Mozambique News Agency
AIM Reports
Mozambique’s Southern Regional Water Board (ARA-Sul) on 15 February called for the immediate evacuation of people and their goods from flood-prone areas along with the observance of precautionary measures due to the projected increase in discharges from the Corumana and Massingir dams over the next 72 hours.
Corumana is located on the Sabie River, the main tributary of the Incomati River in Maputo province. The Massingir dam is on the Elephants River, a tributary of the Limpopo in Gaza province.
The statement from ARA-Sul explained that continued inflows of water from the neighbouring countries (Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Eswatini) have obliged Mozambican authorities to increase discharges from the two dams. It warned that Corumana will gradually increase its discharges from the current 500 cubic metres a second to 800 cubic metres a second, and perhaps even more, depending on how much water reaches the Incomati basin.
Such levels of discharge from Corumana threaten to cut roads throughout much of Gaza and Maputo provinces. In particular, the Incomati is likely to pour across the country’s main north-south highway (EN1) in the area of the 3rd February village. This could easily cut the overland connection between the south and centre of the country as happened during other major floods over the past couple of decades.
As for the Massingir dam, ARA-Sul warns of a gradual increase in discharges from 500 cubic metres a second to 1,000 cubic metres a second. The discharges could be larger, depending on how much water enters the Limpopo basin from upstream.
ARA-Sul fears that the Limpopo River at the major agricultural centre of Chokwe will rise above flood alert level within the next 48 to 72 hours. Roads in much of the Limpopo valley are likely to be cut.
According to the daily hydrological bulletin issued by the National Directorate of Water Resource Management, the country’s largest river, the Zambezi, is flowing at above flood alert level on its lower reaches (Caia and Marromeu districts) but this is not yet regarded as posing a threat.
As of 14 February, the reservoir behind the Cahora Bassa dam was 91.3 per cent full, and the dam was discharging 3,560 cubic metres of water a second into the Zambezi.
The governor of Maputo Province, Julio Parruque, announced on 15 February the suspension of classes in 90 state-owned schools for seven days in districts affected by floods that have already displaced over 39,000 people, equivalent to over 7,800 households.
The schools will be closed in the districts of Boane, Namaacha, Magude, Manhica, and Matola. All of these districts are in Maputo province. The measure covers 64,498 pupils, 1,871 teachers and 267 other employees.
The torrential rains, together with the rising levels of the Incomati and Umbeluzi rivers, have forced thousands of people to abandon their homes in search of safety. Not only have schools been closed, but 11 of them have been turned into accommodation centres for flood victims.
Visiting the population of Boane and Namaacha, Parruque observed that “the situation is very chaotic. People need help; they have lost all their belongings”.
Addressing the population of Mahelane, in Namaacha, Parruque also spoke about the need for people to be attentive to the meteorological information that is regularly broadcast so that they can save themselves from the danger of future storms and floods. “The rain is heavy; we are all affected. Maputo province is strongly affected. Life must come first, so we must agree to stay in accommodation centres, in schools and churches”, the governor said.
During the visit, Parruque oversaw the delivery of foodstuffs, blankets, and clothing items to the victims of the floods, now concentrated in the accommodation centres.
President Filipe Nyusi on 14 February announced the immediate disbursement of US$10 million for post-flood reconstruction activities.
President Nyusi was addressing the nation on the floods crisis, after overflying the worst affected areas, in the Umbeluzi and Incomati river basins, in Manhica, Boane, Magude, Namaacha and Moamba districts, all in Maputo province.
The storms knocked down electricity pylons and swamped transformer posts. 18,500 electricity consumers were plunged into darkness. As for agriculture, 6,645 hectares of assorted crops were inundated, affecting about 30,000 households.
President Nyusi said the government has drawn up a Joint Response Plan to provide food for over 53,000 people over the next seven days. Clean drinking water will also be provided. The government has also decided to place technical brigades of the National Roads Administration (ANE) at key positions, with the task of ensuring basic conditions so that traffic can keep moving along the roads. “We shall survey the damage and losses”, said President Nyusi, “to repair the affected infrastructures, and normalise the water supply”.
