Maputo, 30 Apr (AIM) – Félix Machado, chairperson of the Beira Commercial Association (ACB), is threatening that the ACB will boycott the internal election for the presidency of Mozambique’s Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), scheduled for 8 May.
Machado’s position is a response to the tug-of-war between Álvaro Massingue, the chairperson and candidate of the Mozambican Chamber of Commerce (CCM), and the current CTA board of directors.
Both parties have been launching accusations against each other. Last week, a Maputo court issued an injunction suspending the decisions taken by the leadership of the CTA, which aimed at barring Massingue from taking part in the election. Despite the court ruling, Massingue was prevented from submitting his candidacy allegedly because he was late.
According to Machado, who is one of the CTA’s founding members, the election is “shameful” and shows that those involved “are lobbying for their own benefit and not for the economy as a whole. If this situation is not resolved, the ACB will not participate in the election.”
“The ACB is going to distance itself completely from this election”, he said. “We’re sad to see businesspeople still supporting this process and its modus operandi. Some identify with this model and think it’s right, but the ACB doesn’t go along with it, and we hope that other members will realize this”.
Machado believes that most of the people who are participating in the process are lobbyists, “they only want to be there to be close to the President on his trips, to seek opportunities for themselves and not for the economy.
He added that the CTA was captured by lobbyists who use the institution for their interests, “and the Government should temporarily suspend its dialogue with the CTA, with a view to resolving the current problems.”
Machado also announced that at an extraordinary meeting, the ACB decided to create the Sofala Provincial Federation of the Private Sector to make the organization stronger at provincial level.
“In the future, the Association intends to invite businesspeople from the central provinces of Manica, Tete and Zambézia to form their Provincial Federations and then create a Central Regional Confederation”, he said.
(AIM)
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