No night flights to Nacala and other consequences of vandalism and theft

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No night flights to Nacala and other consequences of vandalism and theft

2:34 CAT | 07 Jun 2022

File photo: O País

Nacala International Airport has not received night flights since last year due to the vandalism of electrical equipment used to indicate the runways for night-time take-off and landing.

Electrical equipment has been the target of vandalism since the airport was opened in 2014, but last year the situation worsened, when more than one kilometre of cabling supplying the runway lights and worth around one million meticais (about US$15,657.00 at current exchange rates) was stolen.

According to the director of Infrastructure Maintenance at Aeroportos de Moçambique, Acácio Tuendue, total losses to vandalism amount to more than 20 million meticais (around US$313,141.00).

“As a result, we are no longer able to support night flights, until the cables are fully replaced, so we had this unfortunate consequence of the theft of cables and runway lights, this happened last year, but we are working for the replacement of these cables and we believe that, in the near future, we will resume [night flights],” Tuendue said.

Besides restricting night flights, the absence of landing lights also affects take-off and landing in fog and bad weather.

As a result of vandalism, Nampula airport has accumulates losses of about five million meticais (US$93,942.00), and last year saw electrical transformers there vandalised.

In fact, Quelimane, Nampula and Tete airports have all been hit by sabotage and theft of chain-link fences and runway light bulbs – the last of which, Tuendue says, “have no conceivable use outside of an airport”.

“We look at this issue with concern. Our airports were designed to serve the public, the passengers. We recorded a reduction in our capacity, mainly at night, due to these acts of vandalism. We are not satisfied and, therefore, we are looking for solutions to prevent more cases of this kind,” Tuendue says.

The damage caused by sabotage does not only affect Mozambique Airports; state-owned power utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) has also been hit hard. In 2021, EDM losses reached US$16 million and, this year, reached US$250,000, according to company administrator Francisco Inroga.

Inroga said that the losses were even greater than these figures suggest. There are others losses which cannot be measured, as acts of vandalism affect the government’s electrification programme, leaving many families in the dark.

“The amount lost in 2021 alone would be enough to supply more than 190,000 families. This year, in the first quarter alone, the amount lost could have been used to expand supply to about 50,000 families, just here in the southern zone, which is one of the most affected by vandalism,” explained Inroga. “We are forced to take money that could have been used to expand the network to restore electricity supply in the places where it is vandalised.”

The EDM administrator made it known that more than 90 individuals have been detained since last year in connection with these cases and that “significant” amounts of copper have been seized. The copper is often stolen and then sold on the South African market.

Mobile phone operators tell a similar story. Vodacom, for example, says that since 2015, it has recorded acts of vandalism almost every day. According to Mateus Moiane, “there are at least two cases registered per week” this year, with Maputo, Inhambane, Nampula and Tete provinces most at risk.

“The financial impact is huge and, from the calculations we have been doing, the damage stands at around 200 million meticais [US$313,141.00], which would be enough to put up about 35 antennas. Since 2015, we have recorded, on average, around 30 million meticais (US$469,712.00) in losses per year, without quantifying the indirect losses to those deprived of means of communication,” Moiane says.

In Tete, Moiane says, the situation is egregious, especially in Moatize, where criminals have even dismantled and stolen towers over 15 metres in height.

The managers of these companies were speaking in Maputo on Monday (06-06) at an inquiry into the vandalisation of public utility infrastructure and the search for solutions to the problem.

At the event, Mozambique Ports and Railways (CFM) claimed losses of more than two million US dollars in the last three years from vandalism of its 2,000 kilometre CFM Centre and South network.

By Julieta Zucula

Source: O País