Watch: Company allegedly involved in stealing railway material defies authorities and reopens in Beira – reports

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Watch: Company allegedly involved in stealing railway material defies authorities and reopens in Beira – reports

2:06 CAT | 25 Sep 2020

Photo: O País

On the 18th of this month, Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique [Mozambique Railways Company] and the Police of the Republic of Mozambique seized a container containing railway material allegedly stolen from the Machipanda railway line in Sofala.

The scrap metal company allegedly involved in the case – Afro-metal – claimed that the material had been purchased from an individual in good faith, but the police ordered a halt to activities until the case was cleared up.

About a week later, Afro-metal’s legal counsel, José Capassura, criticised the police’s actions, saying that the corporation does not have a court order to shut the company down, and it has therefore reopened for business.

“First, in this case, there was no situation of flagrante delicto, which is demandable in serious criminal law [system]. We believe that there should be an order issued by a competent authority, such as the court or the National Institute of Economic Activities, and that the action of the police in partnership with the Mozambique Railways Company is illegal and violates the Constitution. The stoppage of the company’s activities by these two entities lacks legality,” Capassura says.

Capassura says the police and the Mozambique Railways should prioritise the investigation of the alleged theft of railway material instead of closing the company, compromising the employment of more than 100 workers.

“The company is properly licensed to buy and sell scrap [metal], including disused railway material, as it has done several times in the past,” he says.

The company was “very evidently deceived by third parties,” Capassura says, and “there are already conditions for holding the authors of this criminal action to account. The individuals who sold the railway material to the company have already been identified.”

By Francisco Raiva