Mozambique: Government still has not paid compensation to transport operators

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Mozambique: Government still has not paid compensation to transport operators

5:43 CAT | 17 Apr 2023

File photo: O País

The Mozambican government has still not paid four months of compensation to transport operators, intended to soften the impact of fuel prices, reports Monday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.

The debt is for the last four months of 2022, and the Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT) had promised to clear the debt by January.

Indeed, on 12 January the AMT Chairperson, Antonio Matos, was filmed promising that by the end of the month the debt would be paid. But the promise was not kept, and in mid-April, the transport operators are still waiting for their money.

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The chairperson of the Mozambican Federation of Road Transport Associations (FEMATRO), Castigo Nhamane, said he has maintained contact with the AMT and with the Transport Ministry. There have always been promises of payment, but no money has been handed over.

Last week, said Nhamane, “we were told it was just a procedural question, that the transfer has been made and that at any moment, the sum will be available to start paying the transport operators”.

The lack of payment, he stressed, is damaging the transport companies. “There are fewer buses on the roads”, Nhemane pointed out. “That’s because the operators are reducing the number of vehicles they put on the roads. In some cases, the buses are out of order, and the operators don’t have the money to repair them. In other cases, they don’t have enough fuel. There are also buses which only operate during the rush hour, and then just for a short period”.

An AMT spokesperson said the Agency is in “permanent contact” with FEMATRO, and guaranteed that the debt would be paid “very soon”.

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Source: AIM