000 hunting-related jobs – a tiny number, especially considering that the six main game-hunting countries alone have a population of nearly 150 million.
Besides that, local communities make an average of only 10 cents a hectare (25 cents an acre) from trophy hunting. A return that small explains the locals’ “lack of interest in preserving hunting areas and their continued encroachment and poaching”.
With more than one-sixth of the land in those six countries set aside for trophy hunting, and the fact that land-hungry politicians are seizing more and more land for themselves, impoverished rural communities often resort to poaching and the illegal wildlife trade to sustain themselves.
Citing the failure of trophy hunting interests to provide much needed revenue for both conservation and communities, and the failure of governments to control rampant elephant poaching, the US Fish and Wildlife Service imposed a ban on imported elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania for 2014 and
2015. The ban is likely to be extended indefinitely.
The view that sport hunting of elephants in Zimbabwe and Tanzania is causing more harm than good is gaining momentum. Gavin Shire, a spokesperson at the Service, argues that, in Zimbabwe, “trophy hunting does not currently support conservation efforts that contribute towards the recovery of the species”. Still, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Director, Dan Ashe, maintains that there is a place for “responsible, scientifically managed sport hunting”. The Service, he says, “remains committed to combating heinous wildlife crimes while supporting activities that empower and encourage local communities to be a part of the solution”.
Source: National Geographic/Adam Cruise
Would a legalised horn trade save rhinos?
With poaching on the rise, ranchers in South Africa want to flood the market – but conservationists warn of corruption and cruelty.
On his ranch southwest of Johannesburg (South Africa), John Hume chokes up when he talks about the first of his rhinos to be poached. “We tame our rhinos, we feed them, we want to manage them”, he says, fighting back tears. “I make it easy for the poachers to kill my rhinos”.
Hume, a 73-year-old retired developer of timeshare resorts, spends more than US$200,000 a month protecting his rhinos with a veritable private army, some of whom buzz over his 16,000 acre spread near Klerksdorp, by
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helicopter. Still, he has lost 13 rhinos to poachers this year – leaving him with 1,161 of the lumbering, endangered beasts.
Hume thinks that his herd would be safer if trade in the rhinos’ coveted horns was legalised. He is lobbying to overturn bans that have been in place locally since 2009 and internationally since 1977.
It is a controversial idea – and an urgent one. Nearly 4,000 rhinos have been slaughtered in the past eight years as demand has surged for their horns, particularly in Asia, where it is powdered for use in potions and medicines and often purchased as a status symbol.
The global rhino population has dwindled from 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to about 29,000 today. The surging trade in illicit horn has cut the population of the three remaining Asian species to just a few thousand, including about 40 Javan and less than 100 Sumatran rhinos. Just about 20,000 Southern White Rhinos and 5,000 black rhinos, which include three subspecies in Africa, survive. Four-fifths of the world’s remaining rhinos live in South Africa, and 4% of the global population are on Hume’s ranch.
Black-market rhino horn can fetch as much as US$100,000 a kilogram in Vietnam and other Asian countries, where it is peddled as a cure for ailments ranging from headaches to cancer. Many conservationists say that a legal marketplace would only raise demand. They argue instead for publicity campaigns to debunk the myths that lead many in Asia to pour rhino-horn powder into useless pills.
Others warn that rhinos can’t wait for those beliefs to wither. “I do not think we have a significant amount of rhinos left to invest in education”, said Louise Joubert, founder of SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary, a rehabilitation centre and reserve in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Rhinos “are on a ticking time bomb down to extinction”. Hume and many ranchers argue that legalising the trade and flooding the market with sustainably harvested horn could sate demand, lower prices and cut poachers out of the equation.
Rhino horn is made of keratin, like human fingernails. It grows as much as five inches a year. Biologists say that as long as a stump of two to three inches remains, it can be trimmed, doing a rhino no more harm than a manicure. “There are no nerves in rhinos’ horns”, said Raoul du Toit, director of Zimbabwe’s Lowveld Rhino Trust. He said there is no evidence that the procedure affects rhinos’ breeding practices or leaves them more susceptible to predators. “Why would you hunt a rhino for seven, eight, nine, 10 kilograms of horn when, in a lifetime, it can grow 70 kilos of horn?” Hume asked.
Animal-rights activists, conservationists and South Africa’s government are sceptical. Critics say that Hume and other large ranchers stand to profit if they can sell horn harvested from their herds.
