Watch: Nationalisation Day – report

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Watch: Nationalisation Day – report

3:37 CAT | 28 Jul 2019

Picture: Miramar

July 24 – Nationalisation Day. Forty-three years after the conquests resulting from that decision, there is very little left of the state heritage, and what exists leaves much to be desired, Miramar reports.

It was on July 24, 1976 that the late President Samora Moisés Machel announced that real estate owned by the colonist belonged to the administration of the new state of Mozambique. Buildings and other kind of residences, industries and land – all was to pass into state management. It was the advent of nationalisation.

As a result, Mozambicans from all walks of life stormed properties, including buildings in the centre of major cities, especially the capital Maputo. Under management of the State Real Estate Park Administration (APIE), residents began to pay a monthly rent. Many could not keep up with the rents and left, while others simple defaulted.

Cracks, fissures and filth announce the abandoned state of many of the buildings, although some are inhabited, even to their terraces, by people quite well-to-do. But for many, living in these building has become a nightmare and an outrage.

Many of the buildings present a false front. If you look at the Marçal building, for example, you may conclude that it is a model of conservation and hygiene. Pure mistake! The nauseating smell suffocates any visitor not used to the daily reality of affairs.

But who is the real culprit?

The abandonment of the buildings by those who, in search of better conditions, rented the flats, combined with the lack of responsibility and understanding among the tenants, makes the situation worse.

Those who witnessed the changes bemoan the current situation, while this young woman, who was not even alive at the time of the nationalisations, does feel that the act itself was noble.

Watch the video below: