
Maputo, 4 Feb (AIM) – In moments of political tension, such as those that Mozambique is currently living through, “the judiciary has an added responsibility, not only in defending the fundamental rights of citizens, but also in the promotion of social harmony”, declared President Daniel Chapo on Tuesday.
Speaking in Maputo at the opening of the 2005 judicial year, Chapo said “it is the duty of judicial institutions to ensure that the law is applied with serenity and equity, thus contributing to the pacification of Mozambican society”.
“The State we want to build should be based on social harmony”, he added. “This does not necessarily mean agreeing with everything we do. It is possible to disagree, while continuing to live in harmony without destroying the public and private assets which cost Mozambicans so much sweat and scarce resources to acquire and build”.
The looting and destruction in December by mobs claiming to support former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane “has set our country back by many years”, said Chapo, “and has had a negative impact on our development as a nation”.
He recalled that, in the speech he gave at his investiture on 15 January he had stressed that the courts should be “independent, efficient and accessible from the physical and economic point of view”.
“We cannot speak of the rule of law without guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of citizens, and this is only viable with an effective separation of powers, avoiding arbitrary acts and authoritarianism”, he said. “For this, it is fundamental to preserve the independence of the judiciary”.
Chapo declared that he fully agrees with the calls for the financial autonomy of the judiciary, ensuring that the courts “can perform their constitutional duties in an efficient and impartial manner”.
He promised that the government will work “for the establishment of a framework of financial autonomy which is appropriate for our budgetary reality and for our common aspirations so that we can solve, for example, the payment of allowances to lay magistrates”.
Access to justice should not be a luxury, Chapo stressed. “We are committed to modernising judicial procedures through digitalisation and the adoption of new technologies”, he said. “This work seeks to reduce costs and simplify access to justice for all citizens”.
The President demanded an end to corruption and complicity with organised crime. He found it intolerable that those whose job is to combat crime “become accomplices of organised crime”.
“We are aware of the need to endow the Judiciary with a robust capacity to confront the sophistication, professionalisation, internationalisation and level of violence of organised crime. And that is what we shall do”, Chapo pledged.
He also promised to deal with overcrowding in Mozambican prisons. That meant using imprisonment as “a last resort”, and applying alternative forms of punishment.
“The time has come for a paradigm shift, and to provide Mozambicans with the justice they expect and deserve”, concluded Chapo. “We have chosen modernisation and innovation as one of the marks of our governance. In this component we shall act in an integrated manner, making the best use of shared State resources”.
Chapo also urged the judiciary to play a full role in amending the country’s election laws.
“We cannot speak of a full democracy without electoral procedures that are clear, fair and accessible to all”, he stressed. “We must ensure that democratic rules are respected and that citizens can place full confidence in judicial institutions as the legitimate guarantors of integrity and transparency”.
Currently Mozambican electoral bodies are discredited because of the fraud that occurred in the October 2024 general elections, and which was even recognised by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law – although it did not save the situation by using its power to order a recount of the votes.
(AIM)
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