The government will distribute seeds to the households affected by the floods so that they can plant for the second sowings of this agricultural year. Access to credit for commercial farmers is being negotiated with the banks.
Duly identified residents of the worst-hit area, the municipality of Boane will benefit from a 50 per cent reduction in public transport fares for the next three months.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has made a helicopter available to monitor the flooded areas in Maputo province.
Speaking to reporters in Manhica district, some 80 kilometres north of the capital, Luisa Meque, the chairperson of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), said the helicopter was already in operation. The WFP, she said, had made the helicopter available to monitor the flooded areas in Maputo province – but, if necessary, it could be used in other parts of the country.
Meque recognised the support for flood victims provided by civil society organisations. “There’s a very strong movement in Maputo province, supporting the victims”, she said. “We hope people will continue this solidarity”.
Meque said that, in the accommodation centres for flood victims run by the INGD, there are mobile clinics, and technical staff from the electricity company, EDM, and from the government’s Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG). “We have a very large group, with people participating from all sectors”, she said.
As for the impact of the floods on Manica, the district administrator, Maria Fernanda, said that, of the 256,000 people living in the district, only 524 needed to be rescued from the flood waters and resettled. They were all healthy, she said, including three pregnant women, “who are fully assisted”.
Fernanda added that members of the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) are carrying out search and rescue operations in all corners of the district, but so far they had found no groups of people isolated by the flood waters of the Incomati.
The known death toll from the floods is seven, and about 3,500 houses have been inundated.
The Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), has denied any diversion of funds donated by the World Bank.
The accusation against the INGD is that in 2020 the Disaster Management Fund (FGC), which is run by the INGD, used over US$32.5 million of World Bank money for purposes not envisaged in the Fund’s Manual of Procedures. These included more than 18 million meticais spent on purchasing vehicles, 13 million on water and sanitation infrastructures, and 1.5 million on building a bridge over the Muecate River in Nampula province.
In an exclusive interview granted on 13 February to the television station STV, INGC chairperson Luisa Meque admitted that this money has now been returned to the World Bank. This was a key condition for the Bank to resume its cooperation with the Disaster Fund.
“The World Bank never ceased being a partner of the INGD”, she insisted. The World Bank had “drawn our attention” to the diversion, and that “is part of the work we always had”.
“There is planning, there is monitoring, and under the monitoring we see what is good and what is bad”, said Meque. “Even during the period when we had to regularise the situation, we never ceased to have ties with the World Bank”.
But Meque went much further, claiming that the use of the US$18.5 million was not a diversion from the purposes of the FGC. The vehicles, for example, “were acquired and they are in the field. You can look for them and see that they are being used by our delegates. They are indeed being used for work purposes”.
The INGD had decided to buy vehicles rather than hire them. “Hiring vehicles is more expensive than buying them for long-term use. We thought we were saving money”.
Meque insisted this was not “a deviation in the application of funds”. She also argued that spending money on rehabilitating a bridge and building a water supply system were also legitimate uses of FGD money.
However, the 2017 decree setting up the FGC states quite explicitly that “the acquisition of vehicles and civil construction work are not expenses eligible for financing from the Disaster Management Fund”.
Africa’s share of natural gas in the global market will increase to over 11 per cent by 2050, according to a report by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), rising from six per cent in 2021. Production is projected to increase from 260 billion cubic meters in 2021 to 585 billion cubic meters in 2050.
Mozambique is among seven African countries that will contribute to this increase. The others are Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria and Angola.
It is expected that Mozambique and Nigeria will contribute more than 63 per cent of Africa’s natural gas output with “Africa responsible for the second largest growth in gas supply, by volume, globally, after the Middle East during this period”, said Mohamed Hamel, the Secretary General of the GECF.
