MDM demands sacking of matola counsellor

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MDM demands sacking of matola counsellor

1:56 CAT | 17 Jan 2017

The opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) has demanded that the Counsellor for Territorial Planning and Urbanisation in the southern city of Matola, Andre Chacha, should be sacked because he was recently sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the theft of state funds.

According to a report on the independent television station STV, the MDM found court rulings on the case showing that Chacha was tried by the Maputo City Court for assisting his wife, Edite Chacha, to drain money from the Ministry of State Administration.

He was sentenced to a three year prison term, but he appealed. When the Maputo Higher Appeals court heard the case in 2014, the judges decided that the sentence was too light, and increased it to eight years.

By this time, Chacha was already working on the Matola Municipal Council and, for reasons yet unknown, he was not arrested and sent to serve his sentence.

The MDM group in the Matola Municipal Assembly is now demanding that the Mayor of Matola, Calisto Cossa, sack Chacha.

“When our group became aware of this court ruling, the first action we took was to demand that the mayor immediately dismiss this individual”, said the head of the MDM Matola group, Renato Muelega. “The situation is made worse by the fact that Andre Chacha was sentenced because of his complicity in the theft of state funds, and Matola municipality also operates on the basis of public funds, obtained through taxes and other contributions”.

Muelega accused Cossa of neglecting the interests of the citizens of Matola by keeping Chacha in his executive.

“The Mayor has the duty to know the history of the people he appoints”, he said. “If there is no connivance by the mayor, there is some carelessness in allowing someone to be on his executive with such a large stain on his record”.

Contacted by STV, Chacha promised that he would hold a press conference to react to the MDM accusations.