Mozambique: Former labour minister’s son arrested i- AIM report

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Mozambique: Former labour minister’s son arrested i- AIM report

3:57 CAT | 19 May 2020

in file CoM

Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) arrested Dudass Taipo, son of former Labour Minister Helena Taipo, in Maputo last Wednesday, in connection with an alleged fraud, reports Tuesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.

The case arises from a complaint by a Beira businessman, Ismail Ismail, a senior figure in the Uzer commercial group. Ismail says he lent Taipo 14 million meticais (about 203,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates). The time for repaying the loan came and went, but Dudass Taipo did not repay the money.

SERNIC sent Taipo to Beira on Saturday. But SERNIC is not a debt collection agency, and it is not yet at all clear what crime Taipo has supposedly committed. “Carta de Mocambique” asks whether normal criminal investigation procedures have been followed, or whether SERNIC is acting at the behest of Ismail, to force Taipo to hand over the money.

The arrest of the younger Taipo follows the failure of an appeal by his mother against a corruption case, in which she is the main suspect, going to trial.

Charges were laid against Helena Taipo almost a year ago, concerning alleged undue use of funds allocated to the National Directorate of Migrant Labour in the Labour Ministry. According to the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption, Taipo and her accomplices diverted over 113 million meticais from the coffers of the migrant labour directorate in the period 2010 to 2014, when she was Labour Minister in the government headed by President Armando Guebuza.

This money came from contributions made by Mozambican miners in South Africa and from fees paid for the hiring of foreign labour in Mozambique. The stolen money was supposedly used to buy property and vehicles.

Taipo and 11 others have been charged in this case, including the former representative of the Labour Ministry in South Africa, Pedro Taimo. They are accused of embezzlement, abuse of trust, forging documents, and illegal participation in business.

When the 10th section of the Maputo City Court issued a dispatch announcing that the case would go to trial, Taipo and her fellow accused appealed. This month the Higher Appeals Court threw out the appeal, and ruled in favour of the City Court. The case will thus come to trial, though no date has yet been set.

Source: AIM