According to the report, the demand for natural gas on the continent will rise by 82 per cent by 2050, and gas will account for 30 per cent of Africa’s energy mix. Alongside renewable energies, gas will be crucial in driving energy access across the continent. “The narrative that Africa should not develop its natural resources, particularly natural gas is misguided. A prosperous Africa will be more capable of protecting its environment. The right of Africa to develop its vast natural resources can be preserved, and its access to finance and technology facilitated”, Hamel stated.
Mozambique, like Nigeria and the Republic of Congo, has launched floating terminals (FLNG) over the past three months to tap into the rising demand as European countries race to secure natural gas from Africa. “While Congo deployed two FLNG vessels with a combined production capacity of three million tonnes per year, the igeria and Mozambique vessels have a capacity of 1.2 million and 3.4 million tonnes per year, respectively”, Hamel said.
According to the report, with about 900 million people in need of clean cooking fuels and another 600 million in need of reliable electricity, natural gas will play a key function in alleviating energy poverty.
“Increased investment in Africa’s rich gas reserves and the revival of LNG, especially for exports, will facilitate the achievement of the projections. It is estimated that African LNG export capacity will reach 199 million tons per annum for the period, with Mozambique, Nigeria, Mauritania, and Senegal driving this increase”, reads the report.
The GECF is an intergovernmental organisation with 12 member countries and seven observer countries.
Mozambique’s Central Office for the Fight against Organised and Transnational Crime (GCCCOT) has filed charges against two poachers who are currently being held in preventive detention. According to a GCCCOT press release, the two men were caught on 27 July last year in possession of four rhinoceros horns with an estimated value on the black market of US$243,600.
The ensuing investigations showed that the two poachers had carried out their illicit activities across the three component parts of the Greater Limpopo Transborder Park – namely, the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, the Kruger National Park in South Africa, and the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
The two were also involved in the smuggling of guns and vehicles, mostly between South Africa and Mozambique.
The GCCCOT says that their criminal activities allowed the two men to accumulate large sums of money, which they used to buy vehicles, luxury houses and shops. Financial investigation into this side of their activities is in the hands of the Central Assets Recovery Office.
The two are being charged with the illicit killing and sale of banned wildlife species and products, the use of prohibited weapons, the use of a false document, money laundering, the exposure of people to danger, and criminal conspiracy.
Two people have died of cholera and a further 30 suffering from diarrhoeal diseases are hospitalised in Tambara district, in the central province of Manica.
The two deaths occurred on 14 February in Tambara district hospital. They were among the three people diagnosed on the previous day as having contracted the disease. The Tambara district administrator, Mario Doa, confirmed the deaths in a brief phone contact with AIM. He said the two patients had entered the district hospital, suffering from violent attacks of diarrhoea. Subsequent examination showed that both patients had cholera. They were isolated for treatment to prevent the spread of the disease. “But later they lost their lives”, said Doa.
“In the last 24 hours, we received another patient with cholera”, he added. “So right now, we have two patients hospitalised with cholera. Other patients under treatment are suffering from diarrhoea, and they are being cared for in another ward”.
Doa said that throughout the district communities are being taught measures to prevent diarrhoeal diseases. Cleaning campaigns are underway to remove pools of stagnant water and dispose of garbage.
The health authorities are distributing chlorine and “Certeza” (a commercial water purifying agent), and are explaining the safest ways of preparing foodstuffs, particularly those that are eaten raw.
“In this rainy season, we need to follow all measures of individual and collective hygiene”, stressed Doa.
“This is work that relies on community participation”, he said. “We know that only by preventing the disease will we have a healthy community. Our main goal is to ensure that the disease does not spread to other parts of the district and the province”.
It is believed that this cholera outbreak spread to Mozambique from neighbouring Malawi, where cholera has claimed over 1,200 deaths.
President Filipe Nyusi on 10 February renewed his government’s commitment to the electrification of the country, which he regarded as an essential condition for Mozambican human development.
All district capitals have already been electrified, and the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM is now concentrating on the next layer down in the country’s administrative structure, that of the administrative post.
President Nyusi was speaking at the ceremony where the Impire administrative post, in Balama district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, was connected to the national electricity grid.
