Mozambique Elections: Venâncio Mondlane calls for renegotiating mega-projects – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: Venâncio Mondlane calls for renegotiating mega-projects – Watch

5:05 CAT | 14 Aug 2024

Screen grab: STV

The independent candidate in Mozambique’s presidential elections scheduled for 9 October, Venâncio Mondlane, on Tuesday said the mega-projects should be urgently renegotiated “for the benefit of Mozambicans”.

Speaking at a public presidential debate held in one of the capital’s universities, Mondlane said “we have to renegotiate, and we can only renegotiate if we are honest”.

The term “megaproject” usually refers to large scale foreign investment, particularly in the extractive industry. The deals with foreign investors have often been criticized for granting unnecessarily large tax exemptions.

Mondlane claimed that implementation of the megaprojects is marred by corruption and that it is often the government, rather than the foreign investor that demands tax exemptions.

“The government makes the proposals for exemptions”, he said, “because there is a range of people linked to power who want to make gains that damage the country”.

Mondlane also insisted that, to ensure good governance, the powers of the President must be reduced, and the public administration must be depoliticized.

He listed a string of positions which he thought should simply be abolished – including the Deputy Ministers and the provincial Secretaries of State. He did not believe there is anything done by a Secretary of State that could not be done by the provincial governor, while the work of a Deputy Minister could equally well be done by a senior director in the Ministry.

The problem with Mondlane’s proposal is that the posts he wants to abolish are mentioned in the Mozambican constitution. Getting rid of them would require substantial constitutional amendments.

Mondlane also noted that, far from declining, poverty has increased in Mozambique has increased in recent years. He cited the World Bank as saying that the number of Mozambicans living below the poverty line increased from 48.4 per cent of the population in 2015 to 62.8 per cent in 2020.

Much the same figures can be found in the government’s own documents. In numerical terms, the number of poor people in the country has increased from 13.1 million in 2015 to 18.9 million in 2020.

Source: AIM / STV