21 December 2007
Maputo — Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's former rebel movement Renamo, has refused to reveal how much he earns, or any details of the financial management of his party.
He was challenged about his salary during an interview with the independent weekly "Savana", which followed a highly critical report on the state of the party's organisation, undertaken by a team coordinated by a Portuguese academic named Miguel Padrao, and financed by the Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (IMD).
Although Renamo had ordered the study, Dhlakama dismissed some of what the "Savana" interviewer regarded as its main findings, notably that the entire organisation is centred on Dhlakama himself.
Dhlakama claimed that the Renamo headquarters regularly sends funds to Renamo branches in the districts, but when the interviewer broached the question of his own salary, he clammed up. First, he denied he earned a wage at all, merely "a subsidy, which is what they give me every month so that I can eat",
So would he like to tell the Mozambican people how much that subsidy is? "It's not necessary, because it's not a salary", he said. "If it were a salary, I could say how much I earn a month".
When the interviewer pointed out that the study was highly critical of Renamo financial management, and that revealing the details of his "subsidy" would be an example of transparency, Dhlakama snapped "Look, Renamo isn't a job".
"Renamo isn't a company to say that X earns this much and Y that much", he said. "We have thousands, thousands of people who survive through Renamo. What we give people is not something fixed. It varies".
So what was the highest "subsidy" in Renamo and what was the lowest? "This is of no interest", claimed Dhlakama.
Dhlakama's refusal to come clean about Renamo finances is ironic since in the same interview he strongly attacked the government for allegedly hiding details about the financial arrangements for the transfer of the Cahora Bassa dam from Portuguese to Mozambican majority ownership.
Dhlakama claimed that the people "do not know the interest rate" charged by the bank on the loan of 700 million US dollars used to purchase 67 per cent of the shares in the dam operating company, HCB.
The government did not announce the interest rate - but the press did. It is perhaps a shame that Dhlakama did not bother to read earlier issues of "Savana". For this paper has gone into great detail about the financial machinery involved in the Cahora Bassa purchase, thus showing that the matter is far from top secret. In particular "Savana" said the interest rate on the loan is LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offered Rate) plus two per cent, and so far nobody has denied this.
Dhlakama claimed "nobody known how much Mozambique will pay in total and for how long, since everything was done secretly". In fact, Energy Minister Salvador Namburete has repeatedly explained that the Mozambican state, and Mozambican taxpayers, will pay nothing at all, for the banks will be repaid out of the sales of Cahora Bassa electricity. Indeed, the Mozambican state should be better off, since, for the first time in its history, HCB will pay taxes and a concession fee.
The Renamo leader also opposed the regional integration of SADC (Southern African Development Community), claiming that Mozambique needs "another 10 or 15 years" to enter the SADC free trade area.
Dhlakama airily dismissed all statistics, all evidence of economic growth, preferring his own vision of a country perpetually mired in misery. "The government is always talking about economic growth, but all that's just a puppet show", he said. "The people continue to suffer, and there's no employment, no industry, and nothing is being produced for the good of the people".
The largest factory in the country, the MOZAL aluminium smelter, he dismissed as "nothing", because it relies on imported raw materials and exports the finished aluminium ingots. "We have to rely on agriculture, not on puppet shows", he sneered.
But when the interviewer noted that President Armando Guebuza is calling for a "green revolution", Dhlakama dismissed that as well. "The Frelimo government has been in power for 30 years and has done nothing but make speeches", he claimed.
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