This was the 47th administrative post to be connected to the grid, under EDM’s project to electrify administrative post headquarters.
The government’s target for this year includes 320,000 new electricity connections and increasing the rate of electricity coverage to 64 per cent of the population.
The work at Impire included building 21 kilometres of medium voltage and 24 kilometres of low voltage transmission lines which will benefit more than 1,500 households. 21 transformer posts were installed along with 200 lampposts for public lighting. 337 new clients were connected to the EDM grid.
“This is what we mean when we talk about the quality of life”, the President told the crowd. “Energy is one of the crucial elements. It’s an element that drives development. With electricity, we can drive agro-processing, industrialisation and tourism”.
He added that the government wants to capitalise on the potential for inter-sector linkages in the respective value chains, with a multiplier effect on job creation and income generation for households.
The EDM electrification programme is being driven by an increase in generating capacity, including solar power stations, such as those at Mocuba, in Zambezia province, and at Metoro in Cabo Delgado.
“These initiatives join the enormous potential for generating clean energy, and the huge reserves of natural gas the country possesses”, said President Nyusi. “We have a portfolio of new projects with which we intend to strengthen the existing lines”.
Among the immediate effects of the electrification of Impire are that the local health centre will no longer need to use candlelight when assisting women giving birth and from next year the Impire Secondary School will be able to provide night courses.
The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA), in Balama, has mobilised businesspeople to invest in agro-processing and place flour mills in Impire.
Local CTA representative, Yarife Yago, told AIM that two large companies are ready to begin operations in Impire. “We were waiting for the arrival of electricity”, he said. “Two businesses will put mills here. Energy is the main factor”.
Mozambican transport operators on 14 February blockaded the Ponta de Ouro border post between Mozambique and the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal. According to a report by the television station STV, no vehicles with South African number plates were allowed to cross the border. The blockade was in retaliation for the burning of vehicles with Mozambican number plates by South African mobs.
Despite talks between the Mozambican and South African governments, the situation worsened over the previous weekend when two more vehicles with Mozambican plates, one of them a passenger bus, travelling on the Maputo-Durban route were set on fire in KwaZulu-Natal. This brought to nine the number of vehicles attacked and set ablaze.
According to a source, cited in the Maputo daily “Noticias” on 14 February, communities in Mbazwana and Hluhluwe, in KwaZulu-Natal, are waiting for Mozambican and South African authorities to solve their concerns about the alleged theft of vehicles being trafficked into Mozambique. Car theft is the excuse cited for the attacks against Mozambican vehicles.
The latest attacks occurred despite the assurances given by Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo that the government is working with its South African counterpart to investigate the case of vehicles set on fire. Minister of the Interior Arsenia Massingue and her South African counterpart Bheki Cele have held a meeting to discuss cross-border crimes, as well as the wave of attacks perpetrated against vehicles.
Most Mozambican operators had suspended travel along the Maputo-Durban route after the first attacks by South African criminal mobs.
The Mozambican Government and the World Bank are holding discussions about the creation of a US$250 million Loan Fund Guarantee within the Economic Acceleration Programme (PAE) adopted in 2022.
The PAE is a document with twenty reform measures to resume economic growth after the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the measures is the improvement of the business and fiscal environment as well as improvements in transparency in policies for the construction of strategic infrastructures.
The World Bank, according to the Maputo daily “Noticias” recently presented the achievements to date, including the allocation of resources aimed at increasing the economic opportunities for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
The negotiations are taking place at a time when the Government, in coordination with the European Union and the World Bank, have set up a working committee to remove the country from the “grey list', announced by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) covering countries that showed weaknesses in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has ordered the arrest of the former general director of the National Institute of Land Transport (INATTER), Ana Simoes, on charges of corruption dating from the 2018-2021 period.
INATTER no longer exists, and its key tasks are now performed by the National Institute of Road Transport (INATRO).
