Mozambique: Nhamatanda mayor accused by council workers of forgery and other abuses – AIM report

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Mozambique: Nhamatanda mayor accused by council workers of forgery and other abuses – AIM report

8:28 CAT | 08 Oct 2020

Image: Social Media

Workers at the Nhamatanda Municipal Council, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, have denounced the mayor of Nhamatanda, Antonio Charumar Joao, accusing him of a range of crimes, including forgery, authorising undue payments, and misuse of public funds and state property, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.

The authors of this letter have sent it to the Ministry of State Administration, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Secretary of State for Sofala.

They say that the educational certificate, showing that he completed secondary education up to 12th (pre-university) grade, is a forgery, issued in a private school in Beira. He supposedly used this certificate when he was running to become the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party for the 2018 municipal elections in Nhamatanda.

The letter accuses the mayor of nepotism, for hiring people who are close to him for jobs in the municipality “contradicting the professional qualifiers in force in the state apparatus”.

One of those illicitly hired, the letter claims, is the mayor’s Legal Adviser. It says he has not yet completed his law degree, and the Administrative Tribunal has not authorised his hiring. The mayor’s secretary, it adds, was originally hired as a cleaner, and her appointment too has not been cleared by the Administrative Tribunal.

Charumar Joao is also accused of hiring a company which he set up to carry out municipal building work.

This company, Mpesanota Constructions, won contracts for drilling boreholes, but the boreholes did not reach the depth agreed in the terms of reference, and this has allegedly contributed to a water crisis facing the municipal population.

Charumar Joao, the letter says, set up Mpesanota Constructions in partnership with the first secretary of Frelimo in Nhamatanda, Bento Conde Zeca, and management of the company was entrusted to Veronica Domingos, district secretary of the Organisation of Mozambican Women (OMM), which is affiliated to Frelimo.

Contacted by “Carta de Mocambique”, the mayor said he was aware of the letter and its accusations, but he was not yet able to react.

Source: AIM