Hidden debts: Guebuza versus Nyusi – AIM report

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Hidden debts: Guebuza versus Nyusi – AIM report

7:25 CAT | 21 Feb 2022

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

On the second day of his testimony before the Maputo City Court, former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza continued to insist that his successor, Filipe Nyusi, is the man best placed to explain what happened to the three security-linked companies at the heart of the scandal of Mozambique’s hidden debts.

At the time, Nyusi was defence minister and chairperson of the Operational Command of the defence and security forces. Guebuza claimed he had delegated responsibility to the Operational Command for the day to day activities of the coastal protection project, of which the three companies were integral parts.

Guebuza seemed unaware that Nyusi has already testified, albeit not in the courtroom. During the preliminary investigation, in August 2018, he was questioned in the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) and gave a version of the coastal protection scheme wildly at odds with that presented by Guebuza.

At the request of Flavio Menete, of the Mozambique Bar Association (OAM), which is assisting the Public Prosecutor in the current trial, judge Efigenio Baptista read out Nyusi’s statements to the PGR, which revealed a huge gap between the former president and his successor.

Guebuza faithfully followed the line given by one of the main accused, Antonio Carlos do Rosario, once the head of economic intelligence in the security service, SISE, who claimed that the project, known as SIMP (Integrated Monitoring and Protection System) contained three components, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) which meshed tightly together, and all had security components.

But Nyusi only recognized Proindicus as part of SIMP, and told the PGR he knew nothing about the creation of Ematum or MAM. Like many of the witnesses in the trial he did not see how a fishing company like Ematum could be said to be part of a security scheme.

He only found out about Ematum and MAM when the hidden debts scandal broke (that would have been in 2016, by which time he was President).

When he was defence minister, he had no knowledge of the deal whereby the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest became the sole contractor for Proindicus, Ematum and MAM. Furthermore, he had never participated in any way in arranging state guarantees for the two billion dollars’ worth of loans for the three companies from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.

Nyusi said he had no idea how these guarantees, illegal under Mozambican law, had been issued by the then Finance Minister Manuel Chang.

Nyusi said that, while he was minister, no extra military equipment was acquired, outside of legitimate purchases through the state budget.

500 million dollars disappeared from the 850 million dollar loan to Ematum. The story given by Rosario was that this money was used clandestinely to purchase defence equipment. Rosario attempted to persuade Nyusi’s successor as Defence Minister, Salvador M’tumuke, to sign a document confirming that his Ministry had indeed received 500 million dollars’ worth of material.

“M’tumuke contacted me”, Nyusi told the PGR, “and the Defence Ministry had received no goods and no money. So he refused to sign”.

Asked to explain how Nyusi’s view of the three companies was so different from his own, Guebuza said “It’s strange, that’s all I can say. He was head of the Operational Command, and he says he knows nothing about what was going on. It’s strange”.

But Nyusi’s testimony to the PGR was almost four years ago. Maybe he had changed his mind since then, and that would justify calling him as a witness. However, Baptista said Nyusi had been questioned again in the second, adversarial stage of the investigation and he had simply declared “I stand by all I said in the PGR”.

Guebuza denied that he had ever authorized Chang to sign the state guarantees for the loans. “I agreed that there should be negotiations to obtain resources that would allow the defence of our Exclusive Economic Zone”, he said, but rather than go into details, “I delegated because I trusted the people I was working with”.

Menete pointed out that the state guarantees signed by Chang were also a violation of the Mozambican Constitution, which states that such decisions on indebtedness can only be taken by the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. So why did Guebuza’s government keep the Assembly in the dark?

The former President said that was because forces the government was fighting against, such as the former rebel movement (and now the main opposition party), Renamo, “had deputies in the Assembly. So how could we take the project to the Assembly? That would give Renamo information and endanger the project”,

“It would have made no sense to ask authorization to buy weapons to fight against them. That would have been irresponsible”, he added.

“So you admit you were violating the constitution”, said Menete.

“I didn’t say that”, replied Guebuza. “I said I trusted in delegating powers to members of the Operational Command” (a non sequitur which does not explain the former President’s casual attitude towards trampling on the country’s fundamental law).

On one matter Menete did see eye to eye with Guebuza. The OAM too wanted Baptista to call Nyusi as a witness.

This is the third time that request has been made. Baptista had turned down the first two requests and he had no intention of changing his mind now – indeed, it would be illegal for him to do so.

“The OAM knows that when a decision has been taken, you can’t ask a judge to alter the decision”, he declared. “This is just populism on your part. There’s no other word for it”.

Menete claimed that Guebuza’s testimony created a new context that would make it worth calling Nyusi to the witness stand. Baptista retorted “your request is exactly the same is the previous one, and you know the law forbids the judge from changing his decision”.

Source: AIM