Nyusi calls for improvement in legal regime on natural resources

Maputo, 13 Sep (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has challenged the Supreme Court to strengthen the country’s legal regime on natural resources because multinational companies are tending to take advantage it for their own benefit.

Nyusi was speaking on Thursday in Maputo at a ceremony in which he swore into office Adelino Muchanga for a further five-year term as president of the Supreme Court, after the Assembly of the Republic, the country’s parliament, ratified his reappointment at the end of July.

“Some foreign powers with technical capacity and experience are taking advantage of gaps in the Mozambican legislation for their own benefit and to the detriment of Mozambicans”, he said. “Mozambique is a country with vast natural resources, including in the land, subsoil and sea. They are taking advantage of these resources”.

According to Nyusi, there are multinationals “taking the land, claiming that they are going to develop project A, B and C. They take our authorizations, they go around the world looking for money with those authorizations we made. Years and years go by and nothing happens.”

Nyusi believes there is a need to reform the judicial sector in order to adapt it to current reality and challenges in order to consolidate the democratic rule of law.

“We have already recommended that all those involved take this strategic aspect into consideration in order to improve the performance of our justice system”, he said.

For his part, in a brief contact with journalists, Muchanga said that the recommendations listed by the President are included in the Strategic Plan of the Supreme Court. However, their implementation is delayed due to the numerous challenges facing the country, especially financial ones.

“We started with a model, in 2015, of financial independence in the provisional model and, at the moment, we are working towards defining the definitive model for the financial independence of the judiciary and I believe that within some time we will present a concrete proposal to the other powers of state”, Muchanga said.

(AIM)

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