Ministro da Indústria e Comércio, Silvino Moreno, fala à imprensa após visita ao Shoprite
Maputo, 30 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, on Saturday warned that the future government (likely to take office in mid-January) will have to find mechanisms to support industrial and commercial activity, deeply damaged by last week’s rioting and looting.
He was speaking after a visit to the ruins of a branch of the South African Shoprite chain of supermarkets, in the outlying Maputo neighbourhood of Hulene.
“I came here to express my solidarity with the investors and businesspeople who are losing their property, and to understand their recovery plans”, Moreno said.
“The government will have to provide support”, he stressed. “In this supermarket I was simply terrified at the level of damage, looting and destruction”.
“Shoprite has been totally destroyed”, he added. “They did not just steal food. They also looted specialist equipment and components for refrigeration and communications. This isn’t a question of hunger – it’s sabotage”.
Moreno stressed that trade exists so that the public can have access to basic products, and something would have to be done quickly so that the supermarkets can recover.
“We shall recommend to the incoming government that bold measures are necessary, to allow the companies, shops and supermarkets that have suffered to get back onto their feet quickly”, he said.
The saddest thing Moreno had seen was the ruin of Matola, once the country’s largest industrial city. The rioters had attacked, not only large businesses, but also many of the small factories. “It will take a long time for the owners to recover all that they have lost”, said the Minister.
The destruction of factories “is very serious”, he stressed. “We are cutting away from ourselves the capacity to quickly restore our capacity to feed the population”.
The ruin of so much of the country’s food processing industry, Moreno added, “means that we are going to pass through very difficult moments”. The rioters “don’t think about tomorrow. This is a disaster”.
(AIM)
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