New head for Tax Authority

Maputo, 14 Aug (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday appointed the former secretary of state for the central province of Tete, Elisa Zacarias, as the new chairperson of the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT).

She replaces Amelia Muendane, whom Nyusi appointed as the new chairperson of the Mozambique Airports Company (ADM). The previous chairperson, Americo Muchanga, had been relieved of his duties in early July.

Muendane is a member of the Political Commission of the ruling Frelimo Party, and there had been considerable disquiet about having a senior party political figure in charge of the nation’s taxes.

Nyusi also appointed Ludovina Bernardo, formerly the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, as the chairperson of the National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH), replacing Estevao Pale.

The post of Secretary of State for Tete, left vacant when Zacarias was moved to the Tax Authority, will now be filled by Deputy Labour Minister Rolinho Farnela.

A statement from the President’s office said that Farnela will hold the posts of secretary of state and deputy minister simultaneously. However, under the Mozambican constitution, these positions are incompatible: nobody can hold them both at the same time.

Announcing these changes to a press briefing at the end of the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Filimao Suaze, said “some of these appointments mean that cadres move from one institution to another”.

They were not demotions, but merely meant that the government wanted to take advantage of the values these cadres had already shown, and use them in other institutions. Suaze regarded such movements as “absolutely normal”.

(AIM)

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