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SIBA-SIBA REMEMBERED SEVEN YEARS LATER
(11/08/2008)
Maputo, 11 Aug (AIM) – Seven years after the murder of banker Antonio Siba-Siba Macuacua, on 11 August 2001, relatives, friends and citizens outraged by the unsolved crime gathered in front of the murder site on Monday.
Led by Siba-Siba's widow, Aquina Manjate, they laid wreaths at the plaque in his memory at the headquarters of what was once the Austral Bank, and is now Barclays Bank-Mozambique. The plaque is near the stairwell down which Siba-Siba's body was thrown seven years ago.
Addressing the crowd, Mozambican theatre director Manuela Soeiro declared "We don't want to live in fear. We shall never forget Siba-Siba".
"We want justice in this country", she said. "We shall never forget our heroes – Eduardo Mondlane, Samora Machel, Carlos Cardoso, Siba-Sba Macuacua".
Siba-Siba had been head of banking supervision in the Bank of Mozambique But when the privatised Austral Bank came close to collapse, in April 2001, the central bank put him at the head of an interim board of directors, charged with ascertaining the true financial situation of the bank, and preparing a new privatization.
Austral was once the state-owned People's Development Bank (BPD).
Under pressure from the World Bank and the IMF to pull the state out of commercial banking, the Mozambican government sold off 60 per cent of the Austral shares in 1997 to a Mozambican-Malaysian consortium.
The dominant partner in the bank was the Malaysian Southern Bank Berhard, and the new chairman of the board was former industry minister Octavio Muthemba.
The new owners changed the bank's name and embarked on a ruinous loans policy. Loans were given without firm guarantees that the beneficiaries would be able to pay the money back. By the end of 2000, about 30 per cent of the Austral credit portfolio consisted of non-performing loans. But rather than recapitalize the bank, the private owners walked away. They returned their shares to the Bank of Mozambique, and the Malaysians quickly fled the country.
Siba-Siba worked to clean up the bank. He rescinded useless contracts signed by the previous board – including one that appointed Nyimpine Chissano, son of the then president Joaquim Chissano, as an adviser on a salary of 3,000 US dollars a month. He pursued a vigorous debt collection policy, and even published the names of over 2,000 debtors in the pages of the country's main daily paper, "Noticias".
He made enemies. And on 11 August 2001, his body was found at the bottom of the stairwell at Austral headquarters. South African forensic police were called in, who confirmed that Siba-Siba had been murdered.
Since then the investigation appears to have gone nowhere, despite the government's promises to his family to hunt down the killers.
No-one has been arrested, let alone charged, with the murder, or with any crime in connection with the looting of the bank. Under pressure from donors, the government ordered a forensic audit of the Austral accounts (paid for by Norwegian and Swedish money). But the audit remains a secret document, and none of its conclusions have been published.
Attorney-General Augusto Paulino, appointed to the post a year ago, pledged to make the Siba-Siba and Austral cases a priority This renewed commitment led to prosecutors questioning Muthemba and three other former bank officials in July.
Commenting on the case, Marcelo Mosse, executive director of the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), declared "We hope that the Attorney-General will mange to wipe away the image of ineffectiveness that has marked his institution in recent years. We are all anxious that this case should be solved".
(AIM)
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CIP Newsletter 6 EITI Eng
(06/10/2010) |
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?Civil society?s standing on the APRM in Mozambique? - A submission from Mozambican civil society organizations to the APRM Country Review Mission
(11/02/2009)
(Maputo, 02-11-09) After the launch of the APRM by the Mozambican Government, Mozambican civil society decided to capacitate themselves in order to have a more informed and productive interaction with the APRM structures. Thus, in 2006, the Community...(read +)
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GOVERNMENT SATISFIED WITH GAS PRODUCTION
(17/09/2008)
Maputo, 17 Sep (AIM) - The Mozambican government has expressed its satisfaction with the levels of exploitation of natural gas at Temane, in the southern province of Inhambane.
This mega-project has been operated by the South African petrochemica...(read +)
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IRON ORE DEPOSIT DISCOVERED
(28/08/2008)
Maputo, 28 Aug (AIM) - An Indian consortium is currently involved in research and exploration to assess the potential of an iron ore deposit uncovered in Lalaua district, in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, reports Thursday's issue of the...(read +)
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Mozambique's Planning and Development Minister, Aiuba Cuereneia, said on Monday that the government will use domestic revenue to cover the reduction in support for the state budget from Sweden
(19/08/2008)
Maputo, 19 Aug (AIM) – Mozambique's Planning and Development Minister, Aiuba Cuereneia, said on Monday that the government will use domestic revenue to cover the reduction in support for the state budget from Sweden, one of the country's main donors....(read +)
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DEMANDS FOR TRANSPARENCY IN HANDLING DISTRICT FUNDS
(10/08/2008)
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NO IMPUNITY IN STATE APPARATUS
(10/08/2008)
Maputo, 8 Aug (AIM) - The number of Mozambican state employees expelled, demoted and fined shows that 'there is no impunity in our state apparatus', declared the Deputy Minister for the Public service, Abduremane Almeida in Maputo on Friday. Speaking...(read +)
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MOZAMBIQUE MAY FAIL TO PRESENT ITS APRM REPORT ON TIME
(16/07/2008)
Maputo, 15 Jul (AIM) - Mozambique may be unable to present its self-assessment report for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) during the next African Union ordinary summit in Addis Ababa in January 2009.
This situation is blamed on the cance...(read +)
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PORTUGUESE CITIZEN JAILED FOR CORRUPTION
(04/07/2008)
Maputo, 3 Jul (AIM) – A Mozambican court has finally judged a case of corruption – however the man convicted is not a Mozambican official, but a Portuguese citizen accusing of offering a bribe to Interior Ministry officials in order to speed up his r...(read +)
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FORMER INSS DIRECTOR FAILS TO CONVINCE
(26/06/2008)
Maputo, 24 Jun (AIM) The former general director of Mozambique's National Social Security Institute (INSS), Abilio Mussane, has denied responsibility for the massive thefts that allegedly occurred in the Institute, but has failed to answer any of the...(read +)
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MOZAMBIQUE IMPROVES IN GOVERNANCE INDICATORS
(26/06/2008)
Maputo, 25 Jun (AIM) – Mozambique is slowly improving its ranking in the World Bank's governance indicators.
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Police Station Visitors Week 2007
(16/10/2007)
The Police Station Visit is a global event organized by Altus Global Alliance. Altus is an alliance of 6 academic centers and non governmental organizations working across 5 continents. CLEEN Foundation is a founding member and the Africa representat...(read +)
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New regulations anger security companies
(15/10/2007)
Private security companies are infuriated that the Mozambican government has approved a new set of regulations governing their work, without any consultation, reports Friday's issue of the independent weekly "Savana". One of the major changes is the ...(read +)
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Improved performance in governance promise
(15/10/2007)
The Mozambican government on Friday (21/09/2007) promised to pay greater attention to matters of good governance, while some of the country's key donors issued a veiled threat that, unless the government improved its performance in this area, donor s...(read +)
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Hundred of Containers of Illegal Logs Seized
(15/10/2007)
The Mozambican authorities have seized 531
containers full of illegal log exports on the quay of the
northern port of Nacala, according to a report on Mozambican
Television (TVM). In all, the illegal cargo consisted of 11,000 cubic metres,
mostl...(read +)
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