“Where we differ is with your attitude towards the exploitation of an endangered species with the intention of making large profits”, Margot Stewart, founder of the non-profit group Wild and Free South Africa, wrote in an open
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letter to Hume. She argues that rhinos are wild animals and should not be kept in paddocks like sheep or cows – and that it is unethical to farm and sell rhino horn since it has zero medicinal value. “Only two parties want this to continue: the rhino farmers and organised crime syndicates”, she added. Hume petitioned South Africa’s High Court in Pretoria to lift the moratorium in September. A judgment is expected in the next few weeks. “I honestly believe the more horn we can sell to people who are using it, the less pressure there will be on my rhinos and Kruger Park’s rhinos”, Hume said, alluding to South Africa’s premier national park.
The vast Kruger Park remains the epicentre of the rhino-poaching crisis, despite added K-9 units and night patrols. Poachers often slip into the park across South Africa’s unfenced border with Mozambique. They have killed 544 rhinos this year through August. Arrests are up 70% over the same period last year, and the park’s rangers regularly run into heavily armed poaching gangs.
“None of us here want a future where the only rhino we see will be on the back of a bank note or a postage stamp or in pictures in a library book”, said South African President Jacob Zuma on 1 November, at an anti-poaching event near the park.
Du Toit warns that poverty and graft in the region are too widespread to trust that the rhino-horn market would be restricted to sustainably trimmed horns. Corruption “is our biggest problem”, he said, and it would “pervade the supply chains” of a legalised horn trade.
The sides argue about precedents. A one-off sale of elephant-ivory stockpiles
from four southern African nations in 2008 only whetted appetites for tusks, and elephant poaching has since soared to all-time highs. But a sustained, legal tide of supply – not a brief flood – has worked for other species, like South America’s vicuña, a llama relative. Hume notes that vicuñas were once slaughtered for their softer-than-cashmere coats but are now farmed sustainably, back from the edge of extinction.
In 2008, the year before domestic trade in rhino horn was outlawed in South Africa, 83 rhinos were poached. By 2010, the slaughter had risen to 333, and it has been rising since. But Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, which funds and operates anti-poaching efforts, argues that the best strategy is to “just protect the heck out of” the rhinos.
Recently, Hume was staring out the window of his white pickup truck, winding through a herd of rhinos that seemed more like docile cows than wild beasts. He chided a bull named Goliath for ambling into the territory of another rhino called Champ. “That’s boys being boys”, Hume sighed.
With skyrocketing security costs, he fears that the savings he’s using to support his ranch may last less than three years. “When I run out of money, I can sit and say my prayers, do voodoo, whatever – but I guarantee you the poachers will have a field day”, Hume said. “I sell rhino horn, or all my rhino die”.
Source: The Wall Street Journal/Alexandra Wexler
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Crocodile attacks leave three dead in Macate district
Three people – two children and a woman – were killed this year in crocodile attacks on the Toa River, near the villages of Gudo and Muenedzi in Nhandzara in Macate district (Manica Province).
According to reports, one of the victims was a 12-year-old girl who was attacked while crossing the river to attend school. The young male victim was killed when a crocodile dragged him into water.
Search efforts to locate the two bodies failed despite help from the local population.
The woman died on the scene from loss of blood after she was attacked by a crocodile.
In another incident, a man was seriously injured by an alligator while crossing the river to tend his garden, and only escaped death thanks to the prompt intervention of people nearby.
Last year, crocodiles in the main rivers of Macate district killed more than 10 people. Locals fall prey to these attacks while collecting water from the river, there being no other source of distribution, and because of the lack of bridges over watercourses in some parts of the district.
Source: Folha de Maputo
Experts concerned over indiscriminate fishing in Mozambique
At least 24 sharks have been killed in the last two weeks in Inhambane Province in what appear to have been
acts of retaliation for the death of a fisherwoman following a shark attack.
The hunt for the shark began with the encouragement of the provincial government, who sought to catch the shark responsible for the woman’s death, but the situation appears to have got out of hand and the death toll, which has shocked conservation organisations, is now considered to be of criminal proportions.
The hunt for the shark has not yet affected tourism in Inhambane, but in the long term it is assumed that it will have an impact, at least on the balance of ecology. Marine biologists studying shark populations off Mozambique are generally concerned about over-fishing in Inhambane.
