Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
19 June 2009
Maputo — Five people have been arrested in the district of Marromeu, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, accused of sabotaging a stretch of the Sena railway line, reports Friday's issue of the daily 'O Pais'.
The Sena line runs from the port of Beira to the Moatize coal basin in Tete province, a distance of about 650 kilometres. A branch off the main Sena line goes to the sugar town of Marromeu, on the south bank of the Zambezi, and the reconstruction of this part of the system was completed in late 2008. It is the Marromeu branch line that was attracted the attention of thieves.
According to the police, the five people accused, whose names were not revealed, are all residents of Marromeu who, under cover of night, have been stealing the bolts used to hold the tracks in place.
The case was uncovered and denounced by members of the community police councils who discovered that, in the space of a couple of nights, 175 bolts had been removed. Some of the bolts were found on sale for 1,000 meticais (about 38 US dollars) each, and others had found their way into the hands of fishermen, who were using them as weights at the ends of their nets.
The main suspect is a former worker of the railway company, but he claims he purchased them from children whom he found playing with the bolts.
"I was several times contacted by fishermen who are friends of mine who asked me to obtain these bolts for them", he said. "One day, I found children playing with bolts. I don't know where they got them. I bought them from the children to sell on to the fishermen. Because I had no money I offered the children a packet of biscuits. I then sold the bolts to the fishermen. I did not steal the bolts from the railway".
The local police commander, Alexandre Mugela, said he is convinced that the accused are just lying. "Proceedings have been started against the accused and handed to the public prosecutor's office", he said.
Mugela added that, in order to discourage such sabotage, the accused are to be presented to the public in various neighbourhoods of Marromeu town, and messages will be passed to the public not to sabotage the line.
Candido Jone, director of the brigade to rebuild the Sena Line, recalled that the line has been paralysed for the last 26 years because of the war of destabilization and has required enormous amounts of money so that trains can once again use it.
'Passenger trains are now circulating between Beira and Marromeu", he said "We do not understand how some people, who are Mozambicans, come and vandalize an infrastructure such as this".
He added that "we are not just worried because of the theft of the bolts. Just imagine if a train had passed along this stretch of the line before we had discovered this fact. The train, carrying about 350 people would derail. How many deaths would we have, and how much equipment would be seriously damaged?"
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