Maputo: INAE and the magwinhas factory – Watch

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Maputo: INAE and the magwinhas factory – Watch

4:05 CAT | 08 Oct 2020

Photo: Miramar

The National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) in Maputo city has shut down one of the production sites of the local, highly sought-after ‘magwinhas’ (sweet dumplings).

These homemade sweet dumplings have become the blockbuster of street fast food, and are widely consumed across nearly all Maputo neighbourhoods.

A treat well known to all, especially children. The secret ingredient? The recipe is quite simple. Wheat flour, sugar, water, salt and yeast and it’s done. Some say that the reason for their popularity is not so much the flavour, but that they so conveniently hold hunger at bay.

But home-produced magwinhas can actually threaten public health – produced in unclean places, shared with rats and worms. Made in pots and pans in muddy yards, stored on dirty shelves in the open, with no hygiene facilities in sight.

The Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) in the city of Maputo found one such place, evaluated it, and found no middle ground. There were rats where the flour bags were stored, the INAE inspector said. “I was shocked by what I saw here, and I believe the country will be shocked too,” he tells Miramar.

While the owner acknowledges a certain lack of conditions, he denies that his little factory poses any threat to public health. “In the three months that I have been doing this, no-one has come here to warn me or complain about anything.”

“Because of the fire, [the dumplings are fried on burning wood on the yard floor], the high temperatures, I believe that when it is well cooked, it comes out well [hazard free],” he adds.

A proposition which fails to convince the INAE inspector, who patiently explains why the place will likely never be suitable for food production “There is no justification. The high temperature does not justify what is happening. Any place that we touch here, we pick up hazardous bacteria. There are no conditions suitable for manufacturing any product.”

And so, the magwinhas factory was shut down.

However, not everyone is satisfied with the decision, and angry vendors, clients of the unit, protest loudly to the cameras, demanding “justice,” says the reporter .

“They’re saying it may cause that stomach ache, that fever, I don’t know what,” one vendor complains. “But this magwinha, ever since the corona, it is to help us. Here? People [street vendors] are coming here – from Zimpeto, Baixa, from I don’t know where. To buy here [and then re-sell]”.

This home-production unit produced more than five sacks of sweet dumplings per day. They re-sell the magwinhas at 20 meticais for small bag of six.