“Mozambique faces an unprecedented political and economic crisis” – Daviz Simango

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“Mozambique faces an unprecedented political and economic crisis” – Daviz Simango

10:52 CAT | 21 Apr 2016

VOA (file photo) / Daviz Simango, president of Democratic Movement of Mozambiqiue (MDM)

President of MDM Daviz Simango says that his party will demand an extraordinary debate in parliament and the presence there of President Filipe Nyusi to explain the recently disclosed undeclared Ematum loans.

Simango accused the government of being accountable only to foreigners abroad, and of behaving as if Mozambique were a one-party state.

“The government is willing to explain to Brussels and to send teams to the United States. Good. But our sovereignty requires the government to explain itself in parliament to the Mozambicans”, said Simango, according to whom Mozambique “faces an unprecedented political and economic crisis”.

The president of Mozambique’s third-largest party also criticized Nyusi for discussing the newly revealed debt with the Frelimo central committee meeting without at the same time informing the public.

Simango said that a Ministry of Economy and Finance statement released after the Frelimo Central Committee announced the sending of a technical team to Washington to explain the new debt.

“In a democracy the affairs of the state are discussed in sovereign bodies and not in party political gatherings”, Simango said “Those new debts were unknown to the IMF and to the people, but not to the government,” and the Frelimo central committee statement “is just another sign of disrespect to Mozambicans’ intelligence”.

On Friday, April 15, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended a mission due to arrive in Maputo this week after learning that the Mozambican government had not informed it about a US$ one billion loan contracted with Credit Suisse and Russian VTB Bank.

On Monday, April 18, the British Financial Times newspaper revealed a third secret loan, citing an IMF official. As a result of these revelations, the IMF cancelled the payment of the second US$155 million dollars tranche of the US$285 million loan agreed at the end of last year.

To clarify the situation, Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário travelled to Washington, and in a Tuesday meeting with IMF director Christine Lagarde, admitted that his government had not revealed the loan.

For the IMF, this was “an important first step.” In a press release after the meeting, the IMF said that the organization and Mozambique “would work constructively together to assess the macroeconomic implications of this information and identify steps to restore confidence”.

Source: Voa Portugues