Land: Mozambican Islands for sale – History repeats itself in Cabo Delgado

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Land: Mozambican Islands for sale – History repeats itself in Cabo Delgado

12:30 CAT | 30 Oct 2017

OLX / Printscreen

Contrary to the Mozambican constitution, which, in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 10, states that land is state property and cannot be sold or otherwise alienated, mortgaged or pawned, two islands located in the province of Cabo Delgado have just been put up for sale on the internet.

One is the island of Mefunvo, located in the district of Quissanga, on the market at a price of US$50 million (3,000 billion meticais); the other is the island of Suafo, located in the Cape of Suafo, administrative post of Quionga , district of Palma, up for auction with a suggested price of US$25 million (1.5 billion meticais).

Without indicating the entity responsible, the advertisement was published on the internet through the OLX social and commercial platform and says: “Two islands are being sold; Mefunvo and Suafo in Cabo Delgado – Mozambique. Each island is 500 hectares and is located in a tourism and big business province. Luxury hotels, landing strips for airplanes, golf courses, holiday homes, lodges and bungalows can be built, and mining activities can be carried out by negotiating permits. See more details on Google or contact me. Mefunvo costs US$50,000,000 and Suafo US$25,000,000 and both are negotiable. Phone: +258.84.71.08.723 “.

SAVANA called the number indicated but the call was answered by an answering service inviting the caller to leave a message.

Theoretically, land is an inalienable good in Mozambique, which means that land cannot be sold or traded, since it is owned by the state and belongs to the people, but daily practice betrays a completely different reality. Parcels of land are advertised daily and offered for sale at speculative prices. Land-sale unions have even been set up, particularly in the islands and major urban centres.

Palma administrator David Machimbuko said he did not know about the proposed sales, and had visited the administrative post of Quionga just last week.

Machimbuko said that the sale must be a joke, as any process concerning the attribution of the right to use and use of land was processed by the state. Even if the land was not the responsibility of the district government but the provincial or central government, the process would pass through the district in order to seek its opinion.

Neither was the Palma government aware of any proceedings concerning the island of Suafo, home to about 270 people dedicated to fishing and agriculture.

Elsewhere SAVANA contacted a well-placed source from the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) in Maputo, who said that they were aware of the matter and that their institution was working to neutralise the criminals behind the advertisement.

This is not the first time counterfeit land sale information has appeared on the internet in Mozambique. In 2010, the sale of an island called Congo in the Quirimbas Archipelago, Cabo Delgado province was announced by a company called International Real Estate Listings, which claimed the 725-hectare island was for sale at US$900,000.

There are several luxury island complexes off the coast of Cabo Delgado which are in practice private islands. Among their administrators can usually be found figures from the Frelimo ‘nomenklatura’ acting as go-betweens or the figureheads of official bodies.

Footballers, celebrity coaches, Formula One drivers, film stars, princes and princesses of Western royal houses vacation on the islands, often on exclusive contract to the ‘pink magazines’ press.

In a recent move, one of the islands passed to the ownership of South Africa’s ANC millionaires.

Source: Mediafax