Mozambique: State of emergency rules violated in Nampula – AIM report

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Mozambique: State of emergency rules violated in Nampula – AIM report

2:37 CAT | 27 Apr 2020

Violation of the rules imposed by the state of emergency decreed by the Mozambican government to face the Covid-19 pandemic is now seriously worrying the local authorities in the two main cities of the northern province of Nampula, Nampula city and Nacala.

In both cities it is clear to the naked eye that there is no attempt to ensure social distancing. Crowds of people continue to gather in formal and informal markets, at shops and banks, and in buses and minibuses.

The government has ordered drivers and passengers alike to wear masks in the minibuses known as “chapas” that provide much or urban passenger transport. But this instruction is flagrantly disobeyed, and gross overcrowding remains the norm for the chapas.

The chairperson of the Nampula Association of Road Transport Operators (ASTRA), Luis Vasconcelos, deplores this situation, and believes the time has come to move away from mere moral exhortations to more drastic measures in order to impose order.

He was angered that at some checkpoints the police are allowing drivers through without masks – including the drivers of pick up tricks used as passenger vehicles, These open trucks, crammed full of people, and known ironically as “my love”, should not be allowed at all under the state of emergency, yet they continue to ply their business on the streets of Nampula and Nacala.

Vasconcelos added that unlicensed vehicles are carrying passengers into outlying districts such as Malema, Angoche and Moma. “Some of these are small vehicles with a capacity for five people, but they cram 15 in”, he said.

He said ASTRA will cooperate with the authorities in monitoring compliance with the state of emergency rules, “because the time for merely raising awareness is over. They don’t want to pay attention.”

Nampula provincial governor Manuel Rodrigues says he is continuing to urge the entire population of the province to comply with the measures decreed by the government in order to safeguard their own lives, pointing out that there is a focus of Covid-19 infection in the neighbouring province of Cabo Delgado.

“We must all take individual responsibility so that we are not contaminated”, he insisted. “The disease is deadly and has cut down many lives throughout the world. So in public places we must wear masks, we must wash our hands, we must avoid being in crowds. Our advice to the public is to stay at home”.

Rodrigues thanked the good will shown by some Nampula businesses who have supported the authorities with offers of cleaning and hygiene material, including masks which are distributed to vulnerable social strata.

Source: AIM