Source: VOA Português
Communities receive compensations from Gorongosa National Park
Five years on, and communities living in the Gorongosa National Park (PNG) buffer zone (in Sofala Province) are finally benefiting from a 20% share of revenues from the exploitation of wildlife resources, and are to receive arrears.
Of a total of MT7.3 million due for the last five years, MT1.5 million has already been disbursed by the PNG management.
The allocation of a share of revenues from wildlife exploitation to the 16 communities living in the national park buffer zone was one of the issues considered during the 15th Ordinary Session of the provincial government.
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After five years, PNG management decided to pay the exploitation rate set by Mozambican forestry law, but the Sofala provincial government argued that the decision came too late, pointing out that the fees in question were supposed to be paid at the end of each financial year.
The Sofala executive subsequently examined the PNG management plan, with specific reference to the resettlement of people living in conservation project areas, demanding that it be safe and dignified.
A task force led by the Justice sector was created to work with PNG management to find mutually acceptable solutions, resulting in the current method.
Source: Televisão de Moçambique
Gorongosa locals complain about land demarcations
The population of the PNG are complaining that the newly delimited park boundaries are preventing residents from cutting timber for housing, starting ‘machambas’ (vegetable gardens) and hunting animals for consumption.
The situation is disrupting some of the ongoing projects within the reserve, which has received several investments aimed at restoring the region’s biodiversity.
The locals insist that they want the previous demarcations to be re-implemented.
The management team of the Gorongosa Park is currently attempting
to reincorporate areas that once belonged to the reservation but were taken over by locals during the 16-year civil war.
Governor Maria Taipo has ordered such initiatives on the part of the park to cease until consensus with the surrounding population is reached.
“There are several projects that are being funded and we have decided to stop (...) until it is us taking the decision about what must be done for the population affected by the expansion of the Gorongosa Park”, said Minister Taipo.
The list of projects is said to include the construction of school infrastructure.
The 4,000 square kilometre park includes the Gorongosa valley and parts of the surrounding plateaux. On 20 July 2010, the government decided to extend the park area by 67 square kilometres, with a buffer zone of 3.30 square kilometres around the perimeter.
The Carr Foundation has partnered with the government to protect and restore the ecosystem of the Gorongosa National Park and to develop an ecotourism industry that will benefit local communities.
Source: VOA Português
Government plans to suspend logging licences
According to the Minister of Land, Environment and Rural Development, Celso Correia, the local authorities have proposed to impose a moratorium on new requests to exploit the country’s forestry resources.
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The proposal to suspend all new logging licences, and all new forestry concessions, is part of a package of measures to protect Mozambique’s forests that will shortly be submitted for approval to the Cabinet.
According to Minister Correia, this forms part of the government’s efforts to safeguard forestry resources, which are still under strong pressure from logging, despite the fall of timber prices on international markets. The central provinces of Tete and Zambézia, and Cabo Delgado in the north, are under the greatest pressure, predominantly from illegal loggers. Minister Correia said that redoubled inspection efforts are therefore required to avoid the extinction of some species of hardwoods.
Ironwood (pau-ferro) is already at risk of disappearing and Minister Correia’s ministry has ordered the suspension of all logging of this species, to allow the necessary replanting and recovery.
While recognising the contribution of forestry operations and wood exports to the national economy, Minister Correia condemned the devastation of forests that has occurred in various parts of the country. The situation has been made worse by the trend among operators holding logging licences to abuse them, by logging beyond the areas allocated to them.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
OTHER
Road death toll tops 2,000 in 2014
The Mozambican Association for Victims of Road Accidents (AMVIRO) recently revealed that more than 2,000 people died as a result of road accidents in 2014.
The poor state of the roads and driving under the influence of alcohol are among the main causes of road accidents cited by the association.
According to the World Report on Road Safety, presented in Geneva (Switzerland) and London (England) in October, Mozambique leads the index of
NOTICE
In order to support the campaign to save the Rhino please support the FOCUS-AFRICA
Foundation by liking the FOCUS-AFRICA Foundation Facebook Page at: Focus-Africa
Foundation as well the FOCUS-AFRICA Foundation Website at www.focus-africa.org
The Focus-Africa Foundation is solely dedicated to the support of the Joaquim Chissano
Foundation Mozambique Wildlife Preservation Initiative and the re-introduction of the rhino to
Mozambique (extinct in this country since 2013)
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deaths from road accidents in Portuguese-speaking countries, with approximately 31.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Source: A Bola
Mozambique faces budget shortfall for flood reconstruction
The Director-General of the National Roads Administration, Atanasio Mugunhe, publically announced that the country faces a MT9 billion budget shortfall for the reconstruction of infrastructure in the wake of flood damage.
