Nyusi calls for better crime fighting strategies

Maputo, 31 Aug (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday urged the new Minister of the Interior, Pascoal Ronda, to improve the strategies for fighting against terrorism and organized crime, particularly the wave of kidnappings of business people.

Speaking in Maputo, at the ceremony where he swore Ronda into office, Nyusi said he expected the Minister to follow the principles of “humanism, humility, transparency and tolerance”.

The Interior Minister, he insisted, “must always be on the side of the citizen, and on the side of the police, which is the reason why the Ministry of the Interior exists”.

The Minister must experience “the day-to-day life of the police, their problems, and also celebrate their successes”, Nyusi added.

He listed the main challenges facing the police as “The fight against terrorism and violent extremism, organized crime including kidnappings, the fight against money laundering, cybercrime and environmental crimes, the modernisation of SERNIC [the National Criminal Investigation Service] and the relentless fight against road accidents”.

In a brief interview with the press, Ronda said “It’s up to us as the Ministry of the Interior to implement the lines established in the field of training and in the field of preventing and combating organized and transnational crime”.

He said that corruption in the police must be fought “relentlessly” as it is “unforgivable”. During the course of his work, he added, he will evaluate the performance of officials in order to take the measures necessary to achieve the central objectives of the Ministry.

Ronda stressed that he will fight terrorism and kidnappings more vigorously. “You can expect improvements so that we can move forward more forcefully”, he said.

Nyusi had declared that those in leadership positions should not be afraid to take decisions, and nor should they fear their subordinates. Ronda made it clear that he had been trained to be fearless, and promised to do everything to ensure the circulation of people and goods without hesitation or fear.

Ronda had been a senior police officer in the 1990s, and the then President, Joaquim Chissano, appointed him General Commander of the police, a post he left in 2001.

“Wherever I went, I was never afraid”, he said. “We achieved above average results, and here too we are going to work”.

Ronda succeeds Arsénia Massingue, who held the post for a period of one year and nine months.
(AIM)
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