Macuácua replaced on parliamentary commission of inquiry – Mozambique

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Macuácua replaced on parliamentary commission of inquiry – Mozambique

7:48 CAT | 17 Nov 2016

File photo / Assembly of the Republic / Parliament

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday voted to appoint Sérgio Pantie, of the ruling Frelimo, deputy chairperson of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Mozambique’s public debt, replacing Edson Macuácua, who had resigned.

This substitution should have been a simple matter, since it was just a question of one Frelimo deputy replacing another. When a deputy leaves a commission, his or her parliamentary group has the right to nominate a replacement.

But the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), on whose initiative the Commission of Inquiry had been set up, was furious and demanded a vote.

The MDM had argued that Macuácua’s position as deputy chair of the Commission of Inquiry was a conflict of interest, since he had once been a spokesperson for President Armando Guebuza, who had headed the government which illicitly guaranteed the loans (amounting to over two billion dollars) to the companies Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, which pushed the Mozambican public debt to beyond sustainable levels.

However, the MDM’s position was fatally weakened, because it did not spot this conflict of interest when the Commission was set up, in August, and voted in favour of its composition, Macuácua included.

There was no dispute about whether Macuácua should remain on the commission. Frelimo too agreed that there was a conflict of interest and Macuacua himself, finding his position untenable resigned. He made no attempt to cling on.

In the Wednesday debate MDM deputy José Lobo protested that, under the Assembly’s Standing Orders, deputies could not be replaced on commissions of inquiry “except in cases of prolonged illness or definitive impediment”.

Everybody apart from the MDM regarded resignation as a pretty definitive impediment. The Assembly chairperson, Verónica Macamo, pointed out that nobody could be denied the right to resign.

Lobo also protested that the resolution replacing Macuácua with Pantie did not mention the denunciation of a conflict of interest that had led to Macuácua’s resignation.

A second Renamo deputy, Geraldo de Carvalho, claimed that Macuácua had been put on the Commission of Inquiry to defend the interests of the previous government headed by Guebuza. Even if this were true, the problem had been solved by Macuácua’s resignation.

Carvalho also wanted the parliamentary ethics commission to start proceedings against Macuácua and to strip him of his position as Chairperson of the Assembly’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Commission.

When the motion came to a vote the 133 Frelimo deputies present voted in favour and the 17 MDM deputies voted against.

The 69 deputies from the rebel movement Renamo abstained. The Renamo deputies accepted that Macuácua had every right to reason and Frelimo had every right to replace him with Pantie. But the Renamo abstention was in line with its boycott of the Commission of Inquiry.

The Commission currently consists of ten deputies from Frelimo and one from the MDM. There are six places available for Renamo, but it has so far refused to fill them.

Source: AIM