Mozambique: Government announces possible creation of new municipalities – AIM

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Mozambique: Government announces possible creation of new municipalities – AIM

4:06 CAT | 15 Jul 2022

Photo: O País

The Mozambican government announced on Thursday that it may create new municipalities before the local elections scheduled for 11 October 2023.

The proposal came from the Minister for State Administration and the Public Service, Ana Comoana, at the opening ceremony in Maputo of a meeting of her Ministry’s Coordination Council, held under the slogan “For the Reform and Modernization of Public Administration in the Service of Citizens.”

Comoana claimed there are already advanced studies that point to the debate and approval of the proposal for new municipalities by the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

READ: More municipalities will be created for the 2023 local elections – Notícias report

“We have a preliminary study, but the government has encouraged us to move forward with a more in-depth study, which may culminate in the creation of new municipalities. However, the sector will then have to go into the field, because there are criteria and indicators that we have to evaluate in order to assess whether or not these territorial units can be elevated to municipality status”, Comoana said.

Currently, there are 53 municipalities in Mozambique. Comoana did not suggest which other towns should be upgraded into municipalities, nor how much this exercise would cost.

She claimed that residents of any new municipality could take part in the municipal elections because voter registration only begins in February 2023. This, however, overlooks the awkward fact that the boundaries of the new municipalities must be fixed first.

The minister also announced that in the current semester almost 700 cases of corruption were registered in the public administration.

“689 cases of illegal acts and 12 other criminal cases of corruption were discovered, seven of which have already been referred to the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption”, Comoana revealed.

After the opening of the meeting, journalists asked Comoana about a controversial ministerial note she had signed, ordering that the dependents of veterans of the independence war should be given priority in the recruitment to positions in the public administration.

But she flatly refused to comment. “Please forgive me, but I’m not going to speak about this matter”, she said, according to a repot in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.

Comoana’s note, dated 29 April, was sent to the Secretary of State of Inhambane province, and has been acted upon by several district services in that province.

The Mozambican Constitution does grant a special status to veterans of the national liberation struggle, but it also states that the rights of veterans will be determined by law – and there is no law that guarantees priority to the dependents of veterans in filling vacancies in the public administration.

Source: AIM