Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
23 June 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday rejected a bill on the abuse of public power, presented by the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition, on the grounds that all the crimes it would create are already covered under Mozambican legislation.
The extremely short bill, of just seven articles, was aimed at "punishing all acts within state institutions, public companies or companies with a majority state shareholding which create situations of privilege and discrimination based on political options".
Anybody guilty of such acts of privilege and discrimination would be sentenced to between three months and two years imprisonment.
The only specific acts mentioned in the Renamo bill are "compulsively mobilizing state employees for political activities", and using state installations and resources "for party political or personal purposes".
The Assembly's Legal Affair Commission pointed out that the discrimination Renamo complains of is already outlawed under the Mozambican constitution, and under articles in the Penal Code dealing with "abuse of authority", a concept that seems indistinguishable from Renamo's term "abuse of public power".
Since there was no "legal vacuum" to be filled, the Commission recommended that the Assembly plenary throw the bill out.
In the ensuing debate Renamo deputies made clear that one of their goals is to shut down branches of the ruling Frelimo Party inside state institutions - however, the text of the bill did not even mention political party branches.
Renamo claimed that Frelimo coerces public servants such as teachers to join Frelimo and to attend party meetings. This allegation is made year after year by Renamo, and yet Renamo has never presented to reporters a single person who was pressganged into Frelimo. It is also no secret that several members of the Renamo parliamentary group are themselves employed by state bodies.
Renamo's top jurist, Maximo Dias, claimed that the Ministry of Finance deducts a certain percentage from teachers' wages which is then paid to Frelimo. Frelimo deputy Lidia Jeremias immediately accused him of "imagining things".
When Renamo claimed that the imprisonment of a former minister was proof that abuse of public power happens, Sabado Malendza of Frelimo retorted that the arrest of this man (former Interior Minister Almerino Manhenje) was in fact evidence that the existing laws against corruption and the abuse of authority are working.
Jeronimo Malagueta cited several cases of abuses of police power. But these undermined his own case, because the policemen involved have either been tried or are awaiting trial. He mentioned the massacre of at least 83 prisoners in a grotesquely overcrowded police cell in November 2000 - but failed to add that two police officers are currently serving jail sentences of up to 19 years for that crime.
He correctly noted that the Mozambican Human Rights League has accused the police of carrying out extra-judicial executions - but did not mention that in the most notorious case, the execution of prisoners in the Maputo suburb of Costa do Sol in April 2007, three policemen were arrested, tried and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In such cases, the existing law seems to be working quite well.
The most comic intervention came from Jose Palaco who claimed there was a conspiracy afoot to make the country wear the Frelimo colour, red. The national airline, LAM, had produced red T-shirts, as had the national relief agency, the INGC, and the national football team wears red. "This is not innocent!", Palaco exclaimed.
When the vote was called, the bill went down to defeat by 133 to 51 votes. Thus 39 of Renamo's 90 deputies (43 per cent of the total) did not bother to attend the debate. In comparison, only 17 per cent of Frelimo's 160 deputies were absent.
"So the Renamo deputies aren't interested in their own bills", exclaimed Frelimo deputy Castro Ntemassaka, giving the Frelimo final declaration.
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