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The Mozambican government is facing criticism for not informing about the objectives of the CCTV surveillance cameras being installed on the streets of Maputo and Matola. Although they are supposedly being commissioned in the name of public safety, criticisms of invasion of privacy are surfacing.
Since the middle of 2016, video cameras have started being installed in public spaces in the Maputo and Matola municipalities. The government has never officially informed the public of the equipment’s purpose, with even the police and the municipalities concerned saying they did not know the purpose or the body responsible for installing the cameras.
Even deputies in the Assembly of the Republic are unaware of their purpose, Renamo’s Isiquiel Gusse says. “It is strange, that installation placement, [it would be good] to clarify what it is, even if it is new equipment. It is different from the installation of a traffic light, which we know is important in the regulation of traffic,” he says.
The deputy is still waiting for information. “In the case of the equipment to which it refers, I hope that some entity appears in good faith and says what it is, because at the end of the day the citizen, who is the final recipient of the actions of those who govern, has to know what this government is doing for him.”
At least the company doing the installing is known: it is the Chinese ZTE, because its employees are seen in full activity.
The State cannot be the first to violate laws to combat violation of laws
It should be remembered, of course, that crime rates in the country have increased, especially in these two cities. Kidnapping, murder and robbery are daily events, giving credence to the interpretation that the cameras are there for security reasons.
Lawyer Eliseu Sousa acknowledges the fact, as well as the need to fight crime with effective and even forceful means. “But this forcefulness must not violate any constitutional right, because the state itself cannot be the first to violate the laws meant themselves to combat the violation of laws. There must be communication between public and private interests,” he says.
And he points out the possibility of a conflict of laws. “I have already expressed myself in the sense of questioning the rights of citizens and the right of the state to monitor people, even in public life. Here two rights collide, one being privacy, even if it is on the public highway, and the other the right to security.”
Is Guebuza’s son’s company responsible?
Sousa underlines that it is equally important to provide technical information on the equipment installed in public spaces, to avoid another type of violation. “In the context of all rights, one of which is to have the right to information on the part of the state, I think it is urgent for the state to explain itself. I do not think there has been a plausible explanation to date.”
According to Mozambican newspaper Canal de Moçambique, in mid-2016, Msumbiji Investiment Limited, a company owned by Mussumuluku Guebuza, son of former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza, is responsible for the project, and has contracted the Chinese company ZTE to undertake the installation. But to what institution Guebuza’s son’s company is providing services is a question which still finds no answer.
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