Mozambique: 100 arrests for state of emergency violations – Video

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Mozambique: 100 arrests for state of emergency violations – Video

3:16 CAT | 16 Apr 2020

Photo: Miramar

The Mozambican government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE), in coordination with the police, has detained more than 100 people for violations of the state of emergency decreed on 1 April.

These are mostly people who kept bars and stalls selling alcoholic drinks open, and the people who drank there, in defiance of the rules on social distancing. The state of emergency regulations ordered the closure of all bars and similar establishments, to avoid people gathering in confined spaces where they would be more likely to spread the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Tuesday, the INAE General Inspector, Rita Freitas, said the authorities are stepping up their inspections, particularly of commercial establishments and municipal markets.

Involved in the inspections, she said, are INAE, the national and municipal police, the General Inspectorate of Health, and the Mozambican Tax authority (AT).

“We have found various establishments that are not complying with the state of emergency”, she said, “and others who continue, even after we have closed them. The challenge us by closing the front door, but continuing to have their fun inside, or at the back”.
Over the past ten days, said Freitas, INAE had carried out 1,318 inspections across the country, including 415 stalls and bars, 76 restaurants and four markets.

The inspectors found that many of these businesses were continuing to charge speculative prices. The goods where unjustifiably high prices were being charged included basic foods such as maize and wheat flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil, beans and groundnuts. However, in comparison with the previous week, the prices of tomatoes, potatoes, onions and eggs had fallen.

Freitas said that, despite the health warnings, crowds of people were still gathering outside and inside shops and other establishments, in defiance of social distancing norms.

A multi-sector team is trying to raise public awareness of this problem, she said. “We have been sending the message to these people, that they should not form crowds in order to prevent the spread of the pandemic”, Freitas added.

She warned that violation of the state of emergency regulations can lead to the detention of the owner of the establishment, and of the consumers, and the seizure of the merchandise concerned.