Mozambique: Police promise to enforce state of emergency

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Mozambique: Police promise to enforce state of emergency

9:40 CAT | 05 May 2020

Nampula. [Photo: O País]

The Mozambican police in the northern province of Nampula on Monday guaranteed that they will act against those who continue to disobey the restrictions ordered under the current state of emergency, in order to protect the public against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the police promises, there is little sign on the streets of Nampula city that citizens are taking any notice of the state of emergency. There are the same crowds of informal traders on the streets as before the word Covid-19 had ever been uttered.

Despite all the Health Ministry’s pleas that people should stay at home, only leaving their houses on urgent business, there is intense movement of people in the streets, shops and markets, and no sign of any social distancing.

At his weekly press briefing, Nampula police spokesperson Zacarias Nacute put an optimistic gloss on this, claiming that the police are “tirelessly” monitoring the situation, in compliance with last week’s presidential decree extending the state of emergency. He said the police have arrested four people for disobedience, and that 233 people were removed from the minibuses that provide much of the city’s public transport because they were not wearing face masks.

On Saturday, there was a near riot against the state of emergency in the Belenenses informal market in the Nampula neighbourhood of Muhaivire. Informal traders who objected to the rules enforcing social distancing threw up barricades on one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

Nacute said the police had to intervene to dismantle the barricades, and arrested 13 people believed to be the ringleaders.

Nacute said refusal to obey the state of emergency measures “concerns us and we shall continue to work until all citizens in our province become aware of the need to follow the rules”.

Disobeying the rules is also evident in the central city of Beira. A team from the independent television station STV visited the two main Beira markets and found that almost none of the stallholders were wearing face masks, which are supposed to be obligatory.

In some cases, when the stallholders saw a camera approaching, they hastily put masks on.

One person who is certainly taking the state of emergency seriously is the Mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango. He ordered a municipal police operation against illegal bars, and then supervised the destruction of all the alcoholic drinks seized.

Under the state of emergency all bars are closed down, but in most cities clandestine bars have sprung up, often inside markets. The bars are banned, not so much because of the drink, but because of the sizeable crowds they attract which are potential transmission chains for the virus.

When goods on illicit sale are seized their owners can often recover them if they pay a fine. Not this time. Instead, Simango was filmed pouring away, onto a rubbish tip, the contents of each and every bottle seized from the bars.

Source: AIM