“Damage caused by the floods is estimated at just over MT10 billion but only MT800 million is immediately available. We will do as much as possible by way of emergency reconstruction with this.
“The availability and disbursement of the monies relies heavily on the procedures of those who are responsible for arranging the work. Money from the Mozambican State and development partners is made available quickly, but there are some procedures that do not allow reconstruction to be undertaken as fast as one might wish”, Mugunhe pointed out.
Source: Rádio Moçambique
Heavy rains likely to isolate parts of Nampula
Five districts in Nampula are likely to be isolated from the provincial capital if the rains continue to fall with the intensity that is currently being witnessed in the south of the province.
These districts include: Angoche, Larde, Liupo, Moma and Mogincual. According to Governor Victor Borges, the heavy rains will likely corrode the already degraded roads leading into the provincial capital.
During the floods that effected the province earlier this year, the roads suffered considerable damage and a significant number of steel bridges were swept away or collapsed as a result.
According to Governor Borges, it will cost approximately MT700 million to repair the damaged roads and bridges. However, in June the central government, through the NSA, allocated approximately MT70 million for this very purpose. Yet, by October this year, Governor Borges had only received MT9 million, or 1.3% of the funds necessary to complete the work.
The governor said that he recognised the budgetary difficulties that the central government is facing. However, he remains highly concerned that the province’s southern districts are at risk of being isolated from the provincial capital.
The province utilised the MT9 million to carryout emergency work in order to mitigate the potential risk. Other funds are being used for the reconstruction of the bridges over the rivers Mutacaze, Mucucuiza and Namioco in the districts of Larde, Moma and Angoche.
Source: Jornal Notícias
36,000 people affected by drought in Manica
Approximately 36,000 people are struggling to procure drinking water in
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the Guro district (Manica Province) in the wake of a prolonged drought that is currently plaguing the region.
Of those affected, roughly 9,000 are residents of the village headquarters, while the remaining individuals reside in the administrative posts of Mandi and Nhamassonje.
Source: O País
Food security discussed at School Meals Seminar
The National School Meals Programme (PRONAE), a pilot project of the government, envisages the local acquisition of a variety of foodstuffs in order to meet the dietary needs of schoolchildren.
Currently PRONAE is being implemented in 12 schools in the provinces of Gaza, Manica, Tete and Nampula.
According to a press release from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the option for local purchases was discussed at a seminar in Tete where Mozambican education officials exchanged experiences with their Malawian counterparts, in discussions of the Food Acquisition Programme-Africa (PAA-Africa), promoted by FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the governments of the two countries.
According to Jafar Ali, of the Education Ministry’s Department of Nutrition and School Meals, which manages PRONAE, the event was a great opportunity for the education sector since managers of the pilot project at all
levels (central, provincial, district and school) were present.
According to WFP’s Antonio Rafael, the programme plays a determinant role in achieving food security in the communities where it is implemented. Its role ranged “from intervention in school meal programmes to building the capacity of the producers so that they can improve the quality and quantity of their product, guaranteeing that they meet the necessary standards”, he said.
Rafael said that the PAA adds value to the initiatives aimed at nutrition and school meals because it includes women as an integral part of the process, and strives for gender equity.
For her part, Felicidade Panguene, the FAO’s representative for the programme, said that: “the assistance in agricultural techniques provided to the farmers under PAA-Africa has contributed to the results achieved here in Tete”.
The seminar shared experiences in initiatives for the local purchase of foodstuffs, in an effort to identify common challenges, points of complementarity, and opportunities to attain the main objective of promoting food and nutritional security.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Mozambican academics against exclusivity regime
As from 2016, Mozambican academics will be prohibited from teaching in more than one higher education institution at a time.
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This measure, implemented by the Ministry of Higher Education, is aimed at safeguarding the quality of education. However, it is currently being contested by those it targets and by higher education institutions themselves, both on the grounds of the lack of staff qualified to teach university courses and the low wages they receive.
The Minister of Science, Technology, Higher, Technical and Professional Education, Jorge Nhambiu, announced a series of measures that will permit teachers to only lecture at the university at which they are registered.
