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Chang not returning to Maputo soon – By Joseph Hanlon
9:26 CAT | 15 Jul 2019
Former Finance Minister Manuel Chang will not be extradited to Mozambique any time soon, following the successful intervention of the Mozambican civil society coalition, the Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO, Forum de Monitoria do Orçamento). FMO and its coordinator Denise Namburete have taken the lead on the $2 bn secret debt.
Chang was arrested on 29 December 2018 on a US arrest warrant. Mozambique then requested his return, and on 21 May then Justice Minister Michael Masutha, just days before he was replaced, ordered Chang sent to Mozambique. FMO made an urgent application in the High Court on Tuesday 9 July to delay the sending of Chang to Mozambique and asking that the decision be reconsidered.
Masutha had been appointed by then president Jacob Zuma. who had links with Frelimo from when he was in Maputo 1977-90. Ronald Lamola, a Zuma opponent and supporter of the new president Cyril Ramaphosa, was elected to parliament for the first time In the May 2019 election and immediately named Justice Minister. In a response on Friday 12 July, Lamola said the decision to send Chang to Mozambique was “irrational and inconsistent with the constitution of the Republic of South Africa,” and thus should be reconsidered.
The director-general of justice, Vusi Madonsela, acting for the Minister, made a longer affidavit in which he did not oppose the FMO application for Chang’s extradition to Mozambique to be reviewed. He also noted that Chang continues to hold parliamentary immunity and there is no indictment against him in Mozambique, whereas there is a US indictment.
The next hearing in Johannesburg should be in the next month. But Lamola’s intervention still leaves time for Mozambique to properly charge Chang and withdraw his immunity, and Lamola has expressed no view as to where Chang should be extradited. So he will sit in a Johannesburg jail for some months to come.
ALSO READ: Mozambique: There’s no request to waive parliamentary immunity of Manuel Chang – Speaker
The FMO application is HERE
Lamola’s response is HERE
By Joseph Hanlon
Source: News, Reports & Clippings
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