Maputo — Luis Pacheco, Sofala provincial director of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has resigned because of the circulation of a pornographic video in which he appears, reports Thursday's issue of the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique".

The video shows Pacheco and a woman who is known to be a Beira university student. It is not clear whether Pacheco consented to being filmed - but what is beyond doubt is that the circulation of the video has damaged his image so much that he felt he had no option but to resign.

The permanent secretary of the Sofala Provincial Government, Elisa Somane, confirmed to the paper that Pacheco had tendered his resignation, which has been accepted by the provincial governor, Carvalho Muaria.

Somane said that, in his letter, Pacheco said that his public image has been so seriously affected that he was quite unable to continue holding public office.

Asked if the video would also damage the image of the provincial government, Somane said "People should understand that this is a merely personal act. They cannot and should not associate it with the image of the government".

She pointed out that senior government figures had been at the head of messages on how to prevent infection by HIV - and it seemed as if Pacheco had been doing the opposite.

Nonetheless, the video is highly embarassing to the government, since Pacheco happens to be the brother of Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, and the woman involved is not only the daughter of police officers, but is also engaged to somebody else.

So far nobody knows who has been distributing the video and putting it on the Internet.