“We are putting in place measures to allow us to control what is happening in higher education. One is the registration of all teachers in higher education, because at the moment when higher education institutions advertise posts they take on teachers who are already teaching in other institutions and represent them as exclusive teachers”.
The measure, which should come into force within the next four months, finds little support among higher education institutions and teachers themselves.
The Dean of the Institute of Science and Technology of Mozambique, Leopoldo da Costa, said that this decision does not take into account the conditions that exist in the country, both with regard to salaries paid to teachers or the number of staff with the technical and scientific skills necessary for teaching in universities.
“If my maths teacher can teach in another institution, I see no problem. I think it is wrong if a teacher wants to teach disciplines he isn’t qualified in, just to add billable hours, but I do not see a
problem [with teaching in more than one institution] especially since the number of qualified personnel falls far short of requirements”, da Costa said.
In Mozambique, there are 49 higher education institutions that are allowed to teach college courses, but most operate without having implemented standards required by legislation.
Meanwhile, the government says that it has received 15 requests from domestic and foreign organisations wishing to open higher education institutions in the country.
Source: VOA Português
“Child marriage major cause of suffering and poverty among children” – Isaura Nyusi
On Tuesday 17 November, First Lady Isaura Nyusi travelled to Gaza Province in order to meet with the female residents of the Chigubo district, district authorities and community leaders. Nyusi informed the gathering that she is aware that Chigubo is facing water and food shortages, and urged her audience to build cisterns to conserve any water from rain that might fall. She also encouraged local farmers to grow drought resistant crops such as cassava and sweet potatoes.
Nyusi stressed the importance of education, particularly of women, as a fundamental tool for the eradication of poverty. She stressed that a literate woman is better able to guarantee the education of her children, and to respond to such challenges as domestic violence, child marriage and HIV/AIDS.
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“Child marriage is one of the reasons why girls do not succeed at school”, she said. “Consequently it is the major cause of suffering and poverty among children. HIV/AIDS is one of the main causes of death in the country, and thus deserves our special attention”.
To combat the spread of AIDS, she urged her audience to be tested to discover their own HIV status. Those who tested positive, Nyusi added, should receive anti-retroviral treatment, which would prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to their unborn babies.
Following the meeting, the First Lady inaugurated a water supply system in the district.
The system was installed in Undlopfu locality (17 kilometres from Chigubo town), and cost approximately MT1.8 million, which was provided by the State Budget. The new system will benefit 320 households in Undlopfu and surrounding areas, who previously had to walk for six kilometres to fetch water.
The system consists of two raised tanks, each with the capacity to hold 10,000 litres of water, solar panels to power the pumps, taps for human consumers, and a trough for livestock, 200 metres from the human drinking facility. The people in this area currently own 301 head of cattle, 391 goats, and 287 sheep who can quench their thirst at the trough.
Nyusi inaugurated the system as part of her four-day visit to the province, where she is expressing her solidarity with the victims of the current drought.
She urged the beneficiaries to take good care of the system so that it will last for
many years. “This water system is an effort by our government to minimise your suffering”, she said. “This is an expensive infrastructure, it cost a lot of money. So please take care of it”.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique
Striking minibus drivers bring Maputo to a halt
On Wednesday 18 November, nearly 100 mini-bus taxi drivers operational along the Museu-Malhazine and Museu-Zimpeto routes in Maputo brought traffic to a standstill in protest against a municipal police decision to force them to remove tinted windows from their vehicles.
According to the carriers, the municipal police requirement makes no sense, since the vehicles are sold with tinted windows.
“There are many vehicles that come from the factory with tinted glass and now the city wants to force us to take them out. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a company in the country that sells these clear glass windows for these 26-seater mini-buses”, a driver complained.
Source: O País
Former Portuguese ambassador to Mozambique dies in Lisbon
The former ambassador of Portugal to Mozambique, Madrid, Paris and Rome, José César Paulouro das Neves, died on Saturday 14 November, at age 78.
José César Paulouro das Neves, born in 1937 in Fundão (Portugal), graduated in
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Law from the University of Coimbra. In 1965 he began his diplomatic career, having represented Portugal in Mozambique, Paris and Rome. He retired in 2002.
Between 2003 and 2006 Palouro das Neves was a consultant of the Civil House of the former president Jorge Sampaio. He was also a visiting
Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra since 2005.
The funeral took place on Tuesday 17 November, leaving the Estrela Basilica to the Alto de São João cemetery in Lisbon.
Source: Lusa
END
