Mozambique: Washing cars on a street corner as a means to escape a life of crime

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Mozambique: Washing cars on a street corner as a means to escape a life of crime

9:40 CAT | 29 Apr 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: O País]

From 4 a.m. to 6 p.m., Joaquim washes cars on one of Maputo’s busiest street corners so that he “doesn’t steal stuff from others”, a vivid picture of the day-to-day life of thousands of unemployed young people fleeing juvenile delinquency in the Mozambican capital.

With a bucket of water in his hands and a dirty rag slung over his shoulder, Joaquim Tembe, 26, is always the first to arrive at the “Museu” semi-collective transport terminal, almost in the centre of the Mozambican capital.

Every day, his mission is to convince as many drivers as possible that their vehicles need a “bath” before the sun goes down.

“I arrive around 4 a.m. and don’t leave until 6 p.m. Other bosses pay less, but we put up with it because we don’t want to steal other people’s stuff,” Joaquim Tembe explained to Lusa, minutes after washing his first car of the day.

The minimum price for this complete service (exterior and interior) is 100 meticais (just over €1) for light vehicles, but some people manage to convince Joaquim to do the job for 50 meticais (€0.69) after a “good negotiation”.

It’s almost 4 p.m., and Joaquim is counting the bills because today was “terrible”: there were almost no customers.

But it’s just an unusual day, says the young man. On average, before the sun goes down, at least three drivers request Joaquim’s work at the busy transport terminal in the Mozambican capital.

“In this business, I make at least 150 meticais daily to support my family at home. When I can’t, they also realise that it’s bad today,” says Joaquim, eyeing the movement of cars looking for a parking space in the hope of finding a new customer.

Although unstable, Joaquim’s business has one advantage: it keeps him away from the “world of crime”, a path into which high unemployment rates often drag many young people in the suburbs of the Mozambican capital.

“The best thing is that I’m not stealing anything from anyone. Here, I leave with something. Even those who pay 50 meticais, I can buy two packets of pasta and tomatoes (…) The day I get 100 meticais, I will have a kilo of rice. The day I pay 200 meticais (€2.7), a couple of [chicken] wings come into my house,” explains Joaquim Tembe.

Like Tembe, hundreds of young people, mainly from the outlying neighbourhoods, wash cars to feed their families, getting around a chronic problem in Mozambique: unemployment.

Data from the latest population census (2017) released by the National Statistics Institute shows that, of the 32 million Mozambicans, around 9.4 million are young people, a third of whom have no job, schooling or vocational training.

“I’m here for my family. I have a wife and three children, they all depend on it (…),” William Josef, 28, another car washer at the “Museum”, explained to Lusa.

On the brink of poverty, William Josef didn’t know his father, and, very early on, he started “looking for solutions on the streets” to support his mother.

In 2016, inspired by others, Josef saw the street as a business opportunity. Today, between buckets of water and rags on his shoulder, his situation is “stable”, and he has even managed to build his own house, more than 50 kilometres from the centre of Maputo.

“I didn’t know my father. They say he was a goalkeeper for a football team in South Africa. But I didn’t know him. This business helped me, today I have my own place bought with the money from this. It’s a shame it’s a house made of reeds, not blocks [stone]. But it’s my house, bought with my money,” emphasises William Josef.

Maurício Mavera, another famous car washer on 24 de Julho, one of Maputo’s main avenues, observes that two basic requirements are required to reach Josef’s level in this business: cunning and flexibility.

“Some days I wash three cars, some days I wash five and some days I wash eight. I even get tired of washing some days,” he explained to Lusa.

Mavera took up the job years ago when he lost his job as a collector, and he thinks it was a good idea to consider this business.

“I’m a father of three with a wife at home. So I can support the family with this work,” said Mavera.

Although the priority now is to ensure how he supports his family, Mavera, at 44, hasn’t stopped dreaming of a “better future”.

“I really like this and I’d like to have a “car-wash” of my own, to work with other colleagues. I’d like to,” Mavera confesses to Lusa, a dream he’s been harbouring for years, minutes before once again picking up his bucket of water and cloth to wash yet another vehicle in the harsh reality of those who depend on the streets to survive in Maputo.

Source: Lusa