Comedians deny attempting to enter Mozambique on tourist visas

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Comedians deny attempting to enter Mozambique on tourist visas

6:29 CAT | 23 Jul 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The stand-up comedians who were prevented from entering Mozambique on Sunday to perform a show denied, on Monday, July 21, that they attempted to enter the country as tourists, claiming that they had already attempted to obtain the cultural activities visa they had been asked for at the airport.

Showtime, the agency responsible for the “Tons de Comédia” (Tons of Comedy) show featuring comedians Hugo Sousa (Portugal), Gilmário Vemba (Angola), and Murilo Couto (Brazil), reported that the delegation arrived at the Mozambican capital’s airport at 2:40 p.m. local time on Sunday, with a show scheduled for 5:00 p.m..

The artists “were approached by a law enforcement officer, who requested the delegation’s passports, claiming that they would be given priority due to the proximity of the show” but “upon arriving at the immigration counter, the same officer requested the cultural activities visa”, the agency reported.

“The group responded that they had requested the same only for Murilo Couto, given that, as he is Brazilian, he could not benefit from the visa exemption” and “made themselves available to process the border visa and make the corresponding payment, since the price list was posted and there were agencies available for this purpose”.

A Showtime representative explained to Lusa that the objective was to obtain the cultural activities visa at the airport and continue their trip and the show.

This did not happen because they were informed by a TAAG (Angola Airlines) representative that “immigration had requested that the delegation be returned to Luanda”, which could only happen on Tuesday.

The artists – who arrived in Mozambique from Luanda – then decided to “cancel the show and refund the tickets, since there was no clear estimate of how long it would take to resolve the issue”.

Pedro Gonçalves, the group’s agent, spoke with “the person in charge of immigration”, who informed him that “entry into the country would not be authorized and that the group would have to wait at the airport for their return flight to Angola, which would only be available the following Tuesday”.

The agent said that the group would opt for the TAP flight to Portugal, which was scheduled for the following day (Monday), and requested “that the group be authorized to enter temporarily as tourists, so that they could have a meal, spend the night at the hotel, and return to the airport the following morning to board the flight to Lisbon”.

The request was granted only to the agent Pedro Gonçalves, who declined because he was accompanying the artists.

“The group spent the night right there, at the airport,” eating what the local production team could provide, and are now back in Lisbon, according to the agency.

The director-general of the Mozambican National Migration Service (SENAMI) had justified denying entry to the comedians because they attempted to do so with a tourist visa when they intended to perform.

READ: Mozambique: Migration explains why stand-up comedians were refused entry into the country – Watch

“They came to the country but didn’t meet the criteria for entry. Because they came to put on a show, a ‘show.’ It’s a cultural activity,” said the director-general, Zainedine Danane, when questioned by Lusa on the sidelines of the event marking Senami’s 50th anniversary yesterday in Maputo.

A source from the group’s agency told Lusa that this did not happen. “They were unaware they needed a cultural activities visa, and that as soon as they were informed of this requirement, they tried to obtain one at the airport, as they have done in other countries, such as Cape Verde”.

The source added that the tourist visa was a solution for the group to leave the airport on Sunday and return the next day to board a flight to Portugal, especially since the show had already been cancelled.

The “Tons de Comédia” show was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. local time on Sunday at the China-Mozambique Cultural Centre in Maputo.

Source: Lusa