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Intelligence agents or the son of a former president, all have been close to power and are now sitting on the dock: for two months, Mozambique has been judging those responsible for one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country, which worries up to the top of the state.
Nineteen high-profile defendants are on trial for blackmail, forgery, embezzlement and money laundering for amounts of several million euros, in the scandal known as “Hidden debt”. The case concerns secret loans of 1.8 billion granted by foreign banks to Mozambican public enterprises and guaranteed by the State, officially for equipment contracts in fishing equipment and maritime surveillance.
This trial is “A unique opportunity for Mozambicans to hold those who pushed them into poverty to account”, says Adriano Nuvunga, coordinator of the anti-corruption group Budget Monitoring Forum (BMF). “Civil servants and politicians must understand that corruption will not go unpunished. Corruption drives millions of people into poverty ”, he told AFP.
Last week, while the last accused still questioned was at the helm of the makeshift court set up in a tent in a prison in Maputo, Credit Suisse, the main lender with the Russian bank VTB, was fined 475 million. euros. The bank has authorized transactions that “Were used to set up a system of hidden debt, to pay bribes”, according to financial policemen from several countries where the money has passed.
The head of state implicated
The Mozambican government through its lawyers in London welcomed this decision to AFP and said “Determined to bring those responsible to justice”. But the head of state himself, Filipe Nyusi, is implicated in several testimonies.
The case dates back to 2013-2014. The current president is then Minister of Defense. “It was Filipe Nyusi, who appointed Credit Suisse to finance the coast protection project”, accused during a recent hearing broadcast live on national television, Antonio do Rosario, former head of intelligence. It is also he who validated “The terms of the financing”.
Filipe Nyusi had already been implicated in a part of the case tried in 2019 in the United States, accused of having received hidden funding for his presidential campaign in 2015. To date, he has not been worried by Justice.
Accused of having played the facilitator with his father Armando Guebuza, then president called to testify at the trial, Ndambi Guebuza, 44, argued that he did not have “An elephant’s memory”. At the time, Mozambique had enjoyed peace for two decades and finally recovered from a civil war that lasted fifteen years.
Investor favorite
The discovery of the largest natural gas reserves in sub-Saharan Africa off its coasts in 2010 made it the darling of investors and the IMF expects double-digit growth within ten years. Its director Christine Lagarde appears all smiles alongside Armando Guebuza.
But in 2016, the scandal erupted: the money was borrowed secretly, without the approval of Parliament and behind the backs of the creditors of the country among the ten poorest in the world, dependent on international aid. The IMF suspends its budget support, Mozambique plunges into an unprecedented financial crisis and falls into default.
The leaders of the historic party in power for forty years, Frelimo, they contracted these loans, intoxicated by the idea of future revenues from gas? Even today, exploitation has not started, gas megaprojects weighing several billion euros having been hampered by jihadist attacks in the northeast for four years.
But what ultimately happened to the borrowed money? Maritime surveillance, patrol boats, trawlers … Several independent audits could not determine exactly what was purchased.
Some of the thirty boats ordered by the Mozambican Tuna Company (Ematum) to France have been delivered. They are rusting in port for lack of qualified seafarers, describes an old report commissioned by Mozambique’s attorney general.
Still, part of the sum is untraceable. Some 170 million euros, probably more, went into bribes, according to American justice. Other proceedings are underway in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and South Africa. NGOs have been opposed for years to reimbursement of the “Hidden debt”. The trial is due to last several more weeks.