Mozambique: Decentralisation irreversible, says Nyusi

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Mozambique: Decentralisation irreversible, says Nyusi

8:46 CAT | 31 Jul 2020

Photo: TVM

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared on Wednesday in the western province of Tete that decentralisation in Mozambique is irreversible, and that everybody should contribute to its success.

“We need to embrace this process, embrace it in the sense of supporting it as much as possible”, he continued, cited by Radio Mozambique. “As I have said, decentralisation is irreversible, and it does not depend on anybody’s will. This is not the time for anybody to say it shouldn’t be like this. We have to work to make this project viable”.

Decentralisation was agreed in negotiations between Nyusi and the leader of the main opposition party, Renamo, the late Afonso Dhlakama. The laws arising from these negotiations were passed last year by the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

Under these laws, the provincial governor is directly elected, but faces a new power in the shape of the Secretary of State for the province, appointed by the President, and who represents the central state in the province. Each province thus has two, potentially competing poles of power.

Nyusi was speaking in Tete city after he had chaired separate extraordinary meetings of the Provincial Executive Council (under the Provincial Governor), and of the State Representation in the province (under the Secretary of State) He explained that these two bodies of decentralised governance should continue to work in coordination, for the good of the development of the province, and of the country in general.

This, he said, was why the government had decided to follow closely the decentralisation in this initial phase. The government is willing to support the process, Nyusi added, but he urged the members of both bodies to work as a team and with clarity.

“When we are organised together we can do much better work than when we are divided”, he declared.

Nyusi believed that Tete is on a good path as regards development programmes, despite the uncertainties imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The reports presented at the meetings of the Provincial Executive Council and of the State Representation in the Province said that there has been an overall growth in agriculture of 2.6 per cent in the first half of the year (which compares with growth of 3.4 per cent in the same period of 2019.

The reports said that, in industry and trade, four investment projects for the province have been approved with a total value of 12 million US dollars.

Source: AIM