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The 2019 military registration campaign began on Wednesday, supposedly throughout the country, but AIM found only a handful of registration posts were open in Maputo city.
In the Kamabukwana municipal district only two posts were open. Nonetheless, the registration coordinator in this district, Celso Simbine, was satisfied that more than 30 people had registered that morning.
“We had some young people who came to exercise their civic duty which is to register”, he said. “Since it’s the first day, we consider the number of 30 to be significant, and so we’re pleased”.
In other municipal districts visited by AIM (KaMpfumo, KaLhlamankulu, and KaMaxakeni), there was no sign of any registration activity at all. Officials in these districts were waiting for the official launch of the campaign on 7 January before registering anyone.
When AIM contacted the Defence Ministry, a spokesperson must have been “a misunderstanding”, since the start of registration did not depend on any official ceremony.
“All the registration posts were instructed to begin their activity today (Wednesday)”, he said, “regardless of the fact that the official ceremonies will take place on the seventh. We shall investigate to find out why some posts were not operating”.
Registration for military service is supposed to cover all Mozambicans, men and women, who are, in theory obliged to register in the year of their 18th birthday.
According to the population projections made by the National Statistics Institute (INE), this year over 604,000 Mozambicans celebrate their 18th birthday. Yet the Defence Ministry has set a registration target of only 192,000.
In other words, although it is a legal obligation to register, the Ministry only expects 32 per cent of 18 year olds to do so. This means that, if more than 192,000 register, the campaign can be claimed as a great success.
The same thing has happened every year since the re-introduction of conscription in 1998. A low registration target is set, and the great majority of 18 year olds do not register. There are penalties for non-registration – for example, people who have not registered for military service may find it difficult to obtain documents such as passports.
As usual the registration campaign runs for the first two months of the year. It covers, not only those who turn 18 in 2019, but anyone who, for whatever reason, failed to register in previous years, as long as they are under 35 years old.
Most people who register will not be called up, since the armed forces (FADM) are relatively small, and cannot possibly recruit more than a few thousand people a year.
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