Four other people were detained. The release from the PGR did not name them, but one is known to be the former head of the INATTER administration and finance department, Rita Monjane. Two are other members of the INATTER staff and the fourth works for an INATTER service provider. The five accused are charged with corruption, abuse of office, maladministration, illicit participation in business, payment of undue remunerations, and criminal conspiracy.
Simoes was appointed general director of INATTER in 2015, replacing Ana Dimande, who was also accused of corruption. She was said to have ignored a new wage table for INATTER staff, drawn up jointly by the Finance and Transport Ministries, and instead paid herself and other senior staff an illegal monthly salary of half a million meticais (US$ 7,800 at today’s exchange rate, but worth considerably more in 2015).
Although these accusations are almost eight years old, there is still no sign of any trial of Dimande. The then Transport Minister, Carlos Mesquita, found that INATTER was operating dozens of bank accounts. He ordered the closure of 75 of them, leaving INATTER with just six accounts. This move was intended to reduce the risk of corruption. At the same time, it was decided to reduce the number of people authorised to operate the computerised system that produces driving licences from 222 to 59.
These moves did not have the desired effect, and neither did Mesquita’s instructions to Simoes in 2015 that she should imprint a new dynamic of transparency in the management of the institution. For, two years after leaving INATTER, Dimande’s successor, Ana Simoes, also finds herself facing corruption charges.
Conditions are in place to ensure safe grazing and an end to attacks on livestock by wild animals within the Limpopo National Park (PNL), in Massingir district, in the southern province of Gaza.
This is an initiative of the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) with the support of the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) and funded by the Prince Albert Foundation.
The new infrastructure, budgeted at around 11 million meticais (US$172,000) will allow the watering of 18,000 head of cattle.
According to the head of the project implementation, Dercio Juliao, the initiative aims to reduce the conflict between wildlife and the people living in or near the national park. It will also remove cattle from the interior of the PNL and avoid attacks by elephants against the residents and the destruction of their farms.
The multifunctional supply system, with the capacity to feed about 165,000 hectares of pasture, covers five villages, namely Mucatine, Kanhane, Mavodze, Machamba, and Chimangue.
“We are already at a very advanced stage of listing some families who are interested in removing their cattle from inside the Park”, Juliao said, adding that “in the near future we hope to remove all cattle and put an end to the attacks by elephants and hyenas in the Elephant River reservoir where the cattle used to go to drink water”.
Massingir district administrator Margarida Muthemba, speaking on 6 February at the inauguration of the infrastructures, said that this represents a major step towards reducing the long distances that cattle have to travel to reach the Elephants River in search of water.
The project has been implemented in coordination with Zimbabwe and Botswana, and the representative of the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture, Tshwaragano Kopano, expressed his satisfaction with a similar project in his country.
Massingir district has about 37,000 inhabitants, according to the 2017 census, and a cattle population estimated at more than 38,000 head.
The Mozambican government on 7 February fixed the voter registration period ahead of the October municipal elections from 20 April to 3 June.
This is a completely new registration, and voter cards issued for previous elections will not be valid. Even if a citizen has registered for all five previous sets of municipal elections, he must still register yet again this year.
The registration covers all 65 municipalities, including the 12 new municipalities where the necessary elections commissions are only now being established.
Currently, a pilot voter registration is underway in nine districts (three in Maputo province, three in Manica and three in Nampula). The National Elections Commission (CNE) has been careful to point out that there will be no municipal election in any of these districts, and the exercise is simply to test the computerised equipment that will be used in the real registration as of April.
Much of the equipment was used in the 2019 general elections, and the signs so far are that these computers and printers are still working.
The voter cards issued during the pilot registration will be of no use for anything else. They will be produced in a completely different format from those that will be issued in April.
President Filipe Nyusi received the chairperson and CEO of the French oil and gas company TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, on 3 February in Pemba, the capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
According to a press release from President Nyusi’s office, the two men discussed “all the aspects concerned with the Mozambique LNG project, to be undertaken in Area One of the Rovuma Basin, including the humanitarian and security situation in Cabo Delgado”.
