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Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared in Monday that “in 2016 it has become clear how far we still have to go to eradicate corruption”.
Giving his annual State of the Nation address to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, he added “it has become clear how much is still missing for us to eradicate the use of violence as a way of dealing with differences. It was clear that we must urgently create peace and political harmony. And it was still more evident that we need to listen to those who think differently”.
Nyusi’s predecessor, Armando Guebuza, had frequently declared in his addresses that “the state of the nation is good”. But Nyusi avoided any rosy, triumphalist approach.
“All Mozambicans know the difficulties that we are going through and are concerned at the prevailing situation”, he said. “They are all aware that these times are not easy, and demand from all of us a patriotic awareness so that we remain firm and united before adversities. They all know that simply pointing a finger of guilt will not bring a true and full solution to our problems.”
2016 “was an adverse year, a time of difficulties”, continued Nyusi. “It was a moment in which there accumulated the effects of the absence of peace, and of the domestic and global economic and financial crises”.
Although it would be a mistake to ignore the international economic crisis, the President warned “it would be dishonest to blame that crisis for everything that has gone wrong in our own house”.
“There are lessons that all of us, from all parties, should draw”, he said. “We have to work together to fill the gaps, and together find paths to overcome the difficulties”. One of the “obvious paths”, Nyusi added, was “hard work, and total and selfless commitment to serving the cause of the nation”.
Nyusi stressed that, throughout the year, “a stable and definitive peace” had been his top priority, which was why he had made himself available for a face-to-face meeting with Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Renamo rebels.
“Unfortunately this proposal was not accepted”, he said. Instead Renamo put pre-conditions on holding any Nyusi-Dhlakama meeting, including setting up a Joint Commission between the government and Renamo, attended by international mediators.
The government accepted the Renamo demands, in the belief that they would they would lead to direct talks between Nyusi and Dhlakama. But there is still no sign of any such meeting, and the only advance at the Commission, Nyusi said, was “some consensus about methodologies for work, on the basis of which an inclusive and specialized working group would be set up with the task of preparing the process of decentralisation”.
Nyusi explained that the result of the working group would be put before himself and Dhlakama so that they could finally meet and come to “an effective consensus”. The agreed document would then be sent to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
Specialists in the areas of constitutional law and decentralization could accompany the working group, and would not necessarily be the current negotiators.
To date nothing has come of this. No working group has been appointed, let alone held any meetings, and the current sitting of the Assembly ends on Tuesday.
“We maintain our proposal”, said Nyusi, in the hope that Renamo would eventually accept. He stressed that he is willing to meet Dhlakama “in any provincial capital in the country”.
As far as Nyusi is concerned, the talks in the Joint Commission and the international mediation will continue. “We want the members of the Commission and all the mediators to make every effort to create the conditions necessary for implementing the proposal we have presented”, he said.
“We maintain our unshakeable will to guarantee effective and lasting peace in our country”, he insisted.
As for corruption, Nyusi said that proceedings were brought this year in 714 cases of crimes of corruption, involving a total sum of around 740 million meticais (about 10.4 million US dollars), “which would be enough to build more than 40 schools, allowing over 8,000 children to study under decent conditions”.
“It is important to keep these numbers in mind”, he added, “because corruption is not just an ethical offence, but a crime with serious consequences for the economy. Corruption and the facilities and benefits for private interests have seriously affected our economy”.
Nyusi admitted that the behavior of some public officials provokes corruption. “We must eliminate the bad performance of some public servants, the defective provision of services, the wrapping of procedures in red tape”, said Nyusi. Such practices and attitudes “provide fertile ground for the growth of a cancer which is undermining our economy”.
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