Zitamar Daily Briefing, 10 August 2017

Welcome to Zitamar’s daily Mozambique briefing for 10 August 2017.

The latest from Zitamar News:

FREE TO READ: Mozambique’s parliament fails to comply with freedom of information law

The best of the rest:

Deflation in July brings annual inflation down to 16% (Jornal Mercados)
Consumer prices fell by half a percent in July, meaning prices were up 16.17% on July 2016.
After months if not years of trying, the national statistics institute (INE) still cannot be persuaded to send its releases to Zitamar – and their website, as usual, is not working. So for now we have no further details on this.

Semlex returns in disguise to bid again for ID card contract (MediaFax)
Semlex Moçambique Lda., the company which has had its contract to make Mozambique’s ID cards and biometric passports revoked, is bidding for the same contract again through its Lithuanian subsidiary Garsų Pasaulis. Semlex’s contract was supposed to run until 2019 but it lost it for allegedly not meeting some of the contract’s requirements. Yesterday, the government announced a shortlist of two bidders – Garsų Pasaulis, and Germany’s Muhlbauer ID Services.

Strike turns violent at Maragra sugar plant (RFI)
A strike at Illovo’s Maragra sugar plantation turned ugly on Wednesday, with fights with the police leaving four people injured. Workers have been on strike since 27 July, calling to close the pay gap between locals and expats who do the same job, as well as the suspension of subsidies – and are particularly unhappy at having been marked as ‘absent from work’ for the six days they have been on strike so far.

Meeting with Nyusi is a step forward to peace, says Dhlakama (VoA)
Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama told Voice of America yesterday that he and President Nyusi came to various agreements in the course of their meeting, with concrete timeframes – something that did not happen during the seven months of telephone negotiations.
Dhlakama did not give VoA specifics on what agreements or timeframes were agreed during the course of his long discussion with Nyusi on Sunday, which Zitamar understands lasted 2.5 hours. Former President Armando Guebuza said Nyusi’s visit to Gorongosa – something Guebuza didn’t do in 10 years at the top – was a “big step” towards peace.

Government tightens up on overweight vehicles (@Verdade)
Weighbridge operators will now work 24 hours on Mozambique’s main highways, and the government is planning to introduce bigger fines for those found to be overweight. Recent data, from weighbridges that were only operational from sunrise to 6pm, show at least 15% of traffic is overweight.
The new legislation may also direct the money raised from fines straight back into the roads fund, to be used in road maintenance, @Verdade reports.

Happening Today

Energy and natural resources minister Leticia Klemens will – along with three other ministers – sign the Marine Concession agreements with Anadarko and Eni – a key piece of legislation enabling the Rovuma onshore gas liquefaction project to move ahead.
President Filipe Nyusi begins a three-day visit to Sofala – including a visit to the district of Gorongosa.

Bank of Mozambique exchange rates as at 09:30