USERS DENOUNCE CORRUPTION IN ISSUING OF ID CARDS
Maputo, 12 Jan (AIM) – The users of the Mozambican Civil Identification services in Maputo have denounced corruption and slowness in the issuing of identity cards.
The citizens who use these services also complain of long queues to deal with identity cards, which are supposed to be essential for identification purposes.
AIM visited several posts in Maputo where identity cards are issued, where it found large crowds, and some people who had been queuing since the small hours of the morning. At one large central Maputo office, the queue flowed out of the building with people forced to wait for hours on the pavement.
Some were angry, verging on the hysterical, since they risked returning home without their identity card. 35 year old Mario Saide told AIM that not only are the staff very slow, but they prioritise their relatives and those who pay bribes to avoid waiting in the queue.
“What’s happening in this place is lamentable”, he said. “We arrived early, in the hope that we would be attended to. But that was all in vain, because people who arrived long after us managed to deal with their documents and then left”.
“The staff are only concerned with those citizens who pay them something extra. It’s very sad”, said Saide.
Celina Langa also arrived early in the morning, but she has no idea whether her identity card will be issued because of the slowness and corruption displayed by the staff.
“I’m very sad”, she said. “I’ve been here since 05.00, but since I have no money, I have not been attended to. The worst thing is that at 15.00 they won’t attend to anybody else, and so I will have to come back early tomorrow morning because I need to renew my identity card”.
It is the same story in the outer Maputo neighbourhood of 25th June, where people had waited in a queue for more than six hours.
One person in the queue said that, although the normal fee is 160 meticais (2.5 US dollars, at the current exchange rate), “if you don’t pay 560 meticais, you will wait all day in the queue and you won’t be attended to. You will have to come back the next day, and they won’t attend to you until after midday, if you’re lucky”.
“Can’t they deal with us without demanding more money?”, she asks. “Where are we going to find the money to pay the staff every time we want to deal with a document?”
Last year, the National Civil Identification Directorate (DNIC) announced that people requesting identity cards would have to book a time in advance. This was supposed to reduce crowding at the identification posts, but it has clearly not worked, and at the 25th June post, the new system is not in use.
(AIM)
Amq/pf
