Mozambique: Police seize driving licences – AIM report

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Mozambique: Police seize driving licences – AIM report

11:21 CAT | 20 Apr 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican police on Friday seized 77 driving licences from bus and minibus drivers in Maputo, who were violating the rules of the state of emergency decreed on 1 April.

On Friday morning, police spread out across several of the city’s main thoroughfares checking whether the drivers and passengers in buses and minibuses were wearing face masks, and whether the vehicles were overcrowded.

As one of the measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, the government has made it obligatory for all drivers and passengers to wear face masks – an instruction which is still being widely disregarded.

The spokesperson for the Maputo City police command, Leonel Muchina, told AIM that the seizure of the driving licences was “a measure of persuasion”. The driving licences will be returned, he said, as soon as the drivers show up at a police station wearing masks.

Passengers without masks were not punished, but were warned that henceforth they must always wear masks when they are inside passenger vehicles.

Muchina added that the police fined six drivers for carrying more people than their vehicles are licensed for. “If the vehicle only has 15 seats, then it should only carry 15 passengers”, he said.

He added that the police had found some drivers, fare collectors and passengers with masks dangling from their necks – which makes them completely useless. Muchina appealed to drivers and passengers alike to respect the measures introduced to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the National Land Transport Institute (INATTER) has denied reports circulating on social media, claiming that the use of masks is also obligatory in private vehicles. An INATTER press release said that “the drivers of private vehicles which do not charge for the transport of passengers are not obliged to wear masks”.

The police also arrested two religious leaders in the central city of Chimoio for violating the state of emergency regulations.

The administrator of Chimoio, Daniel Andicene, told AIM that the two pastors were found holding services attended in person by over 100 people. Under the current regulations all religious services are banned, for fear that they will spread Covid-19. Some churches, notably the Catholic and Anglican churches, have switched to broadcasting their services to the faithful, but two Chimoio churches defied the order and brought their followers into a cramped place of worship

Andicene said the two pastors were from different churches (which he did not name), and they will be taken to court. “They will be held responsible because they committed an offence at a time when we are all concerned with preventing the disease”, he stressed.

Source: AIM