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Mozambique: Was Purge of Directors Behind Minister's Dismissal?
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
OPINION
15 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December 2007
Maputo
Shortly before he lost his job as Minister of Agriculture, Erasmo Muhate had sacked no less than eight of his ministry's directors and deputy directors - a purge regarded in some quarters as the reason why President Armando Guebuza relieved Muhate of his duties.
According to a report in the latest issue of the weekly paper "Savana", the officials sacked were the director and deputy director of land and forests, Arlito Cuco and Raimundo Cossa, the director and deputy director of agricultural economics, Adriano Chamusso and Lucia Luciano, the director of the National Cashew Institute (INCAJU), Filomena Maiopue, the coordinator of the National Agricultural Development Programme (PROAGRI), Fernando Songane, and the director and deputy director of the Agricultural Fund, Carlos Mucavel and Herminia Pedro.
Interviewed by "Savana" (his last interview as a minister), Muhate strongly defended these sackings. The officials concerned were not doing their jobs properly, he claimed. For the success of his plans for the Ministry, he had to sweep away "obsolete machinery", and inject new blood. .
"These people had become used to staying in their offices", he said. "They didn't go into the countryside and dealt with everything over the phone".
"As a minister, committed to the guidelines given by the President, I couldn't work with these people. They were of no value to me", declared Muhate.
This had nothing to do with any intrigues inside the Ministry, nor was he harassing anyone, Muhate insisted. It was just a question of removing officials who were working "incompetently".
The eight directors and deputy directors had been of use in the past - but they had "lost these capacities", and so he preferred to exchange them for more ambitious and capable people.
However, other, anonymous sources, described by "Savana" as close to Muhate, said they were "very surprised" by Muhate's decision, which contrasted with his normally cautious behaviour, and suggested that the real issue involved was the question of biofuels. Muhate had supposedly come under pressure to allocate vast areas of land to the production of biofuels and was resisting this.
As is usual in government reshuffles, Guebuza gave no reason for dismissing Muhate.
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The new Agriculture Minister, Soares Nhaca, has no specific training in agriculture, though he worked closely with agricultural investors (notably Zimbabwean commercial farmers) when he was governor of the central province of Manica.
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| Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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