Mozambique: Minister’s wife denies she was beaten up – AIM report

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Mozambique: Minister’s wife denies she was beaten up – AIM report

7:51 CAT | 19 Aug 2021

FIE - Illustrative photo. [File photo: Lusa]

Vanessa Mangueira, the wife of Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Max Tonela, has categorically denied a story in the weekly paper “Evidencias” that her husband had beaten her up.

“Evidencias” devoted an entire page to this scoop, claiming that Tonela had attacked her wife so savagely that he knocked her teeth out. But, despite the paper’s name the story was based, not on any real evidence, but on entirely anonymous sources. The paper did not bother to speak to either Mangeira or Tonela.

Interviewed in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, Mangueira said the entire story was fictional. The paper also printed a photo of the smiling Mangueira, showing that none of her teeth are missing.

“It’s a lie”, she said. “I’m fine. I haven’t been attacked physically or emotionally, or in any other way”.

She and he husband were both in good health “and happy with the life we have chosen, looking after our children and our lives”.

She added that the couple reserve the right to sue “Evidencias” for libel.

But the damage has already been done. The “Evidencias” story has circulated widely on social media, where many people have taken the attitude that “if if appears in the papers, it must be true”. The tale of Tonela’s alleged brutality has been used by some Facebook enthusiasts to damn the entire government.

Source: Lusa