Nyusi criticises top-heavy Science Ministry – AIM

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Nyusi criticises top-heavy Science Ministry – AIM

7:46 CAT | 04 Aug 2017

Notícias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday called on the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher and Professional Education (MCTESTP) to work in a more harmonised fashion to identify tangible solutions to the main problems facing Mozambique.

During a visit to the Ministry, Nyusi told the MCTESTP Consultative Council that institutions of higher education should be able to use scientific methods to solve problems.

The task of the MCTESTP, he insisted, was to come up with solutions, and not guesswork, to deal with such problems as the lack of decent housing, and shortages of water, electricity, and particularly of food.

“We cannot govern, or do anything, just by guessing”, said Nyusi. “We have handed everything to do with science over to this ministry, so that you solve the problems of Mozambicans”.

“Mozambicans are your clients”, he added. “As well as water, electricity, roads and bridges, they need food, in order to exist – and they need you to do what you are best at, which is training so that they can acquire their own capacities. You must use science to solve these problems”.

Nyusi also criticised the structure of the Ministry which he regarded as top-heavy, with too many chiefs and not enough work. Not every post mentioned in the organisation chart of a ministry needed to be filled, he argued.

“We need a culture of full employment”, said Nyusi. “The fact that a regulation or a decree mentions that there should be a director of this or that doesn’t mean that those jobs should be filled while there is no justification for doing so. You can leave the post vacant, and when the system grows, an appointment can be made”.

As if to prove his point, Nyusi asked each of the Ministry leaders present to introduce themselves, one by one. About 40 people did so. Nyusi said he had not expected to find so many chiefs for an institution the size of the MCTESTP.

“This Ministry is still new, and yet it has a very large structure”, said the President. “These leadership positions must be compressed”.

When there are more chiefs than work to be done, he warned, the leaders concerned end up just “reading the paper, talking on the telephone and looking at whatsapp”.

At one point during his visit, Nyusi came across the rare case of an official who would not stop speaking when the President told her to sit down.

The issue at stake was the management of the Science and Technology Park at Maluana, about 80 kilometres north of Maputo. Its chairperson is Flavia Zimba, a former director of the office of the First Lady (Maria da Luz Guebuza, at the time), and wife of the former Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia.

But within the Park is a building that was built by the National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (INTIC), whose chairperson is Dulce Chilundo. At the meeting of the Ministry’s Consultative Council it became clear that Chilundo and Zimba are in dispute as to who should run the building.

Chilundo claimed that Zimba had usurped the premises built by INTIC, and this was causing serious problems for INTIC.

Zimba defended her position, but it seems that her arguments did not convince Nyusi since he interrupted her and said “All right, you can keep quiet now”.

But Zimba did not keep quiet. “Please let me finish, Mr President”, she said, and without waiting for Nyusi to reply, she continued her intervention.

Nyusi let her complete her point, and at the end asked for some humility and a peaceful approach from both sides. “We have seen that here are many problems”, he said. “We don’t want to see the Ministry going in this direction and that direction to handle contradictions”.

Making it clear that he wanted to see people working for the country, rather than struggling over their positions, Nyusi said “You’re spending more time discussing personal problems than undertaking the institution’s work. Do your jobs. The country has a lot of people who want to work. We are not tied to any one individual”.

Source: AIM