15 November 2008
Beira — The government of the central Mozambican province of Sofala on Friday called a press conference with the sole purpose of denying claims made by the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, about the achievements of Beira City Council in the five years that it has been under his leadership.
Simango, who was expelled from the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, in September, is running for a second term of office, but as an independent. His main rivals are the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, Lourenco Bulha, and the Renamo candidate Manuel Pereira.
The Friday press conference, attended by Provincial Governor Alberto Vaquina, and no less than four provincial directors, was supposed to set the record straight as to who is really responsible for improvements in Beira in recent years.
"The government reserves the right to clarify what is happening in the municipality", said the Provincial Director of Public Works, Marcelo Amaro. He noted that in the nearby town of Dondo, the mayor, Manuel Cambezo (of Frelimo), "takes care to stress that his achievements are really government investments".
Daviz Simango took no such care, accused Amaro, and attributed to himself all the praise for improvements in Beira infrastructures. "What is happening in Beira, as in the other municipalities, is an expression of the government's role in making resources available for municipal development. That is, the government makes contributions to the municipalities as envisaged under the law", said Amaro.
The Provincial Director of Planning and Finance, Abilio Sigauque, said there were two government mechanisms for financing the municipalities, the Local Authority Compensation Fund, and the Local Authority Investment Fund. In Beira, he said, the sum provided by the government from the two funds has more than doubled since Simango has been in office, rising from 22 million meticais (about 909,000 US dollars) in 2004 to 54.3 million meticais in 2008.
The total government funding for Beira between 2004 and 2008 was 252.2 million meticais. "These funds are made available by the state under the law on the municipalities", said Sigauque.
He pointed to 72 million meticais made available by the government to protect Beira against coastal erosion, seven million dollars for the city's water supply system, 62 million euros for Beira sanitation, five million meticais for the maintenance of municipal roads, and 2.5 million meticais for a new municipal morgue.
Meanwhile the Simango campaign claims to have uncovered evidence of collusion between Renamo and Frelimo. Simango's election spokesperson, Geraldo Carvalho, showed reporters on Friday a poor quality video of the Renamo Beira political delegate, Faque Inacio, who was boasting that he had taken money from Frelimo to destabilize Simango.
He implicated in this supposed political bribery Simango's two other main opponents within Renamo, the Sofala provincial delegate, Fernando Mbararano and Renamo brigadier Lucas Machava.
Faque Inacio immediately described the video as a forgery, and threatened to sue whoever had produced it. Frelimo was equally scathing in denying Carvalho's claims.
Another threat of libel action has come from Bulha. The latest edition of the right wing weekly "Zambeze" carries an article accusing Bulha of involvement in an illicit land deal. Bulha told reporters that the allegations were entirely untrue and he intended taking the paper to court.
"Zambeze" has a long history of libel suits. Shortly after the 2004 general elections it carried an opinion piece which accused Renamo election agent Francisco Machambisse of taking a bribe of a million dollars from Frelimo to delay delivering Renamo's appeal against the election results until the legal deadline had passed. When the case eventually made it to court earlier this year, "Zambeze" had no defence and Machambisse won substantial damages.
Some months ago "Zambeze" ran an extraordinary and groundless claim that Prime Minister Luisa Diogo is not really a Mozambican citizen. Again the courts found the paper guilty of libel. But in neither case has the paper or its owners had to pay anything, since they promptly appealed against the verdicts.
Among those queuing up to sue "Zambeze" are prominent lawyer Albano Silva (against whom the paper has waged a vendetta for several years), and Attorney-General Augusto Paulino (over unfounded claims that he was involved in theft when he was head of the Maputo provincial court).
The Bulha story certainly boosted "Zambeze"'s circulation in Beira. 1,000 copies of the paper are usually sent to Beira every week - and this week somebody tried to buy them all up, in what was interpreted as an attempt to prevent Beira citizens from reading the allegations against the Frelimo candidate.
The result was predictable - people with copies of the paper were able to sell it for up to 50 meticais (the cover price is 20 meticais). Photocopies of the paper were made and sold.
Frelimo and Bulha himself were said to be behind the attempt to buy up the paper, an allegation that the Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, indignantly denied.
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