TotalEnergies heads a consortium which plans to build two natural gas liquefaction plants on the Afungi peninsula, in Palma district. However, the work came to a halt, and TotalEnergies withdrew its staff when islamist terrorists attacked and occupied the district capital, Pemba town, in March 2021.
Subsequently, the Mozambican defence and security forces, and their allies from Rwanda and SAMIM (the SADC Military Mission in Mozambique), drove the jihadists out of the town. The government has insisted repeatedly that it intends to create adequate security conditions for the resumption of the LNG project.
During his visit, Pouyanne visited the Afungi industrial zone, the Quitunda resettlement village, Palma town, and Mocimboa da Praia, another town that was recaptured from the terrorists in the 2022 counter-offensive.
At the end of the visit, according to the release, Pouyanne told President Nyusi that, in his opinion, the situation in Cabo Delgado had improved greatly due to the actions of the Mozambican forces and their allies.
President Nyusi and Pouyanne “recognised that the return of the population to normal life and the gradual re-establishment of public services are taking place at a good pace”.
However, Pouyanne added that TotalEnergies has hired a specialist to advise the company about the humanitarian situation in Cabo Delgado.
Mozambique LNG is the second LNG project to be developed in Cabo Delgado, and the first to be undertaken onshore (the first was the Coral South floating LNG platform, about 40 kilometres off the Cabo Delgado coast, operated by the Italian energy company, ENI).
The gas for Mozambique LNG will be pumped from the Golfinho and Atum fields, located in Area One of the Rovuma Basin, to Afungi where the two liquefaction plants (known as “trains”) will be built. They will have an installed capacity to produce 13.1 million tonnes of LNG per year.
TotalEnergies is the operator and holds 26.5 per cent of the shares in Mozambique LNG. The other partners in the consortium are Mitsui of Japan (20 per cent), Mozambique’s own National Hydrocarbon Company (15 per cent), PTTEP of Thailand (8.5 per cent), and the three Indian companies Oil India, ONGC Videsh, and Bharat Petroleum (10 per cent each).
The Mozal aluminium smelter, on the outskirts of Maputo, intends to use power produced by the publicly owned electricity company, EDM, replacing power from the South African state company Eskom.
The current power supply contract between Mozal and Eskom ends in 2026.
Mozal needs 950 Megawatts (MW) to produce over 560,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. In the near future, however, Mozal intends to produce 600,000 tonnes per year, as a result of new investment.
Mozal's decision comes at a time when South Africa is struggling with a serious energy crisis.
“The aluminium smelter company is looking for alternative electricity supply for the coming years”, said Marcelino Gildo, the Chairperson of EDM, quoted in the Maputo daily “Noticias” on 6 February. According to Gildo, Mozal has made an approach to find an alternative power supply after 2026. “The two parties have been discussing the best alternatives, and the viability of a project like Mphanda Nkuwa, for example, requires consumers with muscle to pay the bills”, he said. The Mphanda Nkuwa dam is to be built on the Zambezi River, about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa.
Currently, Mozambique has an installed capacity of 2400 MW and could reach 2800 MW with the conclusion of the Temane power plant, in the southern province of Inhambane. With Mphanda Nkuwa, the country will produce 4300 MW.
The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has ordered the closure of a private security company, in the central city of Beira, belonging to a Chinese citizen for allegedly being involved in money laundering.
The company, Panda Seguranca, is the second company belonging to the same individual, Jiye Zhuo, which has been closed within the space of two months. The first, the Thian Hai fuel station, was also suspected of money laundering. During the closure of Panda Seguranca, the police seized several firearms.
The PGR has accused Jiye Zhuo of defrauding the state of over 826 million meticais (US$ 13 million) in tax evasion. He is also accused of financing terrorism, forgery of documents, criminal conspiracy, and environmental crimes.
The closure of these companies comes after the Government, in coordination with the European Union and the World Bank, had set up a working committee to remove the country from the “grey list', announced by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for presenting weaknesses in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
According to the authorities, the main activity of Jiye Zhuo was logging